AN INTEGRATED ANALYTICAL FRAMEWORK FOR TRANSFORMING GENDERED UNPAID CARE WORK: COMPARISON OF TURKEY AND ITALY

This thesis, using four pathways approach (Cantillon & Teasdale, 2021) as an analytical model and combining this model with 5Rs approach (Addati et al., 2018; Elson, 2017; Rost et al., 2020) under integrated analytical framework, investigates the structural determinants of gendered unpaid care work through case studies in Turkey and Italy. The thesis focuses mainly on the past two decades, representing significant improvements as well as backlashes regarding gender equality. It utilises the existing feminist tools and approaches, namely four pathways and 5Rs, with a novel perspective to explore different contexts and integrates them to produce unique gendered unpaid care work index for transformative policy proposals. The novelty of this thesis is to analyse a social phenomenon embedded in our daily lives with modern feminist theoretical tools and expand them by changing their practical use. In this context, after introducing the problem and the overview of the thesis in Chapter 1, Chapter 2 reviews the theoretical and empirical literature, focusing on the household production and social reproduction, to theoretically capture the structural constraints of gendered unpaid care work. This thesis categorises these constraints under five categories as patriarchy and social reproduction; agency-oriented arguments and neoliberal approach; employment and economic gender inequality; social care inequality; and intersectional gender inequalities. Using four pathways model (Cantillon & Teasdale, 2021), case studies conduct comparative analysis to capture these structural constraints under (i) employment opportunities and labour market regulations, (ii) neoliberal and patriarchal socio-normative structure, (iii) legal and institutional normative structure, and (iv) social care systems and dynamics. The original contribution of the study is to expand the feminist perspective with an integrated analytical framework and to produce the gendered unpaid care work index by going beyond the existing literature that tends to focus on only one pathway, mostly labour force participation. Chapter 3 explains the rationale of the framework and the research problems of the thesis and aims to justify the reasonings behind feminist research and the case study approach. It also identifies the boundaries of the study arising from various reasons. Chapter 4 and Chapter 5 investigate two case studies under four pathways (Cantillon & Teasdale, 2021) in Turkey and Italy that form the core of the thesis. Chapter 6 presents the key findings according to the final integrated analytical framework and fifteen policy dimensions of gender transformative policy actions in the gendered unpaid care work index developed based on the case study results. The principal aim of this index is to support the transition from four pathways (Cantillon & Teasdale, 2021) of gendered unpaid care work to the 5Rs - recognition, reduction and redistribution of care work, representation, and reward of the care workers (Addati et al., 2018; Elson, 2017; Rost et al., 2020). This index ranks Turkey and Italy based on the fifteen dimensions and according to their gender equality performance in unpaid care work. Key findings indicate that although Italy outperforms Turkey, paid and unpaid labour division remains significantly gendered in both countries. Therefore, there is an evident need for political, legal, and institutional improvements in most dimensions to equalise and transform gendered unpaid care work.