Modern toplumların ve piyasa ekonomilerinin üzerinde yükseldiği temel, sanıldığı gibi sadece sermaye veya teknoloji değil; her sabah iş gücünü onaran, çocukları büyüten ve yaşlıları hayata bağlayan “bakım” emeğidir. Ancak bugün Türkiye, demografik bir kırılma noktasının eşiğinde, geleneksel bakım modellerinin iflas ettiği bir “Bakım Krizi” ile karşı karşıyadır. Bakımı bir “yük” veya sadece kadının sırtındaki bir “ev içi görev” olarak gören anlayış; toplumsal cinsiyet eşitsizliğini derinleştirmekte, kadınları iş gücünün dışına itmekte ve yaşlanan nüfusun ihtiyaçları karşısında savunmasız bırakmaktadır. Bu rapor, bakımı bir maliyet kalemi değil, toplumsal dayanıklılığın ve ekonomik refahın anahtarı olarak konumlandırmayı amaçlamaktadır. Bakım emeğini görünür kılarak, ihtimam etiği temelinde yeni bir toplumsal sözleşme inşa etmek, artık bir tercih değil, sürdürülebilir bir gelecek için zorunluluktur.
Türkiye'de Bakım Sistemini Sarsan Kırılmalar: Neden Şimdi?
Care Is the Invisible Infrastructure of Society
The foundation of modern societies and market economies is not built solely on capital or technology. It is also built on care: the work that raises children, supports older adults, sustains households, and enables people to participate in economic and social life.
Today, however, Türkiye is approaching a critical demographic turning point. Traditional care arrangements are under growing strain, and the country is facing what can increasingly be described as a care crisis.
For decades, care has largely been treated as a private responsibility carried primarily by women within households. This approach deepens gender inequality, limits women’s participation in the workforce, and leaves societies vulnerable as care needs continue to grow.
At İhtimam, we believe care should not be understood as a burden or a cost. Care is a form of social infrastructure that supports wellbeing, resilience, and economic prosperity. Making care visible and building systems grounded in an ethic of care is no longer optional. It is essential for a sustainable future.
Why Is the Care System Under Pressure Now?
Care challenges in Türkiye are not new. What is different today is the convergence of multiple structural pressures that are making existing care arrangements increasingly unsustainable.
Demographic Change and Population Ageing
Türkiye is rapidly moving away from its long-standing image as a young country.
The proportion of people aged 65 and over has already exceeded 10 percent, and projections suggest that this figure could surpass 20 percent by 2050.
This means that demand for care is expected to grow significantly over the coming decades, while the traditional source of care, unpaid care work performed within households, is becoming less available.
Population ageing is no longer a future scenario. It is already reshaping the care landscape.
Women’s Labour Force Participation and Unequal Care Responsibilities
Research consistently shows a significant gender gap in unpaid care and domestic work.
Women continue to spend substantially more time on unpaid care responsibilities than men. At the same time, women’s participation in paid employment is increasing.
This creates a double burden: women enter the workforce while remaining primarily responsible for unpaid care work.
As a result, many women are pushed into precarious forms of employment, reduced working hours, or complete withdrawal from the labour market.
The unequal distribution of care is not only a gender equality issue. It is also a question of economic sustainability and social justice.
Economic Pressures and Time Poverty
Rising living costs and economic uncertainty have increased the need for dual-income households.
However, limited public care infrastructure means that many families struggle to balance paid work and care responsibilities.
A significant proportion of women outside the labour force identify caregiving and domestic responsibilities as the primary reason they are not employed.
This reflects a growing crisis of time poverty, where individuals lack sufficient time to meet both economic and caregiving demands.
Lessons from the Pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic revealed how deeply economies depend on care.
When schools closed, households absorbed additional childcare responsibilities. Unpaid care work increased dramatically, and women’s employment rates declined in many contexts.
The pandemic demonstrated that care is not a private issue. It is a critical social and economic infrastructure.
Although public attention has shifted since then, the underlying vulnerabilities remain.
Global Care Chains and Migration
Türkiye occupies a complex position within global care systems.
The country both exports care labour and relies on migrant workers to meet domestic care needs.
Many care arrangements remain informal, insecure, and poorly protected.
This creates ethical, social, and economic challenges that require systemic responses.
Burnout and Workplace Sustainability
The effects of the care crisis are increasingly visible within organisations.
Burnout, staff turnover, absenteeism, and declining wellbeing often reflect unresolved care pressures.
Many employers still treat care as a personal issue rather than an organisational concern.
Yet care is becoming an important factor in workplace sustainability, employee retention, and organisational resilience.
A Critical Threshold
Türkiye’s care system is experiencing a threefold pressure:
- Growing demand for care
- Declining availability of unpaid care capacity
- Insufficient public care infrastructure
Together, these dynamics create significant social and economic risks.
Without systemic change:
- Women’s labour force participation will remain constrained.
- Older adults will face increasing vulnerability.
- Households will experience greater financial and time pressures.
- Economic growth potential may be limited.
Care is no longer a hidden background condition. It has become a critical bottleneck for social and economic development.
The Care Economy: Society's Invisible Foundation
12,5
Every day, women and girls around the world perform approximately 12.5 billion hours of unpaid care work.
10,8
The estimated annual economic value of this work exceeds 10.8 trillion US dollars.
Care is not merely a social service. It is one of the foundations upon which economies function.
Investments in care also generate significant public benefits:
Investments in childcare, eldercare, and care services create substantially more jobs than many traditional sectors.
Public spending on care can increase tax revenues, expand labour force participation, and strengthen social protection systems.
Removing care-related barriers would enable millions of people, particularly women, to participate more fully in paid employment.
Investments in early childhood care, education, and quality eldercare contribute to improved health outcomes, stronger communities, and reduced long-term social costs.
A Roadmap for Building Care as a Right and Public Infrastructure
The care crisis cannot be solved through individual sacrifice or household-level adjustments alone.
As care needs continue to grow, care must be recognised as both a fundamental right and a shared public responsibility.
This requires strengthening care infrastructure, expanding public services, supporting caregivers, and developing policies that distribute care more fairly across society.
At İhtimam, we collect and curate care policy recommendations from Türkiye and around the world, helping policymakers, civil society organisations, companies, and communities access practical solutions and actionable strategies.
Because building a more caring future begins with recognising care as essential infrastructure for society itself.
İhtimam olarak güncel politika önerilerini derliyor ve paydaşlara yönelik aksiyon önerilerine dönüştürüyoruz. Paydaş ve tema seçerek ilgili alandaki güncel politika önerilerini inceleyebilirsiniz.
A Care-Centred Future
Care is not merely a safety net that societies turn to in times of crisis. It is the essential infrastructure that sustains everyday life, supports economic activity, and enables social reproduction.
The evidence from Türkiye shows that a care system built largely on women’s unpaid and often invisible labour is becoming increasingly unsustainable. The current model places a disproportionate burden on individuals and households while failing to recognise care as a shared social responsibility.
Investing in the care economy is not only a strategy for creating jobs. It is an investment in social resilience, economic wellbeing, gender equality, and collective flourishing. Strong care systems enable people to participate more fully in education, work, community life, and democratic processes.
The fact that care remains largely invisible in economic statistics does not mean it lacks value. Rather, it reveals the limitations of the systems we use to measure prosperity and progress.
If we aspire to build a future in which no one is left behind, three fundamental shifts are needed:
- Recognising care as a right rather than a private burden.
Access to quality care should not depend solely on family resources, gender roles, or individual sacrifice. - Investing in care as essential social infrastructure.
Childcare, eldercare, disability support, community-based services, and caregiver support systems should be treated as critical public investments. - Redistributing care more fairly across society.
Governments, employers, communities, families, and individuals all have a role to play in sharing responsibility for care.
At İhtimam, we envision a future where care is visible, valued, and collectively supported. A future where wellbeing is not sustained through hidden sacrifice, but through systems, policies, and relationships that recognise our mutual dependence and our shared responsibility for one another.
Because caring for people, communities, and the living world is not separate from development. It is the foundation upon which a just and sustainable future is built.
References
- Ministry of Family and Social Services. (2023). Analysis of Women’s Labour Force Profile and Statistics in Türkiye. Ankara: Republic of Türkiye Ministry of Family and Social Services.
- International Labour Organization (ILO). (2018). Care Work and Care Jobs for the Future of Decent Work. Geneva: International Labour Organization.
- Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). (2023). Gender Equality Strategy: Time Use in Social and Economic Life. OECD Statistics Portal.
- Oxfam International. (2020). Time to Care: Unpaid and Underpaid Care Work and the Global Inequality Crisis.
- Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK). (2015). Time Use Survey, 2014–2015. Ankara: Turkish Statistical Institute.
- Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK). (2024). Labour Force Statistics, 2023. Ankara: Turkish Statistical Institute.
- Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK). (2024). Statistics on Older Persons, 2023. Ankara: Turkish Statistical Institute.
- United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Türkiye. (2020). Women Doing Four Times as Much Unpaid Work as Men During Lockdown. Ankara: UNDP Türkiye.
