Inactive Women as a Result of The Gender-Based Division of Labor and a Solution Proposal: “VirtualCall Project”

Abstract

Today, many women are excluded from the labor market despite having a good education. Perhaps the most obvious reason for this situation is the gender-based division of labor. Because of this division of labor, women are mostly considered to be responsible for domestic work and care work and it becomes difficult for them to go out of the house. Women who are not able to participate in the work life due to their domestic responsibilities and are not considered unemployed, currently considered as inactive. Economic inactivity, which is a huge problem for many European countries including Turkey, excludes a great potential human resource that will be productive for the economy if they work. Many countries offer different solutions to solve the inactivity problem. The health crisis caused by the Covid 19 epidemic has also led people to work more flexibly and at home. “The VirtualCall Project”, which received grant support from the European Union, is one of these solution proposals. The aims of this study are to draw attention to the economic inactivity problem of women, which is the result of the gender-based division of labor, and to introduce the VirtualCall Project, which is realized as a solution proposal. In line with this purpose, firstly economic inactivity will be defined then the division of labor based on gender will be mentioned, and solution suggestions will be put forward.