According to findings revealed at a recent conference in Diyarbakir, 66 percent of employed women in Turkey, work illegally, i.e. without any social security. Not only, one of the main reasons why women are more likely to be unemployed is illiteracy. In the Kurdish areas women are even more discriminated upon than in the rest of Turkey. The figures are worrying: in the city of Amed (Diyarbakir) and Urfa for example, 92 percent of employable women are unemployed, and 39.7 percent of the employable women in Amed are illiterate. The rate illiterate men in that same age group is 12 percent. Illiteracy is a problem at national level also. In Turkey, according to the last available data (2008), 15.8 percent of women are illiterate, compared to 4 percent among men.

If we look at Turkey's figures, we will see that 12 million women claim to be housewives, and 5 million women are employed. The figure for employed men lies at 15 millions.