Rahime Akdoğan (1950–) is a retired Turkish trade unionist and labour educator who has advocated for women’s participation in trade unions and setting up educational programs for women workers. She began her career in Ankara in the late 1960s as a workplace representative for the Union of Sales Assistants and Office Workers of Turkey – Tez-Büro-İş. In 1981, she became the head of the Confederation of Turkish Trade Unions – Türk-İş – Women Workers’ Bureau, a position she held until 1989. During her tenure, she sought to alleviate the challenges faced by women within the labour movement and organized educational activities to increase their participation in trade unions.

As head of the Women Workers’ Bureau, Akdoğan was involved in research and educational initiatives that also aimed to improve the status of women in the workforce. She travelled across Turkey, visiting workplaces to assess the problems faced by women workers in different sectors. She found that they faced unequal pay, long working hours, unhealthy working conditions, and a lack of access to social security and childcare. These issues were consistently present across different workplaces, even if their severity varied by region and industry branch. In an attempt to improve women workers’ conditions, Akdoğan organized seminars that covered topics such as trade unionism, women’s labour rights, family planning, nutrition, and women’s health. These seminars were designed to educate women workers while also bringing together local union leaders, bureaucrats, and researchers who provided expertise on these subjects.

Rahime Akdoğan in Madrid, 1985 (Source: Personal archive)

Akdoğan was critical of the way men-dominated trade unions structured their educational activities, noting that they were often held outside of working hours and rarely took place on the shop floor. She argued that this made it difficult for women to participate as they were generally the ones responsible for running the household in addition to their paid employment. Her critical stance also extended to the family: as she pointed out, many women faced social pressure from their husbands and other male family members, who discouraged their involvement in union activities. Her research and advocacy on these issues contributed to discussions within Türk-İş on how to make trade unions more accessible to women.

Throughout her career, Akdoğan participated in Türk-İş’s international collaborations with organizations like the Asian-American Free Labor Institute, the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU), and the International Labour Organization. She represented Türk-İş at the Fourth ICFTU World Women’s Conference in Madrid in 1985. From the early 1990s to 2010, she continued her trade union work with the Union of Tobacco, Alcoholic Beverage, Food and Related Industry Workers of Turkey (Tekgıda-İş), where she remained active in promoting labour rights and education for women workers. In an interview, she noted that thanks to her work, many women workers learned what a trade union was and what it meant to be a union member.

Read more: Interview with Rahime Akdoğan