Changes in Women’s Empowerment in Turkey Tunay Oguz PhD Candidate University of New Mexico, Department of Economics

Focus of study In terms of gender equality, Turkey consistently ranks lowest among countries in Europe and Central Asia (The Global Gender Report 2005).

Definition of Women’s Empowerment “The expansion in people’s ability to make strategic life choices…” (Kabeer 2001 )

My contribution to the literature Examine women’s empowerment in Turkey Track the changes in empowerment from 1993 to 2003 Identify possible reasons for any observed changes

Empowerment Variables

Descriptive Statistics 1993 2003 Woman's Characteristics Age 33.0 34.5 Age at first marriage 18.6 19.6 Education in single years 4.5 6.0 Working in agricultural occupations (%) 18.2 18.0 Working in non-agricultural occupations (%) 14.5 22.0 Husband's Characteristics Spousal age difference 4.6 6.6 7.7 I will just introduce explanatory variables, and talk about how I calculated them but no numbers 6

Descriptive Statistics, continues 1993 2003 Environment (%) Urban 68.1 75.2 West 36.6 43.5 South 15.7 12.9 Central 23.5 23.0 North 7.8 6.8 East 16.3 13.8 Wealth Social Mobility Index 2.7 3.2 Access to Leisure Time Index 3.1 3.8 Housing Quality Index 3.7 I will just introduce explanatory variables, and talk about how I calculated them but no numbers

Descriptive Statistics, continues 1993 2003 Community Norm Indicators (%) Community agreement on men are wiser* 47.9 23.9 Community smoking rate 17.7 19.2 Empowerment Variable (%) Women who agree men are wiser 46.6 22.3 I will just introduce explanatory variables, and talk about how I calculated them but no numbers * Similar to Mason and Smith (2003)

Estimation Strategies Model Variables Findings Probit Individual Education and urbanization matter Individual+ Community Community norm indicators have larger marginal effects Decomposition Community attitude measures have larger contribution

Measuring the Change in empowerment Simple OLS case By adding and subtracting Unexplained Part Explained Part

The Probit Decomposition Model, Explained Part Unexplained Part Note: F(.) is a standard normal cumulative distribution function

Probit Decomposition Results, Change in empowerment   Explained Unexplained Grouped community norm indicators -0.064** 0.008 Grouped individual characteristics -0.045** -0.023 Constant -0.054 Total -0.118** -0.115** Year 2003 0.245** Year 1993 0.478** Difference -0.233**

Probit Decomposition Results, continues Explained    point %  Community agreement on men wiser -0.063** 27 Woman's education in single years -0.041** 18 Husband's education in single years -0.007** 3 Urban -0.003** 1 Difference -0.233**

Summary of findings Education and urbanization are strongly related to empowerment. Community norm indicators have larger marginal effects than woman’s own characteristics Change in empowerment is closely tied to observed characteristics Change in community norms explain 27 percent of the change in empowerment

Conclusion & Policy Implications Social norms are highly influential Invest in women’s education Enable women to work in professional jobs Expand the opportunity structure in rural areas as well

Questions