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

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

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

4. 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

5. Empowerment Variables

6. 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

7. 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

8. 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)

9. 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

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

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

12. 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**

13. 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**

14. 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

15. 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

16. Questions