BARRIERS TO WOMEN’S EMPLOYMENT AND THE EXTENT OF GENDER INEQUALITY IN THE LABOUR MARKET IN TURKEY Çiğdem Gedikli A thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the University of East Anglia Norwich Business School SEPTEMBER 2015 This copy of the thesis has been supplied on condition that anyone who consults it is understood to recognise that its copyright rests with the author and that use of any information derived there from must be in accordance with current UK Copyright Law. In addition, any quotation or extract must include full attribution. i ABSTRACT This thesis investigates gender inequalities in employment outcomes in Turkey in the context of low employment rates of women, occupational gender segregation and gender wage differentials. The first empirical chapter of the thesis sheds light on the role of traditional or conservative social norms and culture on women’s employment in Turkey based on the data for the years 1998 and 2008. It provides evidence that traditional and conservative values, increasingly, reduce women’s likelihood of waged employment and they are also associated with an increased probability of women being in the informal segment of the labour market, either as unpaid family workers or informal waged workers. The second substantive chapter of the thesis points to the extent of occupational gender segregation in Turkey. It shows that women are more likely to be employed in lower-paid jobs and in lower ranked occupations, whereas men remain at an advantaged position both in terms of pay levels or the positions of the occupations they hold in the social hierarchy. The final empirical analysis of the thesis investigates the gender wage gap in Turkey and its evolution between 2002 and 2012. The results present a positive selection into employment for women, indicating that a small portion of women who are in waged work are actually those who have higher productivity levels than average. The thesis, therefore, argues that the relatively low gender wage gap figures for Turkey can be misleading and should be interpreted cautiously. Moreover, although women appear to earn more than men after the 40th quantile, they are still at a disadvantaged position as the labour market does not reward them to the same extent as men. The unfavourable situation of women with high earnings potential is found to be more pronounced in 2012. ii Table of Contents Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................................... 1 Chapter 2: AN OVERVIEW OF THE LABOUR MARKET IN TURKEY AND KEY DESCRIPTIVE STATISTICS ...................................................................................................... 11 Appendix to Chapter 2 .................................................................................................................. 31 Chapter 3: THE ROLE OF SOCIAL NORMS AND CULTURE ON WOMEN’S EMPLOYMENT IN TURKEY .................................................................................................... 42 3.1 Introduction ...................................................................................................................... 42 3.2 Literature Review ............................................................................................................. 43 3.3 Methodology and Data ..................................................................................................... 47 3.3.1 A Multinomial Logit Model ..................................................................................... 47 3.3.2 Data and Empirical Specification............................................................................. 48 3.4 The Composition of the Sub-indices ................................................................................ 56 3.5 Construction of the Composite Index .............................................................................. 60 3.6 Estimation Results ........................................................................................................... 65 3.6.1 The Effect of Social Norms and Culture .................................................................. 69 3.6.2 A Note on Endogeneity ............................................................................................ 73 3.7 Conclusion ....................................................................................................................... 78 Appendix to Chapter 3 .................................................................................................................. 80 Chapter 4: EXPLORING THE EXTENT OF INEQUALITY ASSOCIATED WITH OCCUPATIONAL GENDER SEGREGETION IN TURKEY ............................................... 150 4.1. Introduction .................................................................................................................... 150 4.2 Conceptualising Occupational Gender Segregation ....................................................... 152 4.3 Methodology and Data ................................................................................................... 159 4.3.1 Measuring the Dimensions of (overall) Occupational Gender Segregation........... 160 4.3.2 Data and Descriptive Statistics............................................................................... 164 4.4 A Social Stratification Scale for Turkey ........................................................................ 169 4.4.1 Estimation of the Social Stratification Scale .......................................................... 170 4.4.2 Data for the Correspondence Analysis ................................................................... 171 4.4.3 Further Aspects of the Social Interaction Distance Analysis ................................. 173 4.4.4 The Stratification Scale Scores for Men and Women ............................................ 176 4.4.5 Validation Check.................................................................................................... 179 4.5 Empirical Results on the Extent of (overall) Occupational Gender Segregation and its Dimensions in Turkey ................................................................................................................ 180 4.5.1 Occupational Gender Segregation amongst Regular/Casual Employees ............... 181 4.5.2 Occupational Gender Segregation amongst the Whole Sample ............................. 183 4.5.3 Occupational Gender Segregation after the Exclusion of Agricultural Occupations 187 iii 4.6 Conclusion ..................................................................................................................... 192 Appendix to Chapter 4 ................................................................................................................ 196 Chapter 5: THE GENDER WAGE GAP IN TURKEY: DOES NON-RANDOM SELECTION INTO EMPLOYMENT HAVE A ROLE? ........................................................ 204 5.1 Introduction .................................................................................................................... 204 5.2 Literature Review ........................................................................................................... 206 5.3 Methodology and Data ................................................................................................... 210 5.3.1 Quantile Regression Model with Selection Adjustment ........................................ 210 5.3.2 Decomposition of the Gender Wage Gap with Sample Selection Adjustment ...... 215 5.3.3 Data and Empirical Specifications ......................................................................... 218 5.3.4 Descriptive Statistics .............................................................................................. 221 5.4 Estimation Results ......................................................................................................... 229 5.4.1 Results from the Selection Equation ...................................................................... 229 5.4.2 Quantile Regression Results .................................................................................. 232 5.4.3 Decomposition of the Gender Wage Gap .............................................................. 245 5.5 Conclusion ..................................................................................................................... 256 Appendix to Chapter 5 ................................................................................................................ 259 Chapter 6: CONCLUSION ......................................................................................................... 281 6.1 Concluding Remarks ...................................................................................................... 281 6.2 Policy Implications ........................................................................................................ 289 Bibliography ................................................................................................................................. 292 iv List of Figures Figure 2.1 - Comparison of the Labour Force Participation Rates of Women in Turkey with the EU-21 and OECD averages .................................................................................. 13 Figure 2.2 - Fertility Rates over Time ................................................................................ 16 Figure 2.3 - The Percentages of “Never-Married” Women by Age over Time ................. 18 Figure 2.4 - Labour Force Participation Rates