The Causes of Gender Inequality in College Education in Turkey

Participation in college education is lower for women than men in many developing countries including Turkey. In this paper, we explore the causes of lower participation rates of women in high education in Turkey by using the data set of student placement system (ÖSYS) which includes the data of approximately 1.8 million students for the year 2005. We determine seven reasons for lower participation rates of women in high education. Our findings are the following: (i) The women ratio among potential candidates for high education was lower than men, (ii) Women apply to student selection examination (LYS) less than men and, they are also less likely to apply LYS more than one compared to the men, (iii) Women prefer to attend to non–competitive programs less than men. Since it is easier to be accepted by non–competitive programs and women are less likely to prefer these programs, men’s placement is higher for those programs, (iv) Women are more successful than men in verbal and foreign language score categories. The programs respecting scores in categories which women are more successful than men have only 20.2% of total capacity, (v) Women ratio among LYS applicants are even lower in the under–developed regions compared to that in developed regions, (vi) The men are more mobile than women in participating in college education. Women are more restricted to attend a college in their hometown than men. In addition, they choose to attend to colleges in closer cities to their hometowns compared to men, (vii) Women chose fewer programs to enroll in than men in their preference forms. Consequently, they have less chance for placement than men. In the paper we also point out the issues that policies should focus on in order to increase the participation of women in college education.