Advanced Search
MyIDEAS: Login

The Reasons Of Decreasing Trend Of Female Labour Force Participation In Turkey: The Role Of Conservatism

Contents:

Author Info

  • Idil Göksel

    () (Department of Economics, Izmir University of Economics)

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to investigate the main determinants of the participation decision of females in the labour force in Turkey. Turkey is a particularly important case as, unlike in many other countries, female labour force participation has shown a decreasing trend in the last 50 years. This paper aims to elaborate on the causes of this decrease. In addition to the main determinants found in previous literature, this paper adds a new variable that influences female labour force participation in Turkey: Conservatism and the role of traditional and social norms. An original proxy for conservatism is created by using a unique data set about perceptions. Four indices that might influence conservatism are formed: Tradition, social norms, men's decision power, and conservatism. The results are in accordance with the previous literature in emphasizing that urbanization, and education level play an important role in the participation decision of women. However, these factors are not sufficient to explain the decline in female labour force participation. This paper presents a new concept by showing that social norms, tradition and men's higher bargaining power play a negative role in the probability of women working in urban areas, while they do not have any significant influence in rural areas. Furthermore, this paper shows a new possible explanation for the link between urbanization and female labour force participation. Higher urbanization causes higher conservatism, which leads to lower female labour force participation.

Download Info

If you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the proper application to view it first. In case of further problems read the IDEAS help page. Note that these files are not on the IDEAS site. Please be patient as the files may be large.
File URL: http://eco.ieu.edu.tr/wp-content/wp1205.pdf
Download Restriction: no

Bibliographic Info

Paper provided by Izmir University of Economics in its series Working Papers with number 1205.

as in new window
Length: 25 pages
Date of creation: May 2012
Date of revision:
Handle: RePEc:izm:wpaper:1205

Contact details of provider:
Postal: Sakarya Caddesi, No:156 35330 Balçova - İzmir
Fax: (90) 232 279 2626
Web page: http://eco.ieu.edu.tr
More information through EDIRC

Related research

Keywords: female labour force participation; gender; conservatism;

Find related papers by JEL classification:

This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

References

References listed on IDEAS
Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
as in new window
  1. Tasso Adamopoulos & Ahmet Akyol, 2009. "Relative Underperformance Alla Turca," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 12(4), pages 697-717, October.
  2. Noland, Marcus, 2005. "Religion and economic performance," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 33(8), pages 1215-1232, August.
  3. Rasul, Imran, 2008. "Household bargaining over fertility: Theory and evidence from Malaysia," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 86(2), pages 215-241, June.
  4. Cem Baslevent & Ozlem Onaran, 2003. "Are Married Women in Turkey More Likely to Become Added or Discouraged Workers?," LABOUR, CEIS, vol. 17(3), pages 439-458, 09.
  5. Moshe Hazan & Yishay D. Maoz, 2005. "Women’S Labor Force Participation And The Dynamics Of Tradition," Labor and Demography 0507001, EconWPA.
Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

Citations

Lists

This item is not listed on Wikipedia, on a reading list or among the top items on IDEAS.

Statistics

Access and download statistics

Corrections

When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:izm:wpaper:1205

For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: (Ayla Ogus Binatli).

If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

If references are entirely missing, you can add them using this form.

If the full references list an item that is present in RePEc, but the system did not link to it, you can help with this form.

If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.