"Gender Equality Scorecard for 81 Provinces in Türkiye" published

You can access the report here

Drafted by TEPAV in cooperation with TOBB and the Industrial Development Bank of Türkiye, the Gender Equality Scorecard for 81 Provinces in Türkiye highlighted "participation in production activities" as the area that exhibited the largest room for improvement in terms of gender equality. The results of the study showed that Muğla was the most egalitarian province and Sinop was the province with the highest participation in production.

Drafted by TEPAV (Economic Policy Research Foundation of Türkiye) in cooperation with TOBB (Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Türkiye) and TSKB (Industrial Development Bank of Türkiye), the 2019 results of the "Gender Equality Scorecard for 81 Provinces in Türkiye" were announced through an online meeting held on December 1, 2020. During the meeting, the Gender Equality Scorecard for 81 provinces was evaluated, and current data on developments in women's employment in 81 provinces during the COVID-19 pandemic were shared.

The previous scorecard studies by TEPAV based on the provincial adaptation of the UNDP GII index were revisited and by TEPAV in terms of both the indicator set and methodology in cooperation with TOBB and TSKB, and calculations were updated considering all 81 provinces of Türkiye. This most recent scorecard effort marked the first time Türkiye's own local index set was developed. Access to data was improved as a result of collaboration with stakeholders, and the number of indicators that made up the index was increased from 4 to 11. Employing the same methodology followed in the Global Gender Equality Report of the World Economic Forum and using an indicator set enriched on a provincial level, Türkiye's unique gender equality scorecard was developed in consideration of aspects such as "representation in politics and economy", "participation in production activities" and "participation in education".

The report evaluated gender equality in Türkiye regarding the aspects of "representation in politics and economy", "participation in production activities" and "participation in education" in 81 provinces. Accordingly, "participation in production activities" emerged as the area that exhibited the largest room for improvement in terms of gender equality in Türkiye.

The report highlighted that Muğla was Türkiye's most egalitarian province, followed by İzmir, Yalova, İstanbul, Kırklareli, Çanakkale, Sinop, Tunceli, Aydın and Balıkesir respectively.

INFORMATION NOTE:

The main findings from the report "Gender Equality Scorecard for 81 Provinces in Türkiye" are as follows:

Drafted by TEPAV in cooperation with TOBB and TSKB, the "Gender Equality Scorecard for 81 Provinces in Türkiye" aims to present the current status of provinces in terms of gender quality and guide local policy-making processes based on gender equality. The index and scorecard developed as part of the study employs 11 indicators and 3 basic axes (namely 'representation in politics and economy', 'participation in production activities' and 'participation in education') to come up with the gender equality/inequality rankings of 81 provinces, and allows for a comparison of provinces against each other.

To evaluate Türkiye's current gender equality performance from an analytical perspective and guide the relevant efforts of public and private sectors as well as financial institutions, the major findings from the report are presented below.

OVERVIEW

According to the results of the GES (Gender Equality Scorecard), the average score for 81 provinces is 0.471. Considering that proximity to 1 in the index reflects a full equality of men and women, the value Türkiye has attained in terms of gender equality underlines the need for additional steps to strike a full equality.

From a gender equality perspective, the lowest and highest values of the sub-index in the area of production at 81 provinces are far below the lowest and highest values of other indices. The sub-index of 'representation in politics and economy' is the second priority area that exhibits the largest gender gap in Türkiye, only second to the sub-index of access to production resources. The sub-index of 'participation in education' emerges as the area with the smallest gender gap in Türkiye, although a full equality has not been attained in that sense.

PARTICIPATION IN PRODUCTION AND BUSINESS LIFE

'Participation in production activities' is the area with the greatest gender inequality in 81 provinces of Türkiye. While Sinop is the province with the smallest difference between men and women in terms of participation in production with a score of 0.166, Bingöl is the province with the largest difference in terms of gender equality in participation in production activities with a value of 0.031.

The average rate of working population by gender in Türkiye in 81 provinces is 11.3 percent among women and 28.8 percent among men. A provincial comparison shows that Edirne is the province with the highest ratio of working women to working men (60.5 percent) in Türkiye, with 14.8 percent of women and 24.4 percent of men being employed.

Sectoral Outlook: In Türkiye, 62 percent of the working population is employed in the service sector, followed by the manufacturing industry with 25 percent, other industries with 2 percent, construction with 10 percent and agriculture with 1 percent. 30 percent of employees are women and 70 percent are men. Women are employed more frequently than men in the service sector.

The study indicates that only 23 percent of women in Türkiye can receive equal pay with men doing similar jobs with them.

A comparison of the rates of working in managerial positions by gender shows that 1 percent of women and 1.4 percent of men work in managerial positions on average in 81 provinces. To that end, the average of 81 provinces shows that the ratio of women to men performs relatively close to a full equality with 72.4 percent compared to the other indicators.

In Türkiye, 47.2 percent of children attend pre-school including nursery schools or day care centers. Almost 53 percent of the remaining children spend with their families or caregivers the time they could otherwise spend in pre-schools including nurseries or day care centers. At a provincial level, Erzincan has a rate of participation of 63.9 per cent in pre-school education, making it the province with the highest net schooling rate.

PARTICIPATION IN EDUCATION

In Türkiye, 47.2 percent of children attend pre-school including nursery schools or day care centers. Almost 53 percent of the remaining children spend with their families or caregivers the time they could otherwise spend in pre-schools including nurseries or day care centers. At a provincial level, Erzincan has a rate of participation of 63.9 per cent in pre-school education, making it the province with the highest net schooling rate.

The average of 81 provinces in Türkiye shows that the rate of total population at and over 25 years of age with at least high school education or above is 39 percent, with the rate being 33 percent for women and 46 percent for men. The 5 provinces with the lowest gender difference in terms of high school graduation as a minimum are İstanbul, Muğla, İzmir, Ankara and Antalya respectively.

REPRESENTATION IN POLITICAL LIFE

In Türkiye, the participation rate of women in political life at both local and national level is below the EU average.

OVERVIEW OF PROVINCES

While 43 provinces of Türkiye perform worse than the Türkiye average in gender equality, 38 provinces in Türkiye outperform the Türkiye average.

Boasting an index value of 0.542, Muğla is crowned Türkiye's most egalitarian city. Muğla's powerful gender equality performance is based on its strength in 'representation in politics and economy' and 'participation in education'. The score of Muğla, the most egalitarian province, is not close to 1, which reflects a full equality. This indicates that even in those provinces of Türkiye offering a better outlook in gender equality, steps should be taken to tackle gender inequality.

İzmir is the province with the second highest rate of equality in the main index and stands out as the most egalitarian province of Türkiye in terms of participation in education. Notwithstanding the participation in education index, İzmir exhibits a relatively weaker performance in other sub-indices. İzmir enjoys a value of 0.939 in the sub-index of participation in education, which points out to a co-existence of the province and sub-index with the least gender inequality in Türkiye.

81 provinces display varying levels of performance in terms of gender equality. The sources of equality and inequality may differ in each province. However, despite this trend, a comparison of the GDP per capita values in provinces, an indicator of the economic development levels of provinces, and their gender equality performances shows that, in general, gender equality follows a similar trend with economic development. On the other hand, it should be kept in mind that this similarity is not a correlation/similarity representing a direct proportion. To that end, provinces such as Muğla, Kırklareli, Çanakkale and Sinop, which are in the middle-high income group according to their level of development per capita, may outperform some high-income provinces in gender equality rankings to move higher.