Understanding the Distributional Characteristics of the Gender Net Income Gap in Türkiye

Year 2025, Volume: 9 Issue: Toplumsal Cinsiyet Özel Sayısı, 476 - 494, 27.09.2025

Zeynep Gizem Can

https://doi.org/10.25295/fsecon.1715875

Abstract

This paper evaluates the gender income gap in Türkiye through an integrated analysis encompassing employment, wage, and occupational segmentation dimensions, as well as the effects of the tax-benefit system. Utilizing a microsimulation model combining a national tax-benefit framework with an income generation model, this study conducts counterfactual simulations to estimate gender income disparities absent market-related gaps. Findings reveal a significant gender gap of 71% in market income, narrowing to 67.5% when taxes and benefits are included. The redistributive effects of the tax-benefit system, though present, are limited. Occupational segregation and educational disparities, particularly among older and conservative populations, underscore persistent gaps. Addressing Türkiye’s gender gap will require transformative societal shifts in employment norms and sustained progress in educational attainment for women.

Keywords

Gender Gap , Türkiye , Microsimulation

Türkiye'de Toplumsal Cinsiyet Temelli Net Gelir Farkının Gelir Dağılımı Açısından İncelenmesi

Abstract

Bu çalışma, Türkiye'deki toplumsal cinsiyet gelir farkını istihdam, ücret ve mesleki segmentasyon boyutlarının yanı sıra vergi-fayda sisteminin etkilerini de kapsayan bütüncül bir analizle değerlendirmektedir. Ulusal bir vergi-fayda çerçevesini bir gelir yaratma modeliyle birleştiren bir mikro simülasyon modeli kullanan bu çalışma, piyasa ile ilgili boşlukların olmadığı cinsiyet gelir eşitsizliklerini tahmin etmek için karşı olgusal simülasyonlar yürütmektedir. Bulgular, piyasa gelirinde %71'lik önemli bir cinsiyet farkını ortaya koymakta, vergi ve yardımlar dahil edildiğinde bu fark %67,5'e düşmektedir. Vergi-fayda sisteminin yeniden dağıtıcı etkileri mevcut olsa da sınırlıdır. Mesleki ayrışma ve özellikle yaşlı ve muhafazakâr nüfus arasındaki eğitim eşitsizlikleri, kalıcı uçurumların altını çizmektedir. Türkiye'deki toplumsal cinsiyet uçurumunun giderilmesi için istihdam normlarında dönüştürücü toplumsal değişimler ve kadınların eğitim düzeylerinde sürekli ilerleme kaydedilmesi gerekmektedir.

Keywords

Toplumsal Cinsiyet Farkı , Türkiye , Mikrosimülasyon

Ethical Statement

Etik Onay Yoktur.

Supporting Institution

Destekleyen Kurum Yoktur

References

• Abramovsky, L., & Selwaness, I. N. (2023). Fiscal policy and gender income inequality: The role of taxes and social spending. ODI Report, Overseas Development Institute (ODI), London
• Acet Dönmez, G., & Eriş Dereli, B. (2024). A study on multidimensional poverty in Türki̇ye from a regional perspective. Ekonomi-tek, 13(1), 49-83.
• Akarsu, M. Z., Gharehgozli, O., & Atal, V. (2024). An investigation of income and wage inequality in Turkey using burgernomics. Eastern European Economics, 62(3), 340-360.
• Akıncı, M., Öztürk, H., Arıkan, E. S., Demir, M., Yıldız, M., Türkoğlu, B., & Yıldırım, F. (2024, September). Narrative research on the capabilities of widows receiving social cash transfer. Women's Studies International Forum (Vol. 106, p. 102958). Pergamon.
• Aktas, S. G., Kumtepe, E. G., Kantar, Y. M., Ulukan, I. C., Aydin, S., Aksoy, T., & Er, F. (2019). Improving gender equality in higher education in Turkey. Applied Spatial Analysis and Policy, 12, 167-189.
• Akyol, P., & Yılmaz, Z. (2024). Effects of grandmothers' proximity on mothers' labour force participation. Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, 86(5), 1122-1162.
• Alat, Z., & Alat, K. (2011). A qualitative study of parental resistance to girls’ schooling. Educational Sciences: Theory & Practice, 11(3), 1369–1373.
• Alon, T. M., Doepke, M., Olmstead-Rumsey, J., & Tertilt, M. (2020). The impact of COVID-19 on gender equality. NBER Working Paper No. 26947.
• Alon, T., Coskun, S., Doepke, M., Koll, D., & Tertile, M. (2021). From Mancession to Shecession: Women's employment in regular and pandemic recessions. IZA DP No. 14223.
• Aslan, G. (2020). Gender poverty gap in Turkey. FORCE: Focus on Research in Contemporary Economics, 1(2), 85-102.
• Avram, S., & Popova, D. (2024). Peering into the black box: Using microsimulation methods to evaluate the gendered impact of taxes and transfers. A research agenda for financial resources within the household (79-93). Edward Elgar Publishing.
• Avram, S., Doorley, K., Keane, C., & Popova, D. (2025). How has gender income inequality in Ireland and the UK changed and why?. CeMPA Working Paper Series. CeMPA WP 6/25
• Barrett, M., Doorley, K., Redmond, P., & Roantree, B. (2022). How has the gender earnings gap in Ireland changed in thirty years?. Social Sciences, 11(8), 367.
• Başlevent, C. (2016, June). Social transfers and income inequality in Turkey: how important is the gender dimension?. Working Papers 1013, Economic Research Forum.
• Beton Kalmaz, D. (2022) Female labour force participation and economic growth in Turkey. Politics, economy, security issues hidden under the carpet of Mediterranean (141-156).
• Bogardus, T. (2020). Evaluating arguments for the sex/gender distinction. Philosophia, 48(3), 873–892. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11406-019-00157-6
• Browne, J. (2011). The impact of tax and benefit reforms by sex: Some simple analysis. Institute for Fiscal Studies.
• Browning, M., Bourguignon, F., Chiappori, P.-A., & Lechene, V. (1994). Incomes and outcomes: A structural model of intrahousehold allocation. Journal of Political Economy, 102, 1067-1096.
• Browning, M., Chiappori, P.-A., & Lechene, V. (2010, June). Distributional effects in household models: Separate spheres and income pooling. The Economic Journal, 120, 786-799.
• Can, Z. G., & O’Donoghue, C. (2025), The poverty effectiveness of social security benefits in Türkiye. IZA DP No. 17890. Institute for Labor Economics Discussion Paper Series
• Caner, A., Guven, C., Okten, C., & Sakalli, S. O. (2016). Gender roles and the education gender gap in Turkey. Social Indicators Research, 129, 1231-1254.
• Cantillon, S., & Nolan, B. (2001). Poverty within households: Measuring gender differences using nonmonetary indicators. Feminist Economics, 7(1), 5-23.
• Černiauskas, N., Sologon, D. M., O’Donoghue, C., & Tarasonis, L. (2022). Income inequality and redistribution in Lithuania: The role of policy, labor market, income, and demographics. Review of Income and Wealth, 68, S131-S166.
• Cin, F. M., Gümüş, S., & Weiss, F. (2021). Women’s empowerment in the period of the rapid expansion of higher education in Turkey: Developments and paradoxes of gender equality in the labour market. Higher Education, 81(1), 31-50.
• Cuberes, D., & Teignier, M. (2016). Aggregate effects of gender gaps in the labor market: A quantitative estimate. Journal of human capital, 10(1), 1-32.
• Deza, M. C., Rubio, T. A. G., Preciado, D. G., Jara, H. X., & Guerrero, D. A. R. (2024). Assessing the effect of fiscal policies on the gender income gap in Central America, Panama and the Dominican Republic.
• Doorley, K., & Keane, C. (2020). Tax-benefit systems and the gender gap in income. IZA Discussion Papers.
• Doorley, K., & Keane, C. (2024). Tax-benefit systems and the gender gap in income. The Journal of Economic Inequality, 22(2), 285-309.
• Doorley, K., O’Donoghue, C., & Sologon, D. M. (2022). The gender gap in income and the Covid-19 pandemic in Ireland. Social Sciences, 11(7), 311.
• Downes, R., & Nicol, S. (2020). Designing and implementing gender budgeting–a path to action. OECD Journal on Budgeting, 20(2).
• Elveren, A. Y., & Hsu, S. (2007). Gender gaps in the individual pension system in Turkey (No. 2007-06). Working paper.
• Gasior, K., Avram, S., & Popova, D. (2024). Outside the box? Women's individual poverty risk in the EU and the role of labour market characteristics and tax-benefit policies (No. 2024-2). ISER Working Paper Series.
• Gedikli, C. (2014, August). Female labour supply in Turkey: Do traditional gender roles matter. 33rd IARIW General Conference (1-47).
• Gedikli, C. (2015). Barriers to women’s employment and the extent of gender inequality in the labour market in Turkey. Doctoral dissertation, University of East Anglia.
• Gedikli, C. (2020). Occupational gender segregation in Turkey: The vertical and horizontal dimensions. Journal of Family and Economic Issues, 41(1), 121-139.
• Ghosh, T., & Ramanayake, S. S. (2021). The macroeconomics of gender equality. International Journal of Finance & Economics, 26(2), 1955-1977.
• Green, R. (2010). Robert Stoller’s sex and gender: 40 years on. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 39(6), 1457–1465. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-010-9665-5
• Guzel, G., & Uzungoz, M. (2017). Gender inequality in Turkey: A regional analysis. International Association of Social Science Research, 455-60.
• Haslanger, S. (2000). Gender and race: (What) are they? (What) do we want them to be?. Noûs, 34(1), 31–55. https://doi.org/10.1111/0029-4624.00201
• Juhn, C., Murphy, K. M., & Pierce, B. (1993). Wage inequality and the rise in returns to skill. Journal of political Economy, 101(3), 410-442.
• Kabeer, N., Razavi, S., & van der Meulen Rodgers, Y. (2021). Feminist economic perspectives on the COVID-19 pandemic. Feminist Economics, 27(1-2), 1-29.
• Kagnicioglu, D. (2017). The role of women in working life in Turkey. WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment, 226(1), 349-358.
• Kara, O. (2006). Occupational gender wage discrimination in Turkey. Journal of Economic Studies, 33(2), 130-143.
• Kılıç, A. (2008). The gender dimension of social policy reform in Turkey: Towards equal citizenship?. Social Policy & Administration, 42(5), 487-503.
• Krueger, D., Perri, F., Pistaferri, L., & Violante, G. L. (2010). Cross-sectional facts for macroeconomists. Review of Economic dynamics, 13(1), 1-14.
• Lorber, J. (1994). Paradoxes of gender. Yale University Press. Colorado Mountain College
• Money, J. (1955). Hermaphroditism, gender and precocity in hyperadrenocorticism: Psychologic findings. Bulletin of the Johns Hopkins Hospital, 96, 253–264.
• Money, J., & Ehrhardt, A. A. (1972). Man & woman, boy & girl: The differentiation and dimorphism of gender identity from conception to maturity. Johns Hopkins University Press.
• Nicholson, L. (1994). Interpreting gender. Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, 20(1), 79–105. https://doi.org/10.1086/494955 journals.uchicago.edu
• O'Donoghue, C. (2021). Practical microsimulation modelling. Oxford University Press.
• O'Donoghue, C., & Sutherland, H. (1998). Accounting for the family: the treatment of marriage and children in European income tax systems (Vol. 65). Florence: UNICEF International Child Development Centre.
• O'Donoghue, C., & Sutherland, H. (1999). Accounting for the family in European income tax systems. Cambridge Journal of Economics, 23(5), 565-598.
• Redmond, P., & McGuinness, S. (2019). The gender wage gap in Europe: Job preferences, gender convergence and distributional effects. Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, 564-587.
• Richards-Melamdir, M. (2021). Can progressive taxation address gender inequality in income? Cross-national evidence of gender differences in income tax payment patterns and post-tax income (No. 816). LIS Working Paper Series.
• Rios‐Avila, F., Özekin, A., & Komuryakan, F. (2025). Glass ceiling, sticky floor, or both? Public and private sector differences in Türkiye. Metroeconomica, 76(1), 122-161.
• Rubin, G. (1975). The traffic in women: Notes on the “political economy” of sex. R. R. Reiter (Ed.), Toward an anthropology of women (157–210). Monthly Review Press.
• Schechtl, M. (2023). The taxation of families: How gendered (de) familialization tax policies modify horizontal income inequality. Journal of Social Policy, 52(1), 63-84.
• Seguino, S. (2019). Macroeconomic policy tools to finance gender equality. Development Policy Review, 37(4), 504-525.
• Seguino, S. (2020). Engendering macroeconomic theory and policy. Feminist Economics, 26(2), 27-61.
• Sologon, D. M., Doorley, K., & O’Donoghue, C. (2023). Drivers of income inequality: what can we learn using microsimulation?. Handbook of labor, human resources and population economics, 1-37.
• Sologon, D. M., Doorley, K., O'Donoghue, C., & Peluso, E. (2024). The gendered nature of the cost-of-living crisis in Europe (No. 16820). IZA Discussion Papers.
• Stoller, R. J. (1968). Sex and gender: On the development of masculinity and femininity.
• Stotsky, J. (2016). Gender budgeting: Fiscal context and current outcomes. IMF Working Paper 16/149.
• Stotsky, Janet G., Gender and its Relevance to Macroeconomic Policy: A Survey (October 2006). IMF Working Paper No. 06/233, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=941295
• Tamkoç, M. N., & Torul, O. (2020). Cross-sectional facts for macroeconomists: wage, income and consumption inequality in Turkey. The Journal of Economic Inequality, 18(2), 239-259.
• Tansel, A., & N. D. Gungor. (1997). The educational attainment of Turkey’s labor force: A comparison across provinces and over time. METU Studies in Development 24(4), 531–47.
• Tezgel, O., & Gökbayrak, Ş. (2013). The effects of gender inequalities in the labor market and the social security system on women’s social inclusion in Turkey. ISGUC The Journal of Industrial Relations and Human Resources, 15(4).
• Tore, İ. (2022). Gender diversity on boards of directors in joint-stock corporations in Turkey: Combining hard and soft law. Hacettepe Hukuk Fakültesi Dergisi, 12(2), 1765-1794. https://doi.org/10.32957/hacettepehdf.1165177
• Yenilmez, M. İ. (2019). Gender inequality in labor force participation in Turkey: Closing the Gender Gap?. Journal of Management and Economics Research, 17(3), 40-51.
• Yilmaz, O. (2018). Female autonomy, social norms and intimate partner violence against women in Turkey. The Journal of Development Studies, 54(8), 1321-1337.