Gender Inequality Analysis Based on Female Employee Specialization in the Formal (Primary) Labor Market and the TRA2 Region

Abstract

Labor markets are divided into primary and secondary labor markets. The income level in the primary labor market, where official employment contracts are made and employees are insured, is also higher than in the secondary labor market. There are four different statuses of employment in the primary labor market in Turkey. These are: 1) 4-1/a (workers), 2) 4-1/b (self-employed in non-agricultural sectors), 3) 4-1/b (self-employed in agriculture), 4) 4-1/c (civil servants). In three of the four different statuses in the primary labor market, it can be interpreted that as women's employment rises, gender inequality decreases, and as it women’s employment decreases, inequality increases. The only exception is status 4-1/c, that does not have an indicative feature since the appointment of civil servants is made through central planning. In this study, the levels of specialization in women's employment in the primary labor market in the TRA2 region consisting of Ağrı, Iğdır, Ardahan, and Kars, and the "ordinal, cardinal" status of this region is both numerically and sequentially analyzed. In this analysis, the “location quotient” technique is used. The findings revealed that the provinces in the TRA2 region are among the provinces with the most severe gender inequality in the country. Among the four provinces, it is concluded that the province with the most inequality was Ağrı.