Female Education Inequality in Turkey: factors affecting girls’ schooling decisions

Education remains to be an important determinant of economic and social opportunities for individuals. However, within group inequalities for educational elements are not studied broadly. This paper seeks to inspect the reasons of higher inequality among females in terms of schooling distribution. Our results suggest that occupation of the household head, size and the composition of the family, and education of the parents have a significant impact on the schooling decision for girls. The paper will contribute to the literature in a twofold manner. First, it provides empirical evidence of schooling distribution in Turkey. Second, it investigates the factors that disproportionately affect schooling decisions for girls.