Effects of democracy and income distribution on gender inequality

Throughout history, states have consistently endeavored to improve the welfare and prosperity of their populations. The degree to which the equality anticipated by the people aligns with the equality promised by the state has consistently been a subject of inquiry. The concept of gender inequality, which has been named in the last 50 years, has consistently been a subject of debate. The study examines the impact of democracy and income distribution on gender inequality. The study employs data from 71 countries, including the Democracy Index, Gender Inequality Index (GII), Human Development Index (HDI), and the Gini Index for income inequality, covering the period from 2010 to 2021. In this study, the variables of democracy and income distribution, which affect gender inequality, have been examined and analyzed in detail. As one progresses from full democracies to flawed democracies, hybrid regimes, and authoritarian regimes, the average democracy score declines, while gender inequality rises. This situation demonstrates how crucial gender equality is for full democracies. In Turkey, gender inequality is nearly equivalent to that in flawed democracies; however, the average democracy score is considerably lower than in flawed democracies. In this section, where we investigated the effect of a one standard deviation increase in democracy value components on gender inequality values, regression analysis was conducted to see whether there was a meaningful relationship between the democratic regime level of nations and gender inequality situations. Based on the results of the analyses, the most significant mitigating effect is observed in the Political Participation component. Keywords: Gender inequality, democracy, income distribution, logit model, discriminant analysis, linear regression.