Social gender inequality in education in Turkey: A spatial econometric analysis

Gender is closely related to individuals taking an active role in society, living in harmony with society, knowing and using their rights. gender inequality in Turkey; It shows itself in the field of education as well as in the fields of working life, health, participation in decision mechanisms. Although the goal of eliminating gender inequality at primary education level has been achieved in our country, it is seen that the rate of girls who do not continue their education in secondary education is quite high. It is very important for individuals to participate in education without discriminating between men and women, especially to increase the education of women. The aim of this study is to examine the relationship between the ratio of women and men in secondary education, high school and university and socio-economic indicators for 81 provinces in Turkey, on the basis of gender phenomena, using the data related to the indicators obtained from the Turkish Statistical Institute in 2019, with spatial econometric analysis. For this purpose, the gender phenomenon and the interaction between provinces will be better revealed and this study will contribute to the regional development literature, especially considering the importance of education in the development of a country. The reason for choosing the spatial econometric analysis method in the study is to see whether there is an interaction between the provinces in terms of education of women and men. Spatial dependency tests were performed in the analyzes and the most suitable spatial econometric model was selected. Then, spatial models were estimated and the findings were interpreted. According to the findings obtained from the study, the fact that the education level of men and women belonging to the provinces was similar in places close to each other showed that the provinces were affected by each other.