The impact of higher education on unemployed Turkish people’s attitudes toward gender: A multilevel analysis

Abstract

This study investigated the effect of college on unemployed people’s attitudes toward gender in Turkey. Gender, age, income, and the number of household members were also included in the model as well as college and gender interaction. The data were publicly available and collected by a team of researchers sponsored by the World Bank), the Spanish Impact Evaluation Fund, the Gender Action Plan, and the Turkish Labor Agency (İŞKUR). The study included responses from a random sample of 5902 unemployed people in Turkey. Findings from the multivariate analysis revealed that unemployed people with a college degree have more egalitarian gender attitudes than unemployed people who did not hold a college degree, and females were found to be more egalitarian compared to their male counterparts. Findings did not reveal any significant effects of a college by gender interaction on gender attitudes. The number of household members had a meaningful impact on people’s gender attitudes. The results confirm a college and gender effect on the attitudes of people toward dual-earning. Income is also a significant predictor on how people see dual-earning in the family. In the second level analysis, findings indicate that people living in cities with higher socio-economic development scores have more egalitarian attitudes toward gender.