The Relationships Between the Female Labor Force Participation Rate and Economic Development: A Correlation Analysis for Turkey

Abstract

Integration of women into the labor market has been a crucial indicator of economic development and social welfare. Although Turkey has taken important steps in terms of integrating with the world economy by shifting from an import-substituting industrialization model to an export-oriented growth strategy from the 1980s onward, female labor force participation rates and the significant regional variations in these rates indicate that women’s integration into the labor force has not kept pace with economic development. 
 The influence of economic growth on female employment participation has been discussed in many studies. But, studies analyzing the interdependent relationship of female labor force participation and economic growth as well as the interplay of labor force participation and sectoral GDP growth have been limited. The purpose of this study is to fill this gap by evaluating the relationships between female labor force participation rate and economic growth expressed by GDP per capita levels in Turkey for the 1990-2015 period, using data from the World Development Indicators (WDI) 2017 database of the World Bank. The empirical findings point to a strong correlation between the rate of female labor force participation in industry and services sectors and economic development.