Are there Gender Effects of 'Gender-neutral' Compulsory Schooling Laws in Turkey?

Jennifer Ward-Batts, Claremont McKenna College

Turkey increased compulsory schooling from five to eight years in 1997. Though compulsory schooling requirements are not gender specific, the change may have had asymmetric effects on boys and girls. Especially in rural parts of Turkey, sons often receive more schooling than daughters. If the previous compulsory schooling law was binding for girls but not for boys, then girls may have benefited disproportionately by the increase in compulsory schooling. I use Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) data for Turkey from 1993 and 1998. I present a descriptive picture of school enrollment for boys and for girls in both periods, and analyze the change in enrollment for boys and girls at various ages over time using household-level data. I control for important family characteristics, and for region and urban/rural residence in order to ascertain the extent to which migration to urban areas contributed to changes in enrollment over the period.