http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6044-2810
![Sample our Area Studies journals, sign in here to start your access, latest two full volumes FREE to you for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/5922/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Area-Studies.jpg"})
ABSTRACT
It is vital to understand the structural and institutional dynamics behind female empowerment as its realization benefits not only women but also society at large. Drawing on an original, global-level dataset that covers 169 countries between 1960–2014, this article mainly explores the effect of urbanization on women’s empowerment throughout the world. The article argues that urbanization has distinctive effects in different realms of female empowerment in politics, economics, and education, with the biggest impact being in education. The article further states that urbanization has a non-linear effect on women’s empowerment with a diminishing impact at higher levels of urbanization. After certain levels of urbanization, other political and economic factors, such as how democratic and economically affluent a country is, will determine the discrepancies of female empowerment in countries with similar levels of urbanization. To further test the stated hypotheses, the article looks at the Turkish case as a typical example of a patriarchal society with a neoliberal economic order. In light of the global and local level analyses, the paper aims to contribute to extant debates and studies in feminist studies, urban studies, modernization theory, and democratization.
Acknowledgments
The author acknowledges the financial support of the European Union (Horizon 2020 - Marie Curie Reintegration Project: ‘Female Empowerment’ - Project # 702073) and the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK) (H2020 Success Award # 342617). The author also would like to express his gratitude for the illuminating suggestions provided by the anonymous referees as well as the editor of Turkish Studies.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Note on Contributor
Kürşat Çınar earned his PhD in Political Science from the Ohio State University. His research interests center on party politics, democratization, patron-client relationships, development, and gender politics. He has published in Politics & Gender, Political Studies, Democratization, Contemporary Politics, South European Society & Politics, Mediterranean Politics, Journal of Balkan & Near Eastern Studies, and Turkish Studies. He has contributed a chapter on clientelism to the Sage Encyclopedia of Political Behavior. He is a Fulbright Alumnus and the recipient of the 2013 Sabanci International Research Award. He is also an Associate Editor of Politics & Gender. He is an Assistant Professor at Middle East Technical University, Department of Political Science and Public Administration.
ORCID
Kürşat Çınar http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6044-2810
Notes
1. Sen, Inequality Reexamined; Almeleh et al., “Women’s Achievement”; Çınar, “Unskilled Urban Migrant Women”; Abadian, “Women’s Autonomy”; Ross, “Oil, Islam, and Women”; and Caraway, “Comparative Political Economy.”
2. Phillips, “Representation and Inclusion”; Chant, “Cities”; and True, “Counting Women.”
3. Lerner, The Passing of Traditional Society; Lipset, “Some Social Requisites”; and Inkeles and Smith, Becoming Modern.
4. Inglehart and Norris, “The True Clash.”
5. Ross, “Oil, Islam, and Women,” and Bejerano et al., “Tracking the Latino Gender Gap.”
6. Chaudhuri, “A Life Course Model,” 55.
7. Yoo, “The Impact.”
8. Cabezas et al., The Wages of the Empire; Charrad, “Women’s Agency”; Freeman, “Is Local”; and Oza, “Showcasing India.”
9. Lind, “Gender, Development,” 1217.
10. Altan-Olcay, “Entrepreneurial Subjectivities.”
11. Connell, “On Hegemonic Masculinity,” and Akyüz and Sayan-Cengiz, “Overcome Your Anger.”
12. Charrad, “Women’s Agency,” 519.
13. Haile et al., “Microfinance and female empowerment”; Wyndow et al., “Female Empowerment”; and Goldman and Little, “Innovative Grassroots NGOs.”
14. Regarding the conceptualization of empowerment and how women use it for positive change in their lives, it is vital to underline that so as to be called ‘empowered,’ women should have meaningful changes in their lives, especially regarding their ‘first-order,’ strategic life choices, such as ‘choice of livelihood, whether or who to marry, whether to have children’ (Kabeer, “Resources, Agency,” 437). For a further analysis of this issue, please see Janssens, “Women’s Empowerment,” and Goldman and Little, “Innovative Grassroots NGOs.”
15. Lind, “Gender, Development”; Cindoğlu and Toktaş, “Empowerment and Resistance Strategies”; Eswaran, “The empowerment of women”; Ashraf et al., “Female Empowerment”; and Weber and Ahmad, “Empowerment Through Microfinance.”
16. Kandiyoti, “Bargaining with patriarchy”; Mitra, “Women in the Urban Informal Sector”; Beşpınar, “Questioning agency and empowerment”; Buğra, “Revisiting the Wollstonecraft Dilemma”; and Cinar and Ugur-Cinar, “What the City Has to Offer.”
17. Morrisson and Jütting, “Women’s discrimination in developing countries”; Wyndow et al., “Female Empowerment,” 35.
18. Cindoğlu and Toktaș, “Empowerment and Resistance Strategies,” Ross, “Oil, Islam, and Women”; Caraway, “Comparative Political Economy”; and Charrad, “Kinship, Islam, or Oil.”
19. Osmani, “The Grameen Bank experiment,” and Erman et al., “Money-Earning Activities.”
20. Altan-Olcay, “Entrepreneurial Subjectivities”; Coşar and Yeğenoğlu, “New Grounds for Patriarchy”; and Samarakoon and Parinduri, “Does Education Empower Women?.”
21. Buğra, “Revisting the Wollstonecraft Dilemma,” 149.
22. Goldin, “The U-Shaped Female Labor Force Function”; Pampel and Tanaka, “Economic Development”; Elmas, “Women, urbanization and regional development”; and Tansel, “Economic Development.”
23. UN 2015. “UN Sustainable Development Goals” http://www.who.int/mediacentre/events/meetings/2015/un-sustainable-development-summit/en/.
24. Kabeer, “Resources, Agency.”
25. Moghadam, Women, Work, and Economic Reform; Chant, “Cities.”
26. Banks, “Female employment in Dhaka”; Hammad, Industrial Sexuality Gender; and Cindoğlu and Toktaș, “Empowerment and Resistance Strategies.”
27. Alexander, “Change in Women’s”; Burnet, “Women Have Found Respect”; Almeleh et al., “Women’s Achievement.”
28. Kabeer, “Resources and Agency.”
29. Cindoğlu and Toktaș “Empowerment and Resistance Strategies”; Erman et al., “Money-Earning Activities”; Eswaran, “The empowerment of women” Mitra, “Women in the Urban Formal Sector”; Ashraf et al., “Female Empowerment”; Janssens, “Women’s Empowerment”; Haile et al., “Microfinance”.; Buğra, “Revisting the Wollstonecraft Dilemma”; Weber and Ahmad; Goldman and Little.
30. The only exception to the 5-year averages rule is the 2014 figures as it takes into account 4-year average (2011, 2012, 2013, and 2014) to compute the relevant figures. The reason for this is that 2015 figures are not available in any of the databases while this manuscript has been written. The dataset could have been cut with the 2010 figures. Yet, I have chosen to include the 2014 figures too so as to offer more extensive and contemporary analysis.
31. Baltagi, Econometric Analysis.
32. Green, Econometric Analysis.
33. Achen, “Why Lagged Dependent Variables”; Keele and Kelly, “Dynamic Models”; and Allison, “Don’t Put Lagged Dependent Variables.”
34. Powell, “Panel Data Models.”
35. Barro and Lee, “A New Data Set.”
36. Cingranelli and Richards, CIRI Human Rights Data Project.
37. Buğra, “Revisting the Wollstonecraft Dilemma.” See also Inglehart and Norris, “The True Clash.”
38. Ross, “Oil, Islam, and Women.”
39. Marshall et al., Polity IV Project.
40. Pampel and Tanaka, “Economic Development.”
41. Goldin, “The U-Shaped Female Labor Force.”
42. Inglehart and Norris, “The True Clash,” 10. See also Bejerano et al., “Tracking the Latino Gender Gap.”
43. Cindoglu and Toktas, “Empowerment and Resistance Strategies,” 44.
44. Mitra, “Women in the 293.
45. Psacharopoulos and Tzannatos, “Female Labor Force Participation.”
46. Samarakoon and Parinduri, “Does Education?,” and Eswaran, “The empowerment of women.”
47. Wyndow et al., “Female Empowerment,” 34.
48. Ibid, 37; see also Basu, “Why does education lead to lower fertility?.”
49. Samarakoon and Parinduri, “Does Education?”, 428.
50. Donno and Russett, “Islam, Authoritarianism, and Female Empowerment.”
51. Lipset, “Some Social Requisites of Democracy.”
52. Kandiyoti, “Emancipated but Unliberated?”; Acar and Altunok, “The Politics of Intimate”; Göksel, “Female Labor Force Participation”; Özar and Yakut-Cakar, “Unfolding the Invisibility of Women.”
53. Özbudun, “AKP at the Crossroads”; Cinar, “Local determinants.”
54. Buğra and Keyder, “The Turkish Welfare Regime”; Coşar and Yeğenoğlu, “New Grounds.”
55. Dedeoğlu, “Veiled Europeanization,” and Acar and Altunok, “The Politics of Intimate.”
56. Cindoğlu and Zencirci, “The Headscarf in Turkey”; Saktanber and Çorbacıoğlu, “Veiling and Headscarf-Skepticism”; and Dedeoğlu, “Veiled Europeanization.”
57. Buğra, “Revisiting the Wollstonecraft Dilemma,” 153.
58. Buğra, “Revisiting the Wollstonecraft Dilemma,” and Coşar and Yeğenoğlu, “New Grounds.”
59. Tekgüç et al., “Women’s Tertiary Education.”
60. Gündüz-Hoşgör and Smits, “Variation in Labor Market”; Toktas and O’Neil, “How Do Women Receive Inheritance?”; Tekgüç et al., “Women’s Tertiary Education”; and Cinar and Ugur-Cinar, “What the City Has to Offer.”
61. Cinar and Ugur-Cinar, “What the City Has to Offer,” 24, and Beşpınar. “Questioning agency.”
62. Beşpınar, “Questioning agency,” 523. See also Altan-Olcay, “The Entrepreneurial Women.”
63. Landig, “Bringing Women to the Table.”
64. Beşpınar, “Questioning agency,” 524.
65. Wyndow et al., “Female Empowerment,” 34–35.
66. Mason, “The status of women.”
67. Beşpınar, “Questioning agency,” 525.
68. Apodaca, “Overcoming Obstacles,” 423. See also Jonasdottir, “Sex Gender, Power and Politics,” and Franceschet and Piscopo, “Quotas and Women’s Substantive Representation.”
69. Smith, “Cities Where Women Rule,” 319. See also Jonasdottir, “Sex Gender, Power and Politics,” and Franceschet and Piscopo, “Quotas and Women’s Substantive Representation.”
70. Apodaca, “Overcoming Obstacles,” 419 and 425.