Gender-based factors affecting the earnings of women entrepreneurs in Turkey

The study argues that social and institutional factors accompany human capital factors in determining earnings of the self-employed. Some of these determinants are gender-based factors affecting women's earnings only. The study challenges the human capital approach and develops an alternative model that identifies social and institutional factors that are determinants of earnings. This study is significant because it explains the gender-based earnings gap by taking into account the interaction between economic factors and prevailing social and institutional structures, with women entrepreneurs as the norm. Using data from a 1995 survey of 705 women and men entrepreneurs, the study shows that the economic, social and institutional constraints on the earnings of women are different from those on men. Women's increased mobility and access to information and markets influence their earnings positively while these factors do not have significant effects on the earnings of men. Therefore, it is necessary to recognize and address the gender-based constraints faced by women when developing economic development policies in the fields of poverty alleviation and gender-equity.