The SILC data confirm for cohorts 1969 to 1974 that those regions with high approximate completed fertility rates are those with low average education levels and high proportions of illiterate women (Southeast Anatolia: 45% illiterate, against 5% in Istanbul, West Marmara and Aegean). Among the 9% of university educated women of these cohorts, 50% live in Istanbul and Aegean, while only 2% of university educated women live in Southeast Anatolia. Fertility is high in the Southeast, but at the same time only a minority of Turkish women of all education groups live in this region (8%).

Our analysis so far suggests that education, and especially having not completed primary education, is a good proxy for region and ethnicity. We conclude thus that for our micro econometric analysis, taking into account the educational level of women captures quite well their regional background. We will not be able to disentangle effects between education, region and ethnicity, but including education in our regression models will reduce a potential omitted variable bias caused by the fact that we cannot control directly for region (not available in the longitudinal database) and ethnicity (not available in SILC, neither in the cross sectional nor in the longitudinal database).

# _Female Employment_

The decline in fertility rates goes not only hand in hand with education, but also with increases in female employment in Turkey. However, the female labor force participation rate of women aged 15 to 64 is – with 32% in 2012- still quite low in comparison to those of their male counterparts (76%) and the European average for women (67%). The gender-specific employment gap is thus quite large in Turkey in comparison to other European countries (44 percentage points against 11 percentage points on average in the EU). The gender gap is largest for ages 25 to 45. At the same time, in Turkey part-time work is similarly frequent as in most other European countries for women: In Turkey as well on average in the EU, about one-fourth of women participating in the labor force work part time (World Bank World Development Indicators, 2014).

The increase in women participating in the labor market is strongest for younger cohorts. In 2012, 40% of women aged 25 to 29 (cohort 1983 to 1987) participated in the labor force against only 25% of women aged 45 to 49 (cohort 1963 to 1967). At the same time, among the latter cohort, only 20% of women worked at ages 25 to 29 (Turkstat Labor Force Surveys 1992, 1997, 2002, 2007, 2012).

In 2012, one out of two women work in services, which is therewith the largest activity sector for women in Turkey today, followed by agriculture (40%) and industry (10%). Even though agricultural work is on the decline, agriculture was the dominant activity sector for women in Turkey until the year 2008 (see figure D in the appendix), and with 40%, occupations in agriculture are still quite common for women in Turkey (EU average 6% only). Occupations in the service sector are on the rise for women, but lag nevertheless behind the European average of 80% (World Bank World Development Indicators, 2014).

Consistent with the lower stage of economic development, (c.f. OECD 2008, Lastarria-Cornhiel 2006, Agarwal 2003), women in Turkey work less as employees in formal jobs and more in non-registered activities such as subsistence activities in agriculture, as contributing family workers or as self-employed in comparison to other European countries. The proportion of working women active as contributing family workers is 34% in Turkey (EU average 4%), while only 5% of working men are reported as being contributing family workers (EU average 1%, WB WDI, year 2012). 45% of women are self-employed in Turkey (34% of men) (EU average 13% for women, 19% for men). Women working as formal employees represent thus only 20% of active women in Turkey, while the number is 60% for their male 13