Istanbul tops gender equality index

Istanbul tops gender equality index

ANKARA – Hürriyet Daily News
Istanbul tops gender equality index

Istanbul, Tunceli, Tekirdağ, Ankara and Eskişehir are the cities that women are the strongest. according to the report. Hürriyet Daily News Photo

Istanbul, Tunceli, Bolu, Düzce and Eskişehir are Turkey’s leading cities in maintaining social gender equality, according to a report by Ankara-based Economic Policy Research Foundation of Turkey (TEPAV). 

Compiled by TEPAV researchers Ülker Şener and Dr. Hülya Demirdirek, the report focuses on issues such as education levels, employment rates, how genders are distributed in the administrations, as well as how women are presented in social and health service in cities.

Istanbul, Tunceli, Tekirdağ, Ankara and Eskişehir are the cities that women are the strongest. Women experience the least equality in Ağrı, Bitlis, Muş, Kars and Siirt.

Ağrı, Bitlis, Kilis and Siirt are also among the lowest five, along with Gaziantep, in the cities that failed to maintain social gender equality.

The report says Turkey’s economic wealth is not distributed equally among genders.

Despite being the world’s 17th biggest economy, Turkey lags behind in this issue, being named 68th in the United Nations’ Gender Equality Index in 2012 and 120th among 136 countries in the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap report in 2013.