Abstract

In spite of an increasing number of projects and campaigns in public policies to higher, the schooling ratio among girls have been applied in Turkey since 1997, societal gender disequalities are still very important problems of education. Especially in rural areas there are thousands of girls who cannot complete education even elementary school system. Morever, informal education opportunities are also insufficient for women. The primary purposes of this research were to determine the level of women’s participation in formal and informal education programs in rural areas of Mersin province, and to determine the efficiency level and income generation capacity of training programs designated for women in the area. Multiple Correspondence Analysis (MCA) was used to investigate the relationships between several socio-demographic and educational variables. Research findings showed that the young women wanted to educate their daughters for reaching better living conditions when they become adults. The major constraints for educating girls are poor living conditions for rural families and difficulties in meeting school expenditures. In addition, women’s participation to various training programs was quite low, and most of the women found the training not useful because it provided information which was practically unusably for their daily life.

Key words: Rural women, extension education, ınformal education, literacy, Mersin/Turkey.