Is capital deepening process male-biased? The case of Turkish manufacturing sector

• I examine the gendered effects of embodied technological change in Turkish manufacturing industry in the 1990s.
• I use the seemingly unrelated regression (SUR) method to examine the determinants of skill- and female-intensity of employment.
• I find that for the manufacturing industry as a whole capital had a preference for skilled males over skilled females.
• When I focus on the individual sectors, I find that some sectors had skilled-male labor complementarity with capital as well.

This paper analyzes the effects of technological change, capital intensity and increased trade activity on the gender- and skill-differentiated employment in the Turkish manufacturing industry subsectors during the 1990–2001 period. The primary objective is to find out the changes in relative employment opportunities for women workers as industries respond to increased international competition by pursuing the high road of increasing productivity. I use the seemingly unrelated regression (SUR) method to examine the determinants of skill- and female-intensity of employment. I find evidence for capital deepening having gender biased employment effects for the period 1990–2001. Specifically, I find that for the manufacturing industry as a whole capital had a preference for skilled males over skilled females controlling for the effects of trade. When I focus on the individual sectors, I find that some sectors had skilled-male labor complementarity with capital as well.