Is precarity a fate for women in Türkiye? Rethinking energy poverty from a gender perspective

Abstract

Energy poverty is a challenging issue that hampers economic and sustainable development and lowers people’s standard of living. While trying to understand energy poverty, it is imperative to focus on the disadvantaged individuals mentioned in the literature, as they are often most vulnerable to the problem. Focusing on them is essential to achieving sustainable development goals, especially in developing countries, particularly regarding poverty, energy poverty, and gender equality. Therefore, the paper aims to examine the impact of economic precarity on working-age females’ energy poverty perceptions using 2018–2020 TURKSTAT-SILC pooled cross-sectional data. Our findings from the bivariate probit, multivariate probit and Bayesian bivariate probit models suggested that economic precarity has a disruptive role on females’ energy poverty perceptions. Furthermore, inefficient energy use is an important factor in influencing females’ perceptions of energy poverty. Females’ inability to pay required housing expenses increases their perceived energy poverty. Therefore, social-welfare policies and energy policies should be considered together by the policymakers to resolve females’ energy poverty problem to achieve a more sustainable future.