Woman’s labor and poverty : the case of Eskisehir province in Turkey


Thesis Type: Doctorate

Institution Of The Thesis: Middle East Technical University, Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Department of Sociology, Turkey

Approval Date: 2006

Thesis Language: English

Student: Fatime Güneş

Supervisor: MEHMET CİHAN ECEVİT

Abstract:

This study examines critically how women in poverty use their labor in the production and reproduction processes against poverty and the effects of these processes on women becoming poor referring to women’s knowledge. The material foundation of women’s poverty is conceptualized as a two-way devaluation of women’s labor used in social reproduction. Patriarchal, cultural and ideological structures and relationships are studied as other determinants of women’s poverty. In this framework, women’s poverty studied based on a field research conducted on 120 women in EskiŞehir province, consisting of regular and irregular workers, housewives, married and single mothers. Household is the basic unit of analysis of women’s poverty. The scope that women’s poverty experiences are questioned are the following: women’s labor in production process, women’s domestic labor, women participating in social life, violence against women, their perception of poverty and their place in power relations.