SOCIAL POLITICS, cilt.1, sa.1, ss.1-23, 2025 (SSCI, Scopus)
This article explores the potential of women’s cooperatives for women’s empowerment in patriarchal societies. The article is based on extensive ethnographic research
in Kastamonu, Turkey, where one of the researchers has become an active member of a women’s cooperative for a full year. The article underlines that women’s cooperatives
offer unique and valuable opportunities for the advancement of women’s rights and gender equality despite the patriarchal norms and social reproduction duties that
women face. However, as the article suggests, the gains and experiences of women from women’s cooperatives and their empowerment potential are contextdependent,
and are contingent upon the individual characteristics of their members based on their social class, educational background, and active participation in the cooperatives.