Feminisation of Rural Work and Young Women’s Dis/empowerment: A Case Study of Mountain Villages in the Western Black Sea Region of Turkey

Abstract

In this paper, we examine the process of feminisation of rural work in a case study of women’s employment at a seafood-processing factory in Western Black Sea Turkey. We explore the significance of women’s nonfarm employment to their household economy and how intra-household relations are affected when women participate in paid work. In order to understand the household characteristics and dynamics in relation to the work status of female household members, mixed methods were used for data collection – semi-structured interviews with 218 women and in-depth interviews with 27 women. The data indicate the significance of women’s paid work to rural household economy and also how the paid work has transformed the father-daughter relationship in particular. Recent rural transformation in the context of neoliberal agricultural policy, agricultural decline, and out-migration increased women’s workload. Today, rural household heavily depends on unmarried daughter’s labour regardless of her work status. Daughter’s participation in paid work however makes her labour visible and considerably undermines the authority of father who had already lost control over son’s labour. Yet we contend that daughter’s labour may be liberated from a traditional form of patriarchy; her participation into labour market results in an integration into not only market economy but also a modern form of patriarchy.