New imaginaries of gender in Turkey's service economy: Women workers and identity making on the sales floor

Abstract

Research on the regulation of women's identities at work has shown that the production of feminine selves on the service floor depends on women workers' identification with certain versions of femininities. Drawing on ethnographic data collected in retail settings in urban Turkey, this study highlights an alternative route to identity making on the service floor. I found that saleswomen strategically distance themselves from particular versions of working class femininities when building workplace identities for themselves. To explain why women workers use this distancing strategy, I argue that the gender discourse on women's work in Turkey and the minimalist managerial control of workers shape women's strategies to self-constitute. The discourse on women's work, which discourages women from working unless they pursue professional careers, puts women's respectability at risk. Women workers lacking access to the necessary resources to constitute themselves as properly middle-class, therefore employ a strategy of distancing rather than identification to preserve their sense of respectability.