Understanding Women’s Labor Force Participation and Entrepreneurship: The Case of Turkey

Abstract

We have been witnessing a global wave of mass protests in recent years, from the Spanish Indignants movement, to he Arab Uprising, to the Occupy movement. While the protests share, across borders, not only techniques and use of social media, but also widespread citizen dissatisfaction with the economic prospects at this particular juncture of neoliberalism (Fox Piven 2013; Memos 2010), each one had localized grievances and demands. The Arab Uprising’s popular slogan was “Bread and Dignity,” reflecting the escalating dissent against both economic injustice and authoritarianism (Dahi 2011). These movements were also immediately marked by the salience of gender issues: on the one hand, women’s participation and their demands for equal political participation, economic justice, and protection from gender-based violence were greatly visible at the height of the protests; on the other hand, counterrevolutionary forces and the new regimes utilized a myriad of gendered tactics to suppress protesters and their voices (Al-Ali 2012; Kandiyoti 2013; Moghadam 2013).