Working class feminism: solidarity and experience in a factory strike in Turkey

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Date

2018

Author

Saka, Burcu

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This thesis, which focuses on working-class feminism, claims that the industrial actions of women workers in their workplace are also promising in terms of transforming the sex based division of labor. This, on the one hand, is related to the re-organization of work on the axis of deepening sexual division of labor as the condition of exploitation, and on the other hand, women workers’ efforts to make their burdens of reproduction and sexist practices in the workplace a subject of industrial actions. In explaining industrial actions, the thesis gave priority to the solidarity relations among workers arising from the collective character of the labor process and, with respect to the organisation of work based on sexual division of labour, aimed to display the influence and power of the sisterly bonds among women in industrial actions, and their importance in women's empowerment. In line with this aim, semi-structured interviews were held with women workers who participated the two-day protests including a picketing, slowdown strike and occupation at Mata Automative Factory in Tuzla Free-Trade Zone, İstanbul. Based on these interviews, the study claimed that the struggle to be recognized as women workers with respect to the demands for better working conditions for workers stands at the center of the future and transformative character of feminism and class movement.

Subject Keywords

Women, Working class., Feminism., Solidarity.

URI

http://etd.lib.metu.edu.tr/upload/12622035/index.pdf
https://hdl.handle.net/11511/27245

Collections

Graduate School of Social Sciences, Thesis

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Citation Formats

B. Saka, “Working class feminism: solidarity and experience in a factory strike in Turkey,” Ph.D. - Doctoral Program, Middle East Technical University, 2018.