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

Download

index.pdf

Date

2018

Author

Saka, Burcu

Metadata

Show full item record

Item Usage Stats

342
views

642
downloads

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

Suggestions

OpenMETU
Core

Women and trade unions : participation and resistance in patriarchal organizations Damarlı, Nihan; Aslan Akman, Canan; Department of Gender and Women's Studies (2014) The purpose of this study is to examine unionist women‟s strategies of resistance to patriarchal power relations within trade unions through interviews conducted with a selected group of women unionists, in order to answer the question “how do women resist, survive, challenge, and overcome the manifestations of patriarchal power relations in trade unions?” Women unionists face certain restrictions that hinder their equal participation and representation in trade unions, develop individual and/or collective ...
Cross-country analysis of female labor force participation rate Çelik, Ezgi; Ercan, Hakan; Department of Economics (2012) This study focuses on the female labor force participation rate (LFPR). Cross-country fixed effect analysis of fifty-six countries shows that female LFPR increases with income and education level. Moreover, average schooling years for males is a good fit for female LFPR especially in the low income countries with low education level. Average schooling years for females is a good fit for female LFPR especially in the high income countries with high education level. Higher female tertiary enrollment ratio is ...
Local feminisms: a comparative analysis of feminist literary theory and practice in the 1970s in Britain, America, and Turkey Akdoğan, Şule; Sönmez, Margaret Jeanne M.; Department of English Literature (2016) Feminism in literary theory and practice has a long and complicated history and the 1970s were critical to that history because it was in that period that feminist criticism showed itself as an influential force, particularly in Western literary works. The decade observed not only enthusiastic feminist protests against a socio-political background but also a ramification of feminism into different branches such as liberalism, Marxism, and psychoanalysis which, in a way, shaped today’s understanding and disc...
The Role of women’s NGOs in women’s empowerment in Turkey Baherirad, Sara; Kalaycıoğlu, H. Sibel.; Department of Gender and Women's Studies (2020) The main aim of the thesis is to study women’s empowerment and the role of women’s NGOs in the empowerment process. Women’s empowerment in Turkey is a frequently mentioned topic in the literature however the role of NGOs who conduct projects focusing on women are understudied. In contrast to many others, this research approaches the notion of empowerment in relation to women’s experiences and thoughts. This study aims to contribute to the literature by analyzing these projects from a feminist perspective un...
A feminist standpoint analysis of women’s shelters: a case in Turkey Korkmaz, Miray; Ecevit, Mehmet Cihan; Department of Gender and Women's Studies (2012) The aim of this thesis is to analyze women’s shelters in the context of the Feminist Standpoint Theory by focusing on a case in Turkey. The majority of the previous studies has not regarded the women’s entire subjective experiences of domestic violence and shelter stay. Rather they present a reductionist picture. In this study, women’s experiences of violence and shelter stay are analyzed and discussed in relation to; their specificities, the shelter structure, and the system shelters are connected in Turke...

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.