ABSTRACT
This study examines the process of Roma women’s labor force participation into informal labor market by doing house cleaning in Samsun. About four generations, Roma women in Samsun have been doing house clean work as a daily wage earner. The study conducted 20 in-depth interviews with Roma woman, and using the findings of interviews, the study try to find answers to two questions: what women lost and what women gain from this informal labor force participation. What they gain? i they can enter into the private homes the most intimate place of middle class families, therefore they feel that they are “recognized” by them, ii despite their short education, lack of training and early marriage, they can find a job, iii they can skip of domestic and gendered divisions of labor in their homes, iv they can able to cope with poverty. What they lost? i although they have a paid work , they have no social security, ii they would not increase to their daughters and boy’s education levels and does not delay the age at marriage of them, iii They could not cope with the stigma of being a Roma, including their clothing, their colors and neighborhood they live which shaped the stigma, it occurs every day repeating the practices are taking place internalization, iv they have to leave their children in the neighborhood environment, it does not allow them to change the neighborhood and lifestyle expectations of the neighborhood , v They cannot make savings, they only can ensure sustainability of everyday life. At the end of the study, it can be said that the burden of the informal work participation is less than to be a Roma for the Roma women who do house cleaning in Samsun
Keywords : Roma, cleaning the house, work life and woman, private space, informal work and woman
