ABSTRACT
In the labour history studies in the world, interest in women’s labour and especially in women’s paid labour has been marginal. As with other histories, the labour history is the history of men labourers. Recently, with the development of the women’s movement, there has been resurgence in the interest for women’s labour, but the interest in the history of women’s labour is still very poor. In Turkey, it can be said that this interest is almost non existent. Our study which deals only with some aspects of the history of women’s labour, contains sections from a more comprehensive ongoing study and is intended to fill the gap concerning the history of women’s labour, for the time being and partially. From the methodological point of view, envisioning that the Republican era can only be interpreted in the context of its continuity and transitivity with the Ottoman Empire, we include in our article, the precursor developments in the Empire concerning women’s labour. In the Ottoman Empire, while traditional activity areas for women were agricultural and home work, from the end of 19. Century, women were drawn into the life of paid work first in the workshops, then in the factory type establishments. The need to replace the declining male labour due to wars has been decisive in this development. Women who traditionally worked in the carpet and fabric weaving at home opened up to outside work in the same activities, and these were gradually followed by other activities. Studies revealed that, contrary to the presumptions, women in the Ottoman Empire, were widely employed in the industry and also were exposed to long working hours and low wages. During the Republican era, the main lines of the structure from the last period of the Empire, seems to persist. Figures show that in the early republican period, the proportion of female workers in the industry was around approximately 25%. Women who continued to work still predominantly in weaving and food industry, seemed to have gathered in several large cities, mainly in Istanbul and Izmir, where the industry was developed. The State Economic Enterprises developed especially in the 1930s when Statist economic policies were followed in Turkey, have contributed to the increase in female labour. On the other hand, these organizations contributed to the improvement of the quality of woman workers with the wider social and educational opportunities provided to their employees. When we look at the working conditions of women during the early Republican period, we see that gender-based wage differences against women persists and that women are subjected to long working hours and poor occupational health and safety conditions. During this period, children’s nursery and kindergartens for the use of woman workers with children were almost non existent. Starting with Labour Law of 1936, the legislation included some social policy measures for the protection of woman workers. However, these measures were not effective since adequate controls could not be performed and the National Protection Law, adopted in 1940 under the conditions of the Second World War, suspended the majority of these the social provisions. As a result, the early Republican era in Turkey, especially the war years, appear to be a troubled, difficult period in terms of woman workers
Keywords : Women’s labour, woman workers, gender based wage differences, home work, National Protection Law