Extended Summary

The societal gender norms are still strong in Turkey, and women face many economic disadvantages, as observed in their low participation and employment rates in the labor market compared to OECD and EU countries. In recent years, women’s cooperatives have emerged as an alternative empowerment tool and employment model to increase women’s economic and social participation. The history of women’s cooperatives in Turkey dates back a long time, but they have gained more visibility in the last 20 years, with a rapid increase in their numbers in the last five years. Women cooperatives is supported by NGOs, public institutions, and ministries. However, limited studies on the current situation of the increasing number of women’s cooperatives make it challenging to evaluate them quantitatively and qualitatively and analyze the relationship between their establishment goals and activities. Therefore, there is a need for a comprehensive study that shows the current quantitative situation of women’s cooperatives in Turkey.

The aim of this study is to fill the gap in the literature, at least in part, by revealing the general and quantitative current situation of women’s cooperatives based on their activity areas, such as their numbers and regional distributions. Efforts to reveal the current situation of women’s cooperatives in Turkey address the potential of existing cooperative efforts and women’s economic and social participation through cooperatives to increase both women’s empowerment and employment.

Various sources, including a list of cooperatives registered in the Ministry’s system, the Simurg Women’s Cooperatives Union, and women’s cooperatives that were directly accessed through their web pages and social media accounts, were used to provide a general picture of women’s cooperatives in Turkey. Accordingly, the current situation of women’s cooperatives in Turkey was examined in terms of their geographic distribution, their distribution in the 26 regions at level 2, and their classification into production and service categories. The results show that there are a total of 944 women’s entrepreneurial, production, and operational cooperatives in Turkey. The Marmara region has the highest concentration of women’s cooperatives in Turkey, followed by the Central Anatolia, Black Sea, Mediterranean, and Aegean regions. The Southeastern Anatolia region has the fewest women’s cooperatives.

To see the empowerment and employment potential of women’s cooperatives, cooperatives that have been operating for the last five years and have women’s entrepreneurial, production, and operational status were examined. While gender empowerment can be observed in all women’s cooperatives, employment creation potential varies depending on the type of cooperative. This study contributes to the evaluation of the quantitative and regional distribution of women’s cooperatives in Turkey and provides valuable information on their potential for employment creation and women’s empowerment.

The activities of women’s cooperatives that are in the status of women’s entrepreneurship, production, and operation have been examined in order to understand the potential for their strengthening and job creation. While gender empowerment can be observed in all women’s cooperatives, it is possible to say that economic empowerment only emerges in certain types of cooperatives. Not all women’s cooperatives are established and operated with profit as their primary goal. Accordingly, the impact of women’s cooperatives on women’s empowerment has been examined through cooperatives established with an entrepreneurial or production purpose that includes economic empowerment. One of the variables to consider when assessing the impact of women’s cooperatives on women’s empowerment is the duration of their activities. Indeed, the empowerment effect is not only dependent on the founding partners of women’s cooperatives but also on the potential for creating women’s employment during the process. In this sense, the empowerment effect does not emerge all at once but rather spreads over a certain period of time. Therefore, the impact of women’s cooperatives on women’s empowerment can be linked to the condition of their having been active for at least five years. Accordingly, the total number of women’s entrepreneurship, production, and operation cooperatives that have been active for the past five years is sixty, and fifty-seven of them are currently active. When examining the fields of activity of women’s cooperatives in Turkey, it is seen that they are concentrated in the fields of jewelry and souvenir production, food production, and textiles. Therefore, women’s cooperatives generally operate in areas that are considered “women’s work.”

Despite the rapid increase in the number of women’s cooperatives in recent years, this study shows that women’s cooperatives have had weak effects in increasing women’s employment and supporting women’s empowerment. Nevertheless, it can be said that in the long term, women’s cooperatives are an important tool for women empowement in social and working life.

At this point, one of the primary issues to be addressed regarding women’s cooperatives is the regular collection and sharing of quantitative data on cooperatives through collaboration between the ministry and local governments in order to ensure the continuity of women’s cooperatives. Secondly, prior to the establishment of women’s cooperatives, support should be provided to women during the application phase for market research aimed at market demand, and workshop programs for women should be organized through ministry-academia cooperation following the results of this research. In relation to this, preventing the uncontrolled increase of women’s cooperatives is considered an important step that can be taken in this area. Finally, limiting women’s cooperatives established under municipal partnership/structure to prevent a sense of surveillance/control in the internal functioning of women’s cooperatives and to develop a sense of financial/psychological self-sufficiency can play a leading role in opening up developments in the field.