Abstract:

The role and place of women have been neglected for a long time in economics, and women have not been given due importance in these fields. Feminist economists criticise traditional-neoclassical economics claiming that conceptual basis for the mainstream economic knowledge is gender discrimination and women’s experiences are not reflected in economics. In this light, they challenge economics suggesting that it should be reviewed and questioned including women’s perspective. Women have participated in various economic activities in varying shapes and status depending on the conditions of each period of history. However, in the true sense, women have taken place in working life under the status of “paid” and “workers” for the first time after the industrial revolution. Laws and practices that support working women, increased educational opportunities, demographic developments, shrinking family size, marriage rate reduction, divorce rate increase, single individual-family, non-standard operating modes, improvements achieved in attitudes towards women’s work, child care and improvements in other services are important developments that play a role in increasing the number of female labour. In this context, the aim of this study is to examine women’s role, status and issues in Turkish Economy from a historical perspective.

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