Abstract:

The rural economies today encounter problems related to production costs, marketing constrains, food security, climate change and rural job opportunities. Rural poverty is being increased and women in rural are more exposed to rural poverty. In order to reduce rural poverty, activities that generate additional income for the family budget as the production of products that include especially women's manual labor, are encouraged. Women's cooperatives are the only enterprises that will enable women to organize and empower, especially in rural areas. This study aims to evaluate the position of women's cooperatives, their role in development and the current situation from an alternative rural development perspective. The most important impact of the cooperatives is that they turn women into the main actors of rural change and into intermediaries who will make women's labor that is invisible in the public space visible.

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