• About
  • Policies
  • What is open access
  • Library
  • Contact
Advanced search
      View Item 
      •   BUIR Home
      • Scholarly Publications
      • Faculty of Art, Design And Architecture
      • Department of Urban Design and Landscape Architecture
      • View Item
      •   BUIR Home
      • Scholarly Publications
      • Faculty of Art, Design And Architecture
      • Department of Urban Design and Landscape Architecture
      • View Item
      JavaScript is disabled for your browser. Some features of this site may not work without it.

      The changing roles of female labour in economic prosperity and decline: the case of Istanbul clothing industry

      Thumbnail
      View / Download
      123.6 Kb
      Author(s)
      Eraydın, A.
      Erendil, Asuman T.
      Editor
      Nelson, L.
      Seager, J.
      Date
      2005
      Publisher
      Wiley‐Blackwell
      Pages
      150 - 165
      Language
      English
      Type
      Book Chapter
      Item Usage Stats
      367
      views
      129
      downloads
      Book Title
      A companion to feminist geography
      Series
      Blackwell Companions to Geography;6
      Abstract
      In this chapter, we use our research on female labor in Istanbul’s clothing industry to examine the effects of industrial boom and bust cycles on women’s lives.1 First, we trace how women gained entry into new globally oriented production systems during the clothing industry boom period (1980–95), exploring how entry into factory production shifted women’s identities and roles both in the family and in society. We argue that the restructuring of production not only generates new labor processes, but also creates new relations between home and work (see also Nippert-Eng, 1996; Castells, 1997; Weyland, 1997; Felstead and Jewson, 2000). Second, we examine how this segment of labor has been affected during the periods of vulnerability and economic downturn after 1995. Our analysis demonstrates that as the state loses capacity to intervene during cyclical economic downturns, women workers suffer most directly because of their more marginal position in the labor market. The article is divided into four main sections. The first section briefly discusses theoretical debates that shape our inquiry, while the second section examines the structural characteristics of a rapidly expanding clothing industry during the late 1980s and early 1990s in Turkey. The third section turns to the changing work patterns and identities of women workers during those years of rapid growth in the clothing industry. We argue that the incorporation of women into the clothing industry, usually second-generation migrants from rural Turkey, had a significant impact on gender identities and roles within migrant families. The fourth section traces the ripple effect of economic crisis, and the contraction of the clothing industry (2000–1), on women’s identities and family survival strategies. Our conclusion reflects upon the challenges of analyzing the dynamics of gender and work on global assembly lines prone to cyclical downturns such as those that have occurred in the Turkish textile industry.
      Keywords
      Female labor
      Economic expansion
      Istanbul clothing industry
      Feminist geography
      Industrial restructuring
      Permalink
      http://hdl.handle.net/11693/51075
      Published Version (Please cite this version)
      https://doi.org/10.1002/9780470996898.ch11
      https://doi.org/10.1002/9780470996898
      Collections
      • Department of Urban Design and Landscape Architecture 46
      Show full item record

      Browse

      All of BUIRCommunities & CollectionsTitlesAuthorsAdvisorsBy Issue DateKeywordsTypeDepartmentsThis CollectionTitlesAuthorsAdvisorsBy Issue DateKeywordsTypeDepartments

      My Account

      LoginRegister

      Statistics

      View Usage StatisticsView Google Analytics Statistics

      Bilkent University

      If you have trouble accessing this page and need to request an alternate format, contact the site administrator. Phone: (312) 290 1771
      © Bilkent University - Library IT

      Contact Us | Send Feedback | Off-Campus Access | Admin | Privacy