Women Workers in Turkey : Global Industrial Production in Istanbul

Globalisation is often considered as not only generating jobs, but also having a negative effect on those at the bottom of the labour supply chain. Here Saniye Dedeoglu shows us exactly how globalisation has affected women engaged in insecure, invisible and low/unpaid garment work. Through a close ethnographic study of women workers in Istanbul's garment industry, she reveals how industries have adapted their labour demands to make use of local female labour supplies, and highlights the strategies and responses that have evolved in response to contemporary changes in global industrial production in Turkey. Dedeoglu shows how production for global markets has seeped into local labour markets, contributing to a culture of work which is informal and whose participants are often invisible. "Women Workers in Turkey" throws up the critical question of what it means to be a woman in today's globalised society, and is an important contribution to the various perspectives on the social and economic consequences of globalization to the least priviliged in industrial socieities. Globalisation is a great generator of jobs, but one that does not protect those at the bottom of the labour supply chain. Saniye Dedeoglu's compelling study of women workers in Istanbul's garment industry shows exactly how globalisation has affected women engaged in insecure, invisible and low or unpaid work. She reveals how industries have adapted their labour demands to make use of local female labour supplies, and highlights the strategies and responses that have evolved in response to contemporary changes in global industrial production in Turkey. Dedeoglu shows how production for global markets has seeped into local labour markets, contributing to a culture of work which is informal and so throws up the critical question of what it means to be a woman in today's globalised society. This book illuminates key issues in sociology and gender studies, and makes an important contribution to the social and economic consequences of globalisation for the least privileged in industrial societies. Introduction Global industrial production and female employment The macro context: socio-economic change, labour markets and female employment in Turkey The garment industry in Istanbul and demand for female labour Women workers in Istanbul: factory women, atelier girls and pieceworker housewives Patriarchy, gender and labour supply in Gecekondu neighborhoods of Istanbul Women in the workplace: recruitment and mobility Conclusion. Globalisation is often considered as not only generating jobs, but also having a negative effect on those at the bottom of the labour supply chain. The author shows us exactly how globalisation has affected women engaged in insecure, invisible and low/unpaid garment work.