Women Workers in Turkey

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.