| Women's labor force participation rates in Turkey are low by international standards, even when compared to other countries at similar levels of economic development. Moreover, they have remained low since the introduction of export oriented manufacturing which, in many of Turkey's global peers, ushered in a new era of women's waged labor. Indeed, Turkey has only recently seen a rapid increase in women's labor force participation rates. This dissertation examines the rise of a new female workforce employed in low-wage interactive service industries in urban Turkey to highlight the transformation of women's employment trends and prevailing gender norms, prompted by the rise of an economy dominated by services rather than industrial production. This study, firstly investigates two related trends in women's employment in Turkey emerging in the context of globalization: the feminization of service employment and women's increasing labor force participation rates. It establishes the importance of the corporate retail sector in Turkey for explaining these joint trends. Second, based on fifteen months' field research in Istanbul, through both ethnography and in-depth interviews, this study examines the formation of a new stratum of female workers within the working class in Turkey. Corporate retail employers recruit and prepare this workforce in ways that appeal to the cultural tastes of their target consumers. Specifically, in order to ensure their appeal to those customers with secular orientations and westernized lifestyles, retail employers hire workers on the basis of their prior dispositions and physical appearance, creating a 'modern' female workforce. Meanwhile, the women making up this new service workforce develop new formulations of femininity on the sales floor. Third, by examining these women's work experiences and leisure practices in the new spaces of consumption, this study investigates changes in gender relations in urban Turkey. By exploring these processes of identity formation and gendered interactions, this dissertation reveals how prevailing gender norms in Turkey, which have historically barred women from working, have been destabilized. |
