Just a Progressive Step: Women’s Empowerment in Turkish Microcredit Practices

Yeşim Pınar Soykut-Sarıca; Elif Cagli-Kaynak; Esra Bal

doi:10.30827/tsg-gsw.v9i17.8303

Autores/as

Yeşim Pınar Soykut-Sarıca İstanbul Işık University
Elif Cagli-Kaynak İstanbul Kent Üniversitesi
Esra Bal İstanbul Işık University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.30827/tsg-gsw.v9i17.8303

Palabras clave:

Microcredit, empowerment, Turkey, women

Resumen

In developing countries, the economic potential of women has long been under-utilized as a means of lifting households and communities out of poverty. In this respect, microcredit schemes offer an innovative form of social welfare, widely accessible to women. This study examines one such program from the Turkish context: the Maya Enterprise for Micro Finance, a conditional credit opportunity for women to start and/or develop their own businesses, granted by the Foundation for the Support of Women’s Work (KEDV). Our study aimed to explore the impact of KEDV's credit transfer scheme on the lives of users, especially in terms of the psychological and economic empowerment of women. Deploying a mixed methods research strategy, we administered and analyzed quantitative surveys (n=336) in order to determine the perceptions, thoughts, insights and reactions of KEDV program users, also conducting qualitative interviews with 21 participants. Our findings indicate that the program was influential in empowering women by increasing their self-confidence and changing their relationship with other people in the household.

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Biografía del autor/a

Yeşim Pınar Soykut-Sarıca, İstanbul Işık University

Dra. Yeşim Pınar Soykut Sarıca is an Associate Professor at Işık University, Management Department. Her research areas are labour relations and social politics. She conducted funded scientific research projects on fields like employee and industrial relations in Turkey and microcredits for women. She has also worked as a short term consultant with FSWW (the Foundation for the Support of Women's Work). She has several articles in national and international journals and is the author of books and book chapters in the field.

Elif Cagli-Kaynak, İstanbul Kent Üniversitesi

Dra. Elif Çağlı is an Assistant Professor at Istanbul Kent University, Public Administration and Political Science Department. She graduated from Istanbul University. She has some articles in national and international journals. Her research areas are: Body politics, Gender Studies, Political Science.

Esra Bal, İstanbul Işık University

Dr. Esra Bal, works at Isık University as a research assistant and received a doctor’s degree from Business Administration at Istanbul University. She has some articles in national and international journals. Her research areas are: Enterprenuership, International Trade.

esra.bal@isikun.edu.tr

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