Engelleri Aşmak ve Fırsatları Yakalamak: İstanbul'da Kadın Girişimciler (2018–2023)

Abstract

Kadın girişimciliği ve onu destekleyen kamu ve özel sektör mekanizmaları, ekonomiyi canlandırmak, iş dünyasında çeşitliliği artırmak ve toplumsal cinsiyet eşitliğini sağlamakta önemli bir rol oynar. Ancak, bu avantajlara rağmen kadın girişimcilik birçok ekonomik ve toplumsal kırılganlık barındırmaktadır. Bu avantajlar ve kırılganlıklar, kadınlar için girişimciliği cazip veya itici faktörler haline getirmektedir. İstanbul’daki kadın girişimciler üzerine odaklanan bu çalışma, 2018-2023 yılları arasında kadın girişimciliğindeki fırsat ve engelleri inceler. İstanbul Kadıköy ilçesinde, 34-58 yaşları arasındaki 13 kadın girişimci ile 2018 yılında yapılan derinlemesine görüşmeler, aynı kişilerle 2023’te tekrarlanarak deneyimlerinin karşılaştırmalı bir analizi yapılmıştır. Danışmanlık, servis sektörü ve sigorta gibi alanlarda mikro veya küçük işletme sahibi olan bu kadınların deneyimleri üzerinden girişimciliğin avantaj ve dezavantajları, ev içi işler ve mekan ile kurdukları ilişkiler incelenmiştir. Bulgular, kadın girişimciliğinin kadınları güçlendirdiğini ve istihdamı artırdığını; ancak siyasal ve ekonomik gelişmelerden en fazla etkilenen kırılgan bir alan olarak kaldığını göstermektedir.

Keywords

• Kadın girişimciliği
• girişimci kadınlar
• engeller
• fırsatlar

Gender, Space, and Women’s Entrepreneurship: A Case Study in Kadıköy, İstanbul (2018–2023)

Abstract

This study explores the evolving dynamics of women’s entrepreneurship in Kadıköy, Istanbul between 2018 and 2023, focusing on how structural inequalities, spatial context, and socio-economic crises shape women’s entrepreneurial trajectories. Based on two rounds of in-depth interviews with thirteen women entrepreneurs, the research highlights the persistent challenges posed by limited institutional support, gendered expectations, and economic volatility, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent inflationary period. While entrepreneurship is often framed as a pathway to empowerment, the findings show that it simultaneously reproduces precarity through unpaid care responsibilities, gendered moral norms, and spatially contingent access to opportunities. Women’s strategies of resilience such as resource-sharing and adapting business models, reflect individual ingenuity, but also reveal the lack of systemic support for gender-equitable entrepreneurship. The study emphasizes the importance of intersectional and place-based approaches to understanding how gender, class, and space interact to shape entrepreneurial agency in neoliberal and patriarchal contexts.

Keywords

• Women’s entrepreneurship
• gender
• space
• women entrepreneurs in Türkiye
• COVID-19

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