Abstract
The purpose of this research is to find out illiterate women’s reasons
for non-participation in literacy courses and factors behind these reasons
(social and cultural background). In this context, sub-problems of the research
are: (1) What are demographic
characteristics of illiterate women in Turkey? (2) What are the reasons of
these women’s for non-participation in literacy courses and what are the
factors behind these reasons? (3) Does the need of literacy skill change
according to the settlement? In the research, both quantitative and qualitative
methods were used. Statistical data show that illiteracy intensifies in female
population in terms of gender; in elderly population in terms of age and in
rural area in terms of settlement. Besides, women indicated factors such as
child care and home responsibilities, age and age-related reasons, fear of
failure, work-related reasons and disapproval of kith and kin as reasons for
non-participation in literacy courses. Of course, these reasons women mentioned
are important, but when considering background on which these reasons based,
patriarchal social structure, nature of oral culture surrounding daily life and
flow not demanding literacy became prominent. Considering settlement, home
responsibilities were mostly indicated by women living in the village; child
care was mostly indicated by women living in the squatter settlement and the
city center.