Gender Aspect Of Survival Strategies: Burdens That Financial Crises Create In Women’S Life In The Developing Countries

Studies show that crises effect women more than men, and in various forms. Crises cause women to become poorer, they make women more fragile in the labour market, deepen the gender division of labour, and hence sharpen the gender roles. In the last fifteen years, financial crises and post-crisis restructuring efforts in Asia, Latin America and Russia provided new hardships for women. Many women lost their jobs, most of the remaining witnessed deteriorating working conditions, migrant women workers were sent back to home countries, many girls left school and were usually forced to do informal work, and the in-house responsibilities of women increased dramatically. Today we are facing a global financial crisis which has started to deeply effect the Turkish economy also. This study tries to rethink the outcomes the crises for women by looking at the crises in developing countries in the 1990’s. Lessons from the experiences of these countries will be useful in order to predict the impacts of the current crisis on women in Turkey.