Local and non-local women entrepreneurship in rural Türkiye: Innovation, collective agency and human capital

Abstract

Women's entrepreneurship in tourism as a gendered practice and a form of empowerment has garnered much research interest. In the context of rural tourism, women entrepreneurs have to navigate a landscape marked by both potential opportunities and significant barriers produced by patriarchal norms. Building on interviews with 42 participants between 2017 and 2021, we examine how women entrepreneurs in the tourism sector frame their experiences and consider the challenges they face. Specifically, we study the differences between local and non-local women entrepreneurs. Our results indicate that both groups of participants shared similar constraints in their venture. To start, women have less access to financial resources and are incumbered by familial gender role expectations. In the absence of social policy provisions for women entrepreneurs, only women with enough resources such as savings or a family estate can enter and sustain their entrepreneurship. The results demonstrate that even women so favored face challenges and their entrepreneurship has not always been sustainable. The combination of patriarchy and resource-scarce environments perpetuates gender inequality in the entrepreneurial milieu. Still, participants consider this phase as their second life, where they feel empowered, however limited, to move away from the confines of the domestic realm and contribute to the larger society.