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The purpose of this study is to explore beliefs and experiences of Turkish immigrant women in Norway related to body weight, nutrition and exercise practices.

This study has a qualitative research design. Ten semi-structured interviews and a focus group were conducted with a purposive sample of Turkish immigrant women residing in Oslo, Norway. Themes were identified in the transcripts using systematic text condensation.

Participants viewed Turkish women as more commonly overweight or obese compared to Norwegian women. Weight was discussed openly among Turkish women and a preference to lose weight, both as individuals and among community members more broadly, also emerged. For participants, this represented a generational shift. Participants identified their barriers to weight loss, including norms around socialization and food in their community and exercise and eating practices during the long Nordic winter.

Participants expressed a tension between concern about health impacts of overweight and obesity and the desire to uphold cultural practices around food. Weight-related health-care initiatives for Turkish immigrant women can take into account such experiences shaped by their interaction with multiple cultures.

Participants emphasized that perspectives about weight in their Turkish immigrant community were influenced by the transition toward thin weight ideals in Turkey. Self-image regarding weight was also situated within the context of being immigrants in Norway.

The purpose of this paper is to examine identity formation and networking practices relevant for high-technology entrepreneuring or the enactment of entrepreneurship in Silicon Valley by Turkish business people.

Guided by postcolonial feminist frameworks, the author conducted a combination of ethnographic and auto-ethnographic fieldwork at high-technology conferences in Silicon Valley by focussing on talk and text as relevant for understanding entrepreneuring. Through a reflexive stance, the author analyzed observations, conversations, and experiences inclusive of her own positionality during the research process as they related to entrepreneurial identity formation and networking.

During business networking conferences taking place among Turkish business people in Silicon Valley, women and older males became marginalized through the emergence of a hegemonic masculinity associated with young Turkish male entrepreneurs. In addition, local context impacted whether and how actors engaged in practices that produced marginalization and resistance simultaneously.

The research is of value for scholars interested in understanding how identity formation and networking in high-technology entrepreneuring take place through gendered practices and ideas. Scholars interested in deploying postcolonial feminist perspectives will also benefit by understanding how key analytic tools and research methods from these lenses can be used for conducting fieldwork in other contexts.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the career experiences of Turkish Cypriot women solicitors in Britain, by examining their choices of employment or self‐employment.

The study adopts a critical realist approach considering the macro‐contextual and micro‐agentic aspects of Turkish Cypriot women's career development. Applying “the instrumental case study” approach, it explores the career experiences of four Turkish Cypriot women solicitors. Case study material was collected through semi‐structured interviews.

The paper argues that one cannot talk of ethnic enclaves in positive or negative terms, without considering layered individual experience. Their life and career trajectory is marked by their ethnicity and migration that is characterised by dual processes of break with tradition and later return to tradition during which identities are tested and usually reaffirmed where Turkish Cypriots may rediscover their Turkish Cypriotness.

The study reveals that macro‐, meso‐ and micro‐effects are responsible for the polarisation of opportunities in the ethnic enclaves.

This paper draws in part from data of a larger study on marital lives and divorce of women of various ages and backgrounds residing in metropolitan Turkey. The aim of the overall study has been to understand various factors which have paved the ways leading to divorce and the research method used for the study is based on narrative analysis. An important finding of the study is the control of women’s sexuality which is discussed in this paper with the help of the narratives of three women who are raised by dominant fathers and by subordinated mothers. I argue that gender and generation hierarchies are hidden in the idealized image of family life in low- to middle-income families residing in suburban Turkey. Intergenerational conflicts arise due to three women’s oppression in their young ages by their fathers who have decided upon their marriages to control their sexuality. Yet, as young adults, the three women try to find ways to cope with the control of their sexuality. The analysis of the three women’s narratives reveal their endeavors either to challenge the idealized “virgin bride” norm or to get rid of their unwanted marriages through divorce or separation which can be considered as instances of women’s resistance to patriarchal domination and their search for individuation. How much resistance the three women are able to endeavor is dependent on the aspects of gendered interactions and on the embeddedness of ambivalences in gender role models in the patriarchal gender regime of Turkish society.

To discuss the gender dimension of migration and human rights, and to provide an assessment of how to improve human rights protections for migrant women workers in janitorial services and night clubs across registered and unregistered migrant women workers in North Cyprus.

A survey is done to establish the employment conditions of migrant women workers in both sectors. The conditions are evaluated to assess the compliance with North Cyprus labor and immigration legislation and international human rights protocols.

Registered and unregistered segment of the janitorial services and unregistered segment of sex industry are dominated by Turkish migrant women. The registered part of sex industry is dominated by Eastern European migrant women mostly due to the legislative framework within which these two activities operate, primarily with respect to immigration requirements and also as it pertains to the remunerative potential of activity. No evidences of human rights abuses of Turkish immigrants in either segment of the cleaning services sector are founded but lack of knowledge of their conditions in unregistered sex work. Eastern European migrants working in the registered segment of the sex industry suffer human rights and basic migrant rights abuses at the hands of the state and the employer.

Lack of knowledge of Turkish migrant women workers' conditions in unregistered segment of sex work limits the findings of the research. A survey across unregistered Turkish sex workers is suggested for future research.

Legalization of commercial sex among registered konsomatrices would provide an opportunity for labor rights legislation to be fully applied to their primary income‐earning activities. Most of the human and immigrant rights violations are the result of legislation applied to nightclubs and work visas for konsomatrices. Improvements in the legislation and work visas for konsomatrices would guarantee the women to have access to assistance in case of human rights violations.

The paper provides practical suggestion for the improvement of human rights protections for migrant women workers in North Cyprus.

This study aims to shed light on women’s entrepreneurship in Turkey by focusing on the profile of women entrepreneurs, key drivers behind their decision to establish their own business, challenges they face while initiating and running their business and support mechanisms for women entrepreneurs.

Semi-structured interviews were conducted by ten successful women entrepreneurs in Turkey. Survey forms were also sent to the representatives of four different organizations that support women entrepreneurship. Three completed survey forms were received back from these organizations. Four key areas that originate from the research question (i.e. profile, drivers, problems and support mechanisms) have constituted the basis of the semi-structured interview guide and that of thematic analysis.

The results have revealed that there are important similarities among Turkish women entrepreneurs with respect to their personality traits or characteristics. Successful women entrepreneurs in Turkey were described as being persistent and determined, patient, mentally strong and visionary and innovative. The interviews also revealed that exploiting unique opportunities in the business environment, working for the good of society and being independent in one’s decisions and actions are the major factors behind Turkish women entrepreneurs’ decision to become entrepreneurs. On the other hand, finding and managing capital emerged as the most important problem for women entrepreneurs in Turkey despite the existence of various support mechanisms. Finally, the findings showed that the majority of women entrepreneurs in Turkey use traditional ways (i.e. governmental and non-governmental support mechanisms and banks) to get financial support. Family members and business partners are the other sources of financial support, which may also provide moral support to women entrepreneurs.

The generalizability of the findings is limited, as the study is exploratory, rather than causal in nature.

This study provides certain recommendations to the interested parties, such as policymakers, to create a proper economic, social, political, cultural and legal environment for women in which they can freely and willingly go into and run business.

The paper fills an important gap in the literature by systematically reviewing the extant literature on women entrepreneurship in Turkey and combining and comparing the prior findings with qualitative data derived from the interviews with ten successful women entrepreneurs.

This paper aims to highlight secular and Islamic feminist approaches to entrepreneurship as potential means to challenge gender inequality in the Turkish context. In Turkey, gender equality remains elusive in a nation where secular and Islamic ideologies compete and produce different solutions to ongoing economic, socio-cultural and political issues. Women’s entrepreneurship has emerged as an important solution toward gender equality and economic development.

Using two women’s organizations that exemplify secular and Islamic feminist ideologies, the author examines whether the entrepreneurship activities they promote give way to challenging patriarchal norms, values and practices widespread in Turkish society.

Through their distinct practices and engagement with entrepreneurship, both secular and Islamic feminist positions allow for praxis and represent an ethico-political commitment to dismantling neo-liberal development ideologies in the Turkish context that perpetuate gender inequality.

Secular and Islamic feminist practices and entrepreneurship practices have different implications for achieving gender equality including changes in gender norms, economic development policies and women’s empowerment in a Muslim-majority country. In addition, it raises questions around the popular notion of “entrepreneurship as women’s empowerment”.

This paper is of value to scholars who want to understand secular and Islamic feminisms and their implications for challenging gender inequality. The Turkish context with its traditional and modern societal norms and values provides a rich case study to examine these issues through the exemplars of entrepreneurship. It is also of value to scholars who want to understand structural constraints associated with gender equality beyond individual-level challenges.

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the specific reasons for the Turkish women in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus not reaching the same level of achievement in the political sphere as their male counterparts. The aim is to draw attention to the extremely low participation of women in politics (6 per cent) and suggest possible solutions to increase it.

The study consists of interviews with seven women who played an active role in politics and who are still in the political arena as parliamentarians or ministers.

It was found that the major political problem of the island, “the Cyprus problem”, has had a significant impact on the confinement of women in the private sphere. In addition, the divided land constitutes a higher restriction on women. Moreover, gatherings in coffeehouses and the time of such meetings are important difficulties. Furthermore, the women's branches of the political parties constitute a serious barrier.

The study focuses on a part of a small island, Cyprus. Therefore, it was possible to interview only seven women politicians.

This paper is functional and interesting for those working with gender equality, particularly the obstacles that women face and their secondary role in the political arena.

This paper provides new empirical data on gender equity in the context of the Turkish Cypriots and critically analyzes the specific situation of women politicians living on the island.

While research on women entrepreneurs is extensive in developed countries, little has been done in this area in non‐OECD and developing economies. This research focuses on the characteristics, performance, and problems of women entrepreneurs in one developing economy – Turkey. The results indicate that while the women entrepreneurs exhibited many similarities with their counterparts in other countries they differed in other aspects such as in their reasons and motivation for starting a venture and problems encountered. These differences reflect in part the effect of a different social structure in a developing economy, particularly the impact of occupational segregation, wage disparity, and participation in a non‐supported sector of the economy. These findings suggest that the theories regarding women entrepreneurs based on developed economies need to be carefully examined before being applied to non‐OECD and developing economies.