Our MA Student Besra Betül Akın Presented at the 16th Annual Gender, Work & Organization Conference

Our Sociology MA student Besra Betül Akın presented the paper titled “Negotiating Subjectivity and Precarity: Women's Entrepreneurship, Resilience, and Self-Actualization in Türkiye”, co-authored with our Sociology PhD alumna Dr. Nesibe Demir and our Sociology MA student İrem Üstün, at the 16th Gender, Work & Organization (GWO) Conference online via zoom, on 8th June 2026, one of the leading international academic conferences in the fields of gender, work, and organization.

The paper is based on the findings of a qualitative field study conducted with 58 women in Kayseri as part of the “Women's Labor in the Private and Public Spheres in Türkiye” project carried out by KADEM. The research examines women's entrepreneurship not merely as an economic activity, but as a multilayered experience shaped by precarity, gender inequalities, resilience, and processes of subjectivity. 

The findings demonstrate that women create new economic spaces through social solidarity networks, cooperatives, and digital platforms in response to the structural barriers they encounter in the formal labor market. The study further highlights that entrepreneurship represents not only an economic endeavor but also a struggle for survival, economic independence, and self-actualization.

By offering original, field-based insights into women's entrepreneurship in Türkiye, the paper attracted considerable interest within the international academic community.