Labour informality, patriarchal gender regimes and neoliberalism in Turkey

The transition to neoliberalism has brought considerable changes to the organisations of production processes and labour conditions. In the neoliberal era, capitalist production has become more global and flexible, standard notions of permanent work have eroded, the power of labour has weakened, and labour has become more precarious. During this phase, the number of women in employment has increased, especially in labour-intensive and/or export-oriented sectors in developing countries, and patriarchal gender norms have been used as a means to legitimise and reinforce the informalisation of labour. This chapter examines the processes of informalisation and feminisation of labour in relation to each other, with specific reference to Turkey. It illustrates that neoliberal transformation of labour relations is closely linked with patriarchal gender regimes.