Women Carpet Weavers in Rural Turkey

Handwoven carpets, which represent a major export in Turkey's trade, are mostly produced by rural women employed in home-based industries and working independently or in small workshops. This workforce is not accounted for in national employment statistics, nor do the women weavers perceive themselves as workers. Weaving is carried out as a sideline to agricultural work and is tightly controlled by patriarchal family relations and by traders supplying the export industry. However, income derived from weaving can represent a substantial contribution to household subsistence, notably in poor and.