This chapter focuses on motivations, problems, and future needs of Turkish women entrepreneurs. The study uses a quantitative research methodology. A self-administered questionnaire is applied to a randomly selected group of urban women entrepreneurs in Antalya region, Turkey. One hundred and nineteen responses are statistically analyzed. Findings indicate that women entrepreneurs are driven mostly by psychological and economic motivators such as working independently, achieving economic independence, and doing the job she wants which suited her abilities. Obtaining capital is the primary problem they faced. In addition, the majority of women entrepreneurs need support in marketing and branding.
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As the number of working women increase, the role women entrepreneurs play in modernizing developing economies is of increasing importance. Accordingly, studies of women entrepreneurs in developing countries are rising dramatically (Minniti and Naude, 2010; Yadav and Unni, 2016). As a developing country, studies on women entrepreneurship have gained momentum in Turkey since 1990s. However, researchers still have no reliable data of how well Turkey is doing at empowering women's entrepreneurship. Growing rapidly, these studies are focused on analyzing women entrepreneurship in different aspects, such as work and family balance, factors related to work life, socio-demographic factors, patterns and characteristics of women entrepreneurs (Hisrich and Öztürk, 1999; Ufuk and Özgen, 2001; Çakıcı, 2006; Ecevit, 2007; Ökten, 2015; Cebeci, 2015; Fis et al., 2019).
Meanwhile, there has been an intense effort to create entrepreneurship awareness with the newly enacted laws of the state, entrepreneurship programs added to the curricula of universities and incubation centers and technology transfer offices opened by the private sector, innovative business idea programs and competitions in order to spread the entrepreneurship culture in Turkey for a decade. On the other hand, the state's development of financial support for women entrepreneurs and the establishment of public policies supporting women, especially in child care, are also important developments. This effort lead to an increase in the number of women entrepreneurs in the last decade. The number of women entrepreneurs was 41 thousand in 2000, it was 125 thousand in 2017 and approximately 142 thousand in 2018 (TURKSTAT, 2019). However, the share of women entrepreneurs in the total number is still very low. Intense efforts to create an entrepreneurial culture in the country from the recent past have also changed the contextual characteristics of women entrepreneurs. Past and current motivations for being an entrepreneur and the nature of the problems may differ. Therefore, this study aims to provide an overview of current women's entrepreneurship in Turkey before stepping into the 2020s and to investigate its nature and scope based on statistical and survey data.
Regarding the impact of women entrepreneurship on the growth and stability of Turkish economy, this study examines the motivations, problems and expectations facing women entrepreneurs in Antalya region in Turkey. There are three main research questions of the study. These are:
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What factors do motivate women entrepreneurs to establish their businesses?
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What challenges do women entrepreneurs face in the startup phase of their entrepreneurial activity?
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What are the main areas women entrepreneurs need support to conduct their businesses?
The study focuses on women entrepreneurs around Antalya region. Antalya city is the locomotive of Turkey's tourism sector, tourism-related service sectors and agriculture sector. It is Turkey's fifth largest city. Moreover, it is the 6th province of the country in total gross product. While the 2019 population was two million five hundred eleven thousand, 49% of this was women. Statistical data reveals that the rate of women employees in Antalya is higher than the average of Turkey. For example it is between 41- 45% on the average and is higher than the Turkey average of 30-36% in between 20-54 age groups (TURKSTAT, Regional Statistics, 2019). As of 2019, the number of women employees was 84,899, while the number of women employers was 9121. Although Antalya is one of the top 5 cities contributing to national economy, the number of studies focusing on women employees and entrepreneurs in the city is almost non-existent. Considering that the economic and sociological differences among regions have a great influence on women entrepreneurship, this region specific study can contribute to building a better understanding of women entrepreneurship dynamics in Turkey. As Kibler et al. (2014) emphasized, regional socio-economic characteristics significantly affect the emergence of business startup behavior.