The workers of the factory home

This study aims to examine the dynamic and complex relationship between capitalism and patriarchy in the case of home-based working activities of Turkish women recently. We will introduce a specific field research about life and working conditions of home-based working women which took place in a shanty town in Izmir, Turkey. The introduction process will first focus on the methods of the field research. Second, it will be asserted that the originality of home-based work in terms of the complex dialectic relationship between capitalism and patriarchy: the unity of production and reproduction processes inside the household. In this type of work, these processes are also degraded by the very interests of individual capitals and male-dominated/patriarchal gender practices. Third, in the light of our specific field research we will explore the social/historical/theoretical roots of this originality of home-based work comprehensively. In this section, it will be argued that traditional/feudal male domination has been slightly losing its strength via money making activities of these women in slam areas of big cities. Finally, it will be asserted that in order to prevent these women’s labour from being devaluated and invisible, it is crucial to identify home-based working women as new members of working class.