Women entrepreneurs benefiting from public supports: Case of Ankara province

Women entrepreneurship is recognized as an important factor in growth and development because of the new economic values and opportunities that will be created in an environment of increasing competition due to globalization. The efforts to be carried out by the public, private sector and non-governmental organizations in order to support and encourage the entrepreneurship of women, which constitute half of the national population, for the sake of contributing to economic and social development of Turkey and to strengthen the existing women entrepreneurs and integrate them with the world market that has become a global village are very important. Considering that Turkey economy, it is important to emphasize that the way to grow the economy, to reach prosperity, to activate the unused potential of women, and to create new jobs is through encouraging women's entrepreneurial activities. The purpose of this research is to examine what kind of projects the entrepreneurial women who have received support from various institutions living in Ankara, how they have established their businesses and what kind of obstacles they encounter based on their experience. In this study, qualitative research method is utilised, and phenomenological research strategy is applied to execute this qualitative study. In addition, interviews with 15 women entrepreneurs have been conducted through in-depth interview method by using semi-structured interview forms prepared by the researcher. In order to reach participants, NGOs particularly working in this field were visited and during these visits, some of these entrepreneur women were accessed, and later on other participants were accessed thanks to the guidance of these women who had been supported previously. As a result of this research, it is observed that along with gender-based obstacles and problems, women encounter obstacles arising from lack of capital, bureaucratic problems, education and organisation, and in the meantime, there is no institutional support that extensively supports women entrepreneurship, ensures and promotes its sustainability. Consultancy, grant, credit, mentorship and etc. supports received by women entrepreneurs during the process of establishing and executing their own businesses encourage them throughout this process. However, it is seen that the problems occurred because of the supporting institution while taking advantage of those public supports particularly effect women entrepreneurs' motivations in so much that they give up to receive this support. Acquired results show that there is no institutional support that supports women entrepreneurship widely, provides its sustainability and promotes it. Therefore, the concept of women entrepreneurship and the women entrepreneurs' benefits to society will be examined in detail in this study. Women's status in working life, the characteristics and types of women entrepreneurship, comparison of men and women entrepreneurship, the problems and obstacles thereof, women's entrepreneurship in the world and Turkey, and public institutions and organizations, non-governmental organizations, and international organizations supporting women entrepreneurship were examined under separate headings.