The impact of regional development agencies operating in the provinces within the scope of the Eastern Anatolia Project (DAP region) on women's employment

Development does not occur everywhere at the same time and rate. The level of development can also vary between countries and even between different regions of the same country. While these regional inequalities are high in some regions, they are lower in some regions. In our country, the regions are divided into 26 regions as Level-2. When the socio-economic development level of the five Level-2 regions within the scope of the Eastern Anatolia Project (DAP) is examined, it is seen that they are at the second to last level of development.The regional development agencies, which were established to eliminate the interregional and intraregional imbalances, played a great role here. When we look at the provinces of the DAP region, women's employment is negatively affected due to the dominance of a patriarchal social structure, the pressures of the gender role, the sexist division of labor policies, and the inability to develop the unique characteristics of the region. In order for the development agencies to overcome the negativities, the conditions of the region should be well understood and evaluated and the studies should be shifted in this direction. In-depth interviews were conducted with 25 female participants selected through snowball sampling, who received support from the development agencies of the DAP Region, and questions were asked. The processing of the interview data was carried out with the coding method. Based on the opinions of the women participants benefiting from the supports, it is aimed to first understand the effects and adequacy of the development agencies on women's employment, and then to make determinations and suggestions about the subject. It was aimed to strengthen the purpose of the study by sharing the positive effects, criticisms and suggestions of the agency support to the participants. In addition, it is thought that the problems of women living in the region will be tried to be explained by the women participants in the region and the regulations made in terms of women's employment will shed light on where to focus more. As a result of the findings obtained by the coding analysis, benefits were obtained in the fields of specialization, productivity increase and entrepreneurship as the benefits obtained with the support of development agencies. As a result of the findings, the reason for the most benefiting from the field of specialization is that the majority of women benefiting from educational supports. Most of the participants stated that they had difficulties with qualified and permanent personnel, they did not experience any difficulties during the application, and this was due to the interest and relevance of the agency personnel, but the agency did not provide sufficient support, at least according to the conditions of the time. The problem of women's employment in the region was emphasized on the importance of education. It has been mentioned and criticized that women who want to work in the region do not know where to start due to their low level of education, and women's employment is negative due to reasons such as the patriarchal society structure and trying to discourage those who do, with the responsibility of home, family and children on women.