The importance and contribution of woman in economic development

This thesis aims to provide an analysis of the role of women in economic progress and their contribution to the process of development. In the first part of the study, economic development leading to the transformation and progress of a society and the increasing influence of women in economic, social and political areas are mentioned. This section is concluded with the evaluation of the relation between economic development and employement of women in the work force.The second part of the study presents theoretical approaches related to the supply of labor force by women with an emphasis on the concept of discrimination against women being a notion as ancient as the history of mankind itself. In addition to this observation, several theories and models associated with discrimination and its negative effect upon women?s potential in the labor force are examined.In the last section, the importance of rising education levels for the diminution of the differences among genders allowing women to participate and increase their efficiency in economic development is highlighted. Also, women?s initiatives creating employment in poorly invested sectors attempting to protect disappearing merits in the society along with favoring progress in economy is stated as the most significant value added by women into entrepreneurship. Analyses regarding the contribution of women to overall employment and sectoral accretion values in Turkey depict that women still can not benefit from employment opportunities equally with men thus the potential addition of their work force to progress in recruitment and sectoral value growth remains limited.Key words: Economic Development, Employment of Women, Theoretical Analysis of Labor Supply, Feminist Economics and Discrimination, Microcredit.