The barriers and opportunities of Turkish women entrepreneurs to become international entrepreneurs: The case of Malatya province

Women have assumed many roles in the historical process from the existence of humanity to the present day. As of the century we live in, changes in social and cultural fields, developments in economy and technology in the world and in Turkey have increased the ratio of women in working life and enabled women to take on new role models. One of these new role models is entrepreneurship. As in most countries of the world, various programs, projects and studies are carried out through many national and international organizations in order to support women's entrepreneurship in our country. Thanks to the developments in the socio-economic level throughout the country and the projects that support women's entrepreneurship, the number of women entrepreneurs is increasing throughout the country, although not at the desired rate. By the way, women can be seen in the international arena, albeit to a limited extent, but their number in this area is quite low compared to their local visibility. The question asked in this research is: Why is the number of women entrepreneurs low when it comes to international entrepreneurship? What are the obstacles that women entrepreneurs face when entering the international arena? Purpose of the research; The aim is to reveal the obstacles and opportunities that Turkish women entrepreneurs face towards becoming international entrepreneurs. In order to achieve this aim, the phenomenon was tried to be explained by using the phenomenology (phenomenology) pattern, one of the qualitative research techniques. The data were collected through interviews with the help of a semi-structured interview form developed by the researcher. In the interviews, women belonging to various professions, living in Malatya, and entrepreneurs at certain periods of their lives were interviewed. The obtained data were analyzed with the help of maxquda program. As a result of these analyzes, while the biggest obstacle to being a female entrepreneur in the local area is gender discrimination, the excess of legal processes and procedures, language problem, and lack of information are seen as the first obstacles in the international arena. Key Words: Entrepreneurship, Women Entrepreneur, İnternational Entrepreneurship, İnternational Women Entrepreneur.