Housewife :|woman with multiple identities

Abstract

This thesis examines the upper-middle class Turkish housewives with a focus on their practices and ideas. For this purpose, in-depth interviews were conducted with thirteen housewives between the ağe of fifty and sixty who have two children each. In this study, the housewife is ap-proached from three different identities: professional, mother and wife. For each of these, they were ğiven questions that revealed their daily practices as well as ğeneral perspectives. However, the main question of the thesis is whether each is satisfied with her housewifery. Althouğh they come from the same socio-economic backğround and live in similar conditions, they differ in the overall satisfaction with their housewife identity and their daily routines. The intention of this study is to reveal the topics that the interviewees think both in the same way, as well as in a different way. For the former part, it is assumed that the similarity is resulted from their common socio-economic class. For each subject that the participants vary in their answers, the potential factors (educational backğround, hometown, level of appreciation they receive) are checked. Amonğ these four elements (with the addition of their class), the most effective one is identified as the level of appreciation which has a direct correlation with women’s overall satisfaction with their housewife roles. Moreover, the influence of this element can also be observed in the an-swers ğiven to various questions. Överall, this thesis aims to contribute to the literature on housewives which stand for a population of twelve million in Turkey of 2019.