Political And Economic Approach Of Women Working In Executive Levels In The Service Sector: Ankara State Opera And Ballet (Asob) Case

Abstract

Political economy is related to how capitalist system works by means of distribution of economical and cultural sources which has also a connection between the circumstances of women’s working life. Because hegemony, which is reflected to hegemony’s ideology, constitutes its force by the mediation of the concepts: ‘discrimination’ and ‘segregation’. This force sometimes can effect women as both earning much less in some labor-force market, facing to harassment etc. and being obstructed to get top-level managerial positions in which institutes their work by means of political economy point of view.In this study, we will examine the art sector which is one of the sub-branches of service sector in the labor-force market. Our case is Ankara State Opera and Ballet (ASOB). In this case, we aim to display how the institution is founded, and accepted as a part of modernization with the beginning of Republic of Turkey and changed especially by means of political approaches in the last years.While doing this, we will elaborate the concepts of ‘discrimination’ and ‘segregation’ which issues women face in the labor-force market. Then, we will relate these three concepts with Antonio Gramsci’s ‘hegemony’ and Louis Althusser’s ‘ideology’, Michel Foucault’s ‘power’ and we will examine how women are assigned to the executive positions in the case of institution which we have chosen.We will study the circumstances which may be narrowed as; whether women are permitted to work in the top-level management or not, how many women have been worked in the top-level management in the history of the institution, if quantity has a meaning or not etc., by means of political economy.By the mediation of aforementioned subjects, we will analyse the reasons of women being prevented to work in the top-level management in the working life by economical, political and social aspects. Consequently, we will elaborate how political economy, in which implemented whole society's structure, creates hindrances for women in the working life.