Implications of Financial Literacy on Women Entrepreneurship in Turkey

The concept of women entrepreneurship and its relation to broader issues such as social innovation, wealth accumulation, and community building has been a popular arena for research. This research aims to explore Turkey (regional) representative women's expectations of future, values, attitudes and beliefs about finance, knowledge of financial instruments, saving and financial instrument utilization. A sample of 1574 urban women aged between 25-46, from 12 major cities has been interviewed with a CATI technique. The research points out to a crucial finding about the necessity of economic awareness and empowerment of women in utilizing financial instruments for the development of women entrepreneurship within the Turkish context. Regional analysis of the data shows that women in the East Turkey and Black sea region of Turkey are less privileged about financial literacy awareness and financial instruments utilization. Savings are primarily investments for future security followed by money for house purchase and children's education plans rather than business setting plans. Results comply with OECD findings in the sense that financial knowledge among women is low and In terms of values and future expectations, the sample shows that women have a fatalistic worldview in terms of business set ups. As call for action, this fatalistic belief of Turkish women about money has to be changed to initiate initiative and risk taking behaviors of women to encourage women entrepreneurship coupled with more knowledge acquisition on financial instruments and literacy. Thus, basic financial education plan has to be set in motion to increase level of financial literacy among women.