Unlocking the Doors on the History of Women’s Poverty A Social View of Women’s Poverty in The Second Half of the 18th Century
Nazife GürhanKadın Yoksulluğunun Tarihine Kapı Aralamak-18. Yüzyılın İkinci Yarısında Kadın Yoksulluğunun Toplumsal Görünümleri
Nazife GürhanPoverty – with reference to the lowest layers of social hierarchies - can be defined as not having sufficient resources and income. In recent years, together with the increase in gender studies, researchers have started to use the conceptualization of female poverty, which emphasizes the gender differences in the ways women experience poverty. This concept differentiates between the poverty experiences of women and those of men, depending on their role and status in society. The main focus of this study is the poverty experiences of women who lived in Diyarbekir in the second half of the 18th century. The main data source of this study, which is a historical sociology research, was the seven registration books of the Amid Courts, which used to be located in the center of the province of Diyarbekir in that era. The aim of this study was to portray the lives of 119 women that (according to inheritance records obtained from the registration books), were determined as poor and thus shed light on the historical background of female poverty. It is possible to form an opinion regarding consumption habits and lifestyles by examining the contents of these inheritance records. This study attempts to understand what conditions these women lived in by investigating the household items that were listed in the inheritance records. In addition, through these records, it was possible to visualize their lifestyles and clothing choices and determine their eating habits by investigating the utensils listed in the records. According to the inheritance documents in the court records, out of 297 poor people, 119 were women and possessed 51% of the general wealth, whereas men possessed 57.5%. This is an indicator that women were the poorest in the society. The areas in which poverty was apparent were nutrition, shelter and clothing, all of which provides an insight into consumption patterns and daily life practices. Houses, in which everyday practices take place, and which contain important clues about life styles and consumption patterns, are important poverty symbols. The common feature of these houses which stands out as an indication of both poverty and distress is that they were dilapidated. Such dilapidated houses can be seen as the reflection of class differentiation in terms of shelter due to the value of these houses, their physical conditions and the fact that they contain cheap and very little furniture. Nutrition and eating habits is another area in which poverty and deprivation are symbolized and class differentiation becomes clear. A reflection of this differentiation in the kitchen is evidenced by both the scarcity and low value of kitchenware. It was observed that poor women had either little or no kitchenware in their houses.Clothes, which are significant as they reflect the social position of individuals as an exterior image of their financial wealth, present important clues about the socio-economic structure of an individual. The clothes of the poor women, like their kitchenware, were old and worn out. The fact that the clothes were old lowers their usage value and also symbolizes the expression of poverty which decreases their symbolic value. Thus, the houses of poor women were ruined houses in which there were cheap and few goods. The people living alone in these houses were poor, who didn’t have anything apart from some poor-quality clothes. In summary, it can be said that women, being the poorest element of society, experienced serious poverty and demonstrated that the phenomenon of “the feminization of poverty” also existed in the past.
