Unfolding the invisibility of women without men in the case of Turkey Şemsa Özar a , Burcu Yakut-Cakar b, ⁎ a Boğaziçi University, Department of Economics, Guney Kampus, Bebek, İstanbul, Turkey b Kocaeli University, School of Health, Umuttepe Kampüs, Kocaeli, Turkey article info synopsis Available online 15 May 2013 Esping-Andersen's “welfare regime” approach has been criticized on different accounts. Most prominently, Orloff emphasizes its ignorance of the relationship between gender-based in- equalities and social policies. Her contribution in gendering the welfare regimes is extremely valid in understanding the case of Turkey. Only a very limited number of women who are formally employed are entitled to take part in the social security system as subjects (the actively insured) in Turkey. Thus, the majority of women are either totally excluded or included in the system by means of their husbands or fathers (a male member of their family), primarily as dependants of men reflecting the gender roles attributed to men and women within the society. In this setting, those women who are not under the protection of any form of social security scheme face increased vulnerability when divorced, deserted or widowed. We argue that women without men often go unnoticed by or frankly invisible from the domain of social policies in general since existing set of policies and their everyday practices are far from providing support to this group of women. Our main aim in this paper is to disclose the circumstances as to how women without men live in Turkey. We show the ways in which material conditions, and norms and values of the society make life difficult to cope with for this group of women. By doing so, we intend to demonstrate not only the discriminatory and gender biased nature of the welfare regime in Turkey, but also, and maybe more importantly, the gendered construction of norms and attitudes towards women without men in the society. © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Introduction In the last quarter of 2011, the Prime Minister of Turkey, Mr. Erdoğan, announced that starting in 2012, the Ministry of Family and Social Policy would launch a cash transfer program targeting poor widowed women lacking social security coverage. Such a categorical social assistance scheme, targeting a particular group of women in Turkey could be regarded as the first of its kind since it is indicating a shift of welfare responsibilities from the family to the state, seemingly defamilializing the welfare services. The motivation was primarily based on the increasing demand for social assistance coming from a specific set of women whose male partners, formerly breadwinners of the households, no longer exist in their daily life. In this new context, these women without men seem to be impoverished rather than being able to form and sustain autonomous households by themselves. Women's inability to maintain a living is related very much with gender division of both paid and unpaid work as well as peculiarities of the welfare regime in Turkey. The “welfare regime” approach that emerged following Gøsta Esping-Andersen's work entitled “Three Worlds of Welfare Capitalism” (1990) guided a wide circle of debate in academic literature in the area of social policy. The concept of welfare regime in national contexts refers to the institutionalization of welfare services shared between state, market and family/household. Addressing the institutional context in a generalized framework, Esping-Andersen's basic Women's Studies International Forum 41 (2013) 24–34 ⁎ Corresponding author. 0277-5395/$ – see front matter © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.wsif.2013.03.010 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Women's Studies International Forum journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/wsif