ABSTRACT
As tourism had developed during the 1980s and 1990s, Göreme and the wider Cappadocia region had remained a pocket of Islamic social conservatism. With codes of honour and shame upholding a gendered spatial separation so that women’s lives and practices were spatially centred in and around the household, tourism business initially became almost entirely the domain of men, and women were largely separated from tourists and tourism activity. This chapter focuses on the shifting gender roles and relations that occurred particularly during the past two decades, with local women becoming increasingly involved in tourism, gaining employment in hotels and guest houses, and some even embarking on entrepreneurial activities, such as making and selling jewellery to tourists, running cafes and restaurants, or offering Turkish cooking classes. This chapter discusses the part that tourism has played, along with other aspects of social change and reforms regarding gender equality and education, in shifting the gendered spatial and moral boundaries in Göreme. The discussion outlines women’s ability to ‘craft new selves’, either directly through tourism work and entrepreneurship, or indirectly through the increased wealth from tourism affording girls and young women improved education, career, and livelihood prospects when compared with previous generations.
