Women entrepreneurs and rural tourism in Turkey: Challenges, opportunities, and solutions

The biggest challenges faced by rural women in entrepreneurship activities are lack of education, limitations in vocational training opportunities and lack of knowledge on marketing strategies. While these challenges constitute obstacles to the realization of rural women's entrepreneurial potential, difficulties in accessing property rights, difficulties in accessing financial resources and restrictions imposed by traditional social norms stand out as important obstacles to the rural development process in rural women's entrepreneurship in Turkey. In this context, in order for rural women to develop their entrepreneurial identities and take steps in accordance with social norms, education, financial support and policies that prevent discrimination against women entrepreneurs should be implemented. In this study, it is aimed that women entrepreneurship in rural areas plays an important role in the development process and strategies to overcome these obstacles are identified. Suggestions that can be developed in the context of Turkey are presented. © 2025, IGI Global Scientific Publishing.