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In the Ottoman period
women in rural communities labored in the fields. Depending of the
economic situation a
woman spent her day doing household chores or supervising the
servants and in most of
the cases [servants] were the persons to take care of the children.
In the Ottoman period,
Turkish family structure was patriarchal but the life for woman
outside
the four walls of her
house was limited. They had their own occasion when they could
socialize such as
weddings, henna night, engagements, visits to relatives… Visits to
the
public baths and to
cemeteries were frequent, and regarded as a woman's right.
At that time women were
allowed to earn a living with a condition of not getting involved
with men. The sorts of
employment for women from the city or from the rural areas
were embroidery and
weaving.
Medicine was an
important field for women, since social morals made it essential
that
women work in these
professions. Since few women were literate, midwives relied on
knowledge passed on to
them from their mothers or as trainees with an experienced
midwife.
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