Women generally devote more time and money to their children’s education than men. As England and Folbre indicate, women put forth a significantly greater amount of hours of market work to help provide family income (England, 1999). They pay most of the cost, both in terms of money and time, to raise children (Yunus, 2007). Women that are able to support their families as a result of their entrepreneurial activities establish a sense of self-authorship. Self authorship is “characterized by internally generating and coordinating one’s beliefs, values, and internal loyalties rather than depending on external values, beliefs, and interpersonal loyalties” (Magolda et al., 2010, p. 4). Creamer (2010) also highlights that “[o]ne of the ways that Baxter Magolda has defined self-authorship is as ‘the ability to collect, interpret, and analyze information and reflect on ones’ own beliefs in order to form judgments’” (p. 207). However, Pizzolato (2007) offers a slightly broader definition of self-authorship that explicitly links self-authorship and action, taking the position that self-authorship involves reasoning and “action congruent with such reasoning” (p. 36). Pizzolato stresses that assessing reasoning is as important as assessing action to get a full description of the developmental gain. According to this concept, self-authorship in action is seen as women developing and strengthening their identity by joining the labor force, which increases their political influence. This situation is especially critical in developing countries, such as Turkey. With the help of technological advancements, labor intensive jobs will no longer be in demand as they were in the past.  In order to improve their economy, developing countries need to become competitive through producing more skilled, thus more educated, people. As such, developing countries should strive to create and secure an environment that encourages women to invest more on their own human capital in terms of extra years of education.  As a result, women will be able to enjoy future employment opportunities, which will increase their income.

Prodigy Stream (Emek Pınarı) is a project created in collaboration with a jewelry designer in Istanbul, Turkey and an economist residing in the United States.  Although initially developed for local residents of Istanbul, the project has grown to reach an international audience and currently has 48 participants. Prodigy Stream is a self-sustaining, non-profit project. The main objective of Prodigy Stream is to create a venue where women from different parts of Turkey, as well as around the developing world, can gain the ability to open up their own online stores (e.g., etsy.com) and earn their own money by selling handcrafted goods. For example, these women on average can make $488 per month, and this money is typically invested in their and their children’s education. The purpose of this research study is to understand the impact of Prodigy Stream. The research study seeks to address the following: (1) how the project impacts participants’ lives; and (2) how the project contributes to self-authorship development.

• Braunstein, Elissa. (2002). “Gender, FDI and Women’s Autonomy: A Research Note on Empirical Analysis.” Political Economy Research Institute. • Braunstein, Elissa. (2006). “Foreign Direct Investment, Development and gender Equity: A Review of Research and Policy.” United Nations Research Institute for Social Development. Occasional Paper 12. • Creswell, J. (2003). Research Design: Qualitative, Quantitative, and Mixed Methods Approaches (2nd ed). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. • Elson, Diane and Ruth Pearson. (1981). “Nimble Fingers Make Cheap Workers: An Analysis of Women’s Employment in Third World Export Manufacturing.” Feminist Review. 7:87-107. • Ross Michael. (2008). “Oil, Islam and Women.” American Political Science Review. 102(1): 107-123. • England, Paula and Nancy Folbre. (1999). “Who Should Pay for the Kids?” Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science. Vol. 562: 194-207. • Joekes, Susan. (1999). “ A Gender Analytical Perspective on Trade and Sustainable Development.” In UNCTAD, Trade, Sustainable Development and Gender. United Nations Conference on trade and Development (UNCTAD), New York and Geneva. • United Nations Centre on Transnational Corporations and the International Labour Office. 1985. Women Workers in Multinational Enterprises in Developing Countries. Geneva: ILO • United Nations Centre on Transnational Corporations and the International Labour Organisation. 1988. Economic and Social Effects of Multinational Enterprises in Export Processing Zones. Geneva: ILO. • Magolda, B. M., Creamer, E. G., and Meszaros, P. S. (2010). Development and Assessment of Self-Authorship: Exploring the Concept Across Cultures. Stylus Publishing, Sterling: VA. • “Maxims for Revolutionists” in Man and Superman (Cambridge, MA: The University Press, 1903). • Pizzolato, J. E. (2007). Assessing self-authorship. In P.S. Meszaros (Ed.), Self-authorship: Advancing students’ intellectual growth (pp. 31-42). New Directions for Teaching and Learning, No. 109. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. • Yunus, Muhammad. (2007). Creating a World Without Poverty: Social Business and the Future of Capitalism. PublicAffairs, Philadelphia: PA.