Dünyadaki kalkınma süreçleri incelendiğinde, her ülkenin kendine has özelliklere sahip, belli bir sistematiği olan bölgelere sahip olduğu görülmektedir. Bu bölgelerin ekonomik, fiziki ve sosyal şartlar bakımından barındırdığıfarklılıklar ülke genelinde bölgelerarasıgelişmişlik farklarına neden olmakta ve hem ülke çapında hem de bölgesel açıdan kalkınma düzeylerini etkileyebilmektedir. Bölgeler arasındaki gelişmişlik farklılığının şiddeti ülkeden ülkeye değişmekle birlikte, tüm ülkelerin yapısında genel olarak görülen bu eşitsizlik Türkiye’de de gözlemlenmektedir. Bu eşitsiz durumun ortadan kaldırılmasıiçin son dönemde bölgesel kalkınma politikalarına önem verilmektedir. Son yıllarda Türkiye’de yüksek ekonomik büyümeye rağmen bölgeler arasındaki büyük gelişmişlik farklarıhalen devam etmektedir. Bu farklarıminimum seviyeye indirmek amacıyla sürdürülmesi gereken önemli kamu politikalarından biri de kadın girişimciliğinin desteklenmesidir. Ancak kalkınma plan, program ve projelerine 1970’li yıllara kadar kadınlar genellikle dâhil edilmemiştir. Kadınıiçine almayan kalkınma projeleri hem ülke nüfusunun yarısınıgörmezden gelmekte hem de bu projelerin yoksulluğun azaltılmasıve sosyal adaletin sağlanmasıyönünde etkisi az olmaktadır. Bölgeler arasındaki eşitsizliği gidermenin temelinde bölge insanıve bölge kaynağıvardır. Bu boyutuyla, bölgesel kalkınmada girişimciliğin geliştirilmesi, dolayısıile bölgenin sahip olduğu potansiyellerin kalkınma sürecine entegre edilmesi son derece önemlidir. Bu potansiyellerden biri de kadın girişimciliğidir. Günümüzde gerçekleştirilen araştırmaların çoğunda, doğasıgereği pek çok alanda erkeklerden farklıbir bakışaçısına sahip olan kadınların gerek sosyal ilişkileri gerekse işve özel yaşamlarındaki dengeleyici faktörleriyle işhayatına başarıkattıklarısonucuna ulaşılmıştır. Kadın girişimciliği, kadınların kendi kazançlarınıelde ederek ekonomik bağımsızlıklarınıkazanmalarında önemli bir araç olmasının yanısıra kadınların işhayatına ve dolayısıyla ülke ve bölge ekonomisine katkılarıda yadsınamayan bir gerçektir. Kadınların toplumdaki statülerini yükseltme, ekonomik özgürlüklerini geliştirme gibi konularda önemli bir yere sahip olan kadın girişimciliğinin bölgesel kalkınma açısından öneminin incelenmesi çalışmamızın asıl amacınıoluşturmaktadır. Bu amaç doğrultusunda bölgesel kalkınmada kadın girişimciliğinin önemli olduğu konusundaki varsayımımızın geçerliliğini test etmek için daha önce bu konuda yapılan araştırmaların sonuçlarıanaliz edilecektir.

The wave of change that has come with the globalization process, has forced all of the countries to keep pace with this change, and the importance of the regions has increased in this context. Because of the fact that the regions are not only parts of the countries but also of the international system, the necessity of using local capacity and knowledge in the global competition is began to be mentioned frequently in the development literature. In order to achieve economic improvement and development as one of the main goals of a country, there must be equilibrium among the regions in terms of social welfare. However, the concentration of economic and social activities in certain centres has led to emergence of imbalances among the regions in terms of development. When development processes in the world are examined, each country seems to possess regions that own idiosyncratic characteristics and a certain systematic. The differences these regions have in terms of economic, physical and social conditions cause interregional disparities in terms of development across the country and affect level of development both country-wide and regionally. Apart from the fact that the severity of interregional disparities in terms of development changes from country to country, this inequality which is seen in the structure of all of the countries in general is observed also in Turkey. Recently, in order to eliminate this unequal situation, regional development policies are given importance. The elimination of these disparities is very important for increasing the chances of success for national development plans. For this reason, the regions primarily must put forward their own dynamics and achieve regional development by mobilizing these dynamics. Entrepreneurship, at this point, has an important function for eliminating regional inequalities. Entrepreneur, who is the main actor of entrepreneurial activity, plays a significant role in the inclusion of the potentials of the region to the development process. Since there is a positive linear correlation between entrepreneurship and economic growth, women entrepreneurship and thereby women employment must be encouraged in our country where there are huge interregional differences. There is a general consensus about the fact that regional development policies will make contribution to effective allocation of resources across the country by improving the economic and social structure; to integration of economic and social structure; to increase the contribution of regions to the overall growth, development, welfare and stability of the country; to strengthening social cohesion and equality, and acceleration of adaptation to the changing conditions of global competition. Because of the fact that the places where regional development policies are implemented are usually lagging behind the other regions in many respects, the improvement of sectors which they have relative advantage is extremely important in these regions. The mobilization of local dynamics and the inclusion of the potentials of the region to the regional development process, is possible thanks to entrepreneurs who are pursuing opportunities, transforming the idea of innovation to the organizational realities and providing important solution opportunities for the problem of unemployment because in the process of transition from industrial society to information society, human capital has become more important than the physical capital in terms of providing development. Since the realization of development in the strict sense is bound to bring natural resources, physical capital and labour force together effectively, having qualified manpower that has entrepreneurial ability is of particular importance at the point of bringing into practice these factors of production. In the countries with significant imbalances between regions, the inclusion of the people who don’t abstain from taking risk and responsibility, and who are creative and enterprising to the production process for creating an economic value, will play an important role in decreasing existing imbalances. The factor which must be mobilized in the realization of regional development is entrepreneurship and especially women entrepreneurship which is idle despite women constitutes half of the world population. In recent years, despite high economic growth in Turkey, major interregional differences in terms of development are still continuing. One of the important public policies that must be maintained in order to minimize these differences is to support women entrepreneurship. However, until 1970s, women are often not included in the plan, program and projects of development. Although women, who constitute half of the country population and also constitute the group most affected by poverty, bear the responsibility in all aspects of family and social life at least as much as men today as in the past, can’t benefit from the rewards of development equally with men. Development projects that don’t take into account women both ignore half of the population of the country and have less impact on poverty reduction and on securing the social justice. The people in the region and regional supply lie at the bottom of overcoming interregional inequalities. In this context, it is extremely important to improve entrepreneurship in the process of regional development and thus integrate the potentials that region has to the development process. One of these potentials is women entrepreneurship. Removal of the barriers entrepreneurs in general and women entrepreneurs in particular face is of great importance in terms of both regional and country economy. As a result of researches conducted, it is determined that the existing gender inequalities in developing countries hamper economic development. In most of the researches that are made in our time, it is stated that women that have a different point of view due to their nature, bring success to the business life both with their social relations and balancing characteristics in their business and private lives. In addition to the fact that women entrepreneurship is an important means for women to become financially independent by making their own money, it is a stubborn fact that it makes women to contribute to the economy of country and regional economy. The examination of the importance of women entrepreneurship notion, which has such an important place in the sense of upgrading the status of women in society and of improving their economic freedom etc. in terms of regional development, constitutes the ultimate goal of this study. For this purpose, in order to test our assumption about the issue that women entrepreneurship is important in regional development, the results of earlier researches on this issue will be analyzed