KADIN ÖRGÜTLERİNDE FARKLILAŞMA, AYRIŞMA VE ÖZERKLİK

Abstract

In the formation of the global women’s movement, which arose in the last quarter of the 20th century, associations, foundations, groups, collectives, cooperatives, platforms, and other similar organizations established by women in order to find solutions to women’s problems have played important roles and achieved significant g ains in the field of women’s rights and gender equality. Unlike the West, the feminist women’s movement in Turkey developed as a necessary component of the nationalization process and then lost its autonomy after national independence, but re-emerged in the 1980s and played an important role in the transformation of gender policies. Particularly with the rise of identity politics in the 1990s, the struggle carried out with the cooperation of women’s organizations that became widespread throughout the country made significant contributions to legal improvements and the democratization of women’s rights. However, along with the institutionalization of the women’s movement, project feminism, and identity politics, claims have been made that women’s organization s in Turkey have lost their independent and autonomous organizational structures per se and have turned into apolitical structures, generating intense criticism and debate in the literature. Although Eskişehir is among the Turkish provinces that can be con sidered to enjoy a relatively good situation in terms of gender equality indicators and data on women’s economic, social, and political statuses, there are relatively limited studies on women’s organizations there. In this context, the main purpose of this study is to examine the organizational structures, aims, fields of activity, and capacity for developing independent discourses and policies of women’s organizations operating in Eskişehir. The paper draws upon the findings of qualitative research entailing the thematic analysis of 38 semi-structured interviews. The participants included in this research were women who were administrators, spokeswomen, or members of any organization claiming involvement with the women’s movement in Eskişehir, or independent prominent women in Eskişehir taking part in the women’s movement. Participants were divided into three analytical groups based on the similarities and differences that emerged according to the themes, and the findings are presented comparatively for these groups in the context of the historical background, associating them with the historical development of the women’s movement and feminism in Turkey. The findings show that women’s organizations with different ideologies and identities are rarely in contact with each other, but they usually tend to maintain relations with organizations that are socially and politically closer to their own positions. Hence, they find it difficult to reach the point of common interest that is vital for an autonomous feminist movement in order to challenge unequal relations produced and reproduced by men.