Feminist Perspective on Women’s Museums in Turkey: İzmir Case

Museums appeared as modern institutions in the nineteenth century. Historical transitions such as the Enlightenment, emergence of scientific conceptions based on principal of universality and preservation of dominant ideology (such as imperialism, nation building) affected the context of modern museums. Hence, museums clearly indicate the inclusion and exclusion mechanisms of modernity. The changing nature of history through pluralization opened new spaces for women, children, workers, ethnic and religious communities as well as other silenced people. Thus, women’s museums reflect the flux of identity, alternative history and representation of mundaneness. Turkey’s first women’s museum, Women’s Museum Istanbul, was established as a virtual museum in 2012. The first women’s museum to have an actual location, however, came in 2014 in Izmir. Women’s museums ensure visibility of women contributing to the feminist movement. Feminist critiques indicate that men and women in the classical museum are not represented based on equality principle; on the contrary, exhibitions of gender relations are hierarchical, and the roles of women are secondary to those of men. Apart from gender roles, women’s museums are also important for representation of women, since the issue of women who are represented and women who are excluded, is also subject of feminist debate. Women’s museums, considered in relation to collective memory and can be differentiated from historical experience. This paper thereby tries to evaluate opportunities and limitations of women’s representation in the case study of Turkey’s first women’s museum in Izmir.