THE GENDER PERCEPTION OF TURKISH MODERNIZATION

Abstract

Gender refers to the social and cultural meanings imposed by the biological sexes of men and women. The biological differences between men and women have been given so many different meanings throughout human history. These different meanings that arise with cultural and social effects have led to the seperation of biological sex and gender definitions. We see that the gender of men and women is determined not only by biological features but also by cultural and social learnings. When we read this situation from the case of Turkey, we realize that the Ottoman and the Republican periods are experienced and discussed through different dimensions. In the last period of Ottoman Empire, in the context of modernization, women showed themselves with the first serious opposition. Especially women, who benefited from the media in this process very well, wrote important articles about women's human rights in daily newspapers and they also continued this strong stance with the associations they established. Although this positive attitude of Tanzimat and Second Constitutional reform eras was aimed to be continued, a kind of "controlled women's movement" emerged in connection with the activities carried out to improve the status and rights of women under the supervision of power. The state redesigned the demands coming from a certain part of the society within the framework of its reform and westernization. The arrangements made from top to bottom within the framework of state structuring project led to the ignorance of different women's lives and claims in the society and also to the inability of formation of an independent women's movement.