INTERSECTION BETWEEN ETHNICITY AND MARITAL STATUS IN THE USAGE OF PUBLIC SPACE: THE CASE OF HIGH EDUCATED ARMENIAN WOMEN IN İSTANBUL

Date

2023-5-2

Author

Keresteci, Tomris Derya

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This study focuses on the relationship between ethno-religious identity, marital status, education level, and the use of public space. It aims to understand the relationships highly educated single Armenian women in İstanbul have with the city’s public spaces. Visibility, mobility, and access will be examined as three axes in the context of the use of public space. Making use of feminist methodology, this research examines the emotions and experiences of women in their everyday lives, focusing on their narratives. Through semi-structured, in-depth interviews with fifteen participants with university-level education and above, the study seeks to uncover their intersectional experiences between ethno-religious and gender identities in their spatial emotions in İstanbul. Fear, anxiety, safety, as well as comfort, freedom, belonging are analyzed in women’s public space experiences, focusing on their tactics and strategies for coping violence and discrimination. Henceforth, the study aims to highlight the agency of single Armenian women. Single Armenian women experience the fear of violence in public space in a multifaceted way. Their Armenian identity compounds the fear of sexual violence in public spaces. Nonetheless, women who persistently use public spaces are able to transform these spaces by asserting their presence. Education level is shown to ensure access to certain safe spaces in the city. As a result, this study aims to make visible the challenge to the gendered structure of public space by revealing the patriarchal relationships that shape space through fear and courage.

Subject Keywords

Public space, Armenian women, gender, marital status, high education

URI

https://hdl.handle.net/11511/103225

Collections

Graduate School of Social Sciences, Thesis