CONFRONTING GENDER-BASED VIOLENCE ON THE CAMPUS: INSTITUTIONALIZATION OF THE SEXUAL VIOLENCE PREVENTION UNITS IN TURKISH UNIVERSITIES

Date

2024-5

Author

Özdemir, Simgenur

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Across the world and in Türkiye, university administrations have recognized the importance of creating gender-egalitarian environments to address sexual violence on campuses. Consequently, specific centers/units were established to develop and implement violence prevention strategies and awareness-raising activities. However, especially in Turkey, there is a significant gap in the existing literature regarding the effectiveness of these units, due to the lack of systematic data on sexual violence within university settings, attributed to hierarchical structures. In Türkiye, sexual violence and harassment prevention units have proliferated over the past decade, illustrating state-level commitment and the importance placed on gender and women’s studies programs. This thesis investigates the obstacles faced by these units since their establishment in terms of the recognition of their missions, routinization of their activities, and their effective functioning with sufficient ideational and resource support from their respective university administrations. Despite the relatively well- institutionalized nature of women’s studies centers, the study reveals the precarious nature of sexual violence prevention units in Turkish universities. The research compared the trajectories of these units' establishment, analyzing their missions and common grievances through secondary and primary sources such as reports, quantitative gender-equality indicators, and interviews with academics responsible for these units. It concludes that the institutionalization challenges of sexual violence prevention units in Turkey are influenced by cultural-attitudinal constraints related to gender equality, structural impediments in male-dominated academia, and the prevailing gender-conservative ideological atmosphere, including issues of gender balance in university administrations.

Subject Keywords

Sexual Violence Prevention Units (CTÖBs), Feminist Institutionalization, Women’s Studies, Male-Dominated Academia, Anti-Gender

URI

https://hdl.handle.net/11511/109789

Collections

Graduate School of Social Sciences, Thesis