Gendering the individual and the population : patriarchal production of gendered subjectivities in political thought in early Republican Turkey

Download
2006
Yeğenoğlu, Metin
The main aim in this study is to understand how gendered subjectivities are constructed in political thought in early republican Turkey. In this respect, problematizations on gender, the main themes utilized in these problematizations and the operation of patriarchy in these intellectual activities are analyzed in the study. In doing so, the texts published in eight journals between 1929-1946 are examined employing a post-structuralist feminist theoretical framework, to which clarifications are proposed drawing on the works of Michel Foucault and Hannah Arendt to make it befit the particular aims of the study. It is argued in the study that the political discourses prevalent in early republican era utilized gender in producing utility and docility from individuals and in advancing the population quantitatively and qualitatively. At the heart of the problematizations and discourses on gender differences was the aim of structuring the public and private lives of the individual men and women in such a way that they become politically, socially, economically, culturally and, most importantly, biologically productive. This led to a transformation in the models governing theforms of patriarchal production of and control on gendered individuals and patriarchal power relations began to be modeled after disciplinary power, instead of sovereign power, that is (re)public(an) patriarchy began to become the dominant form, instead of private patriarchy. As a result, new forms of social control and new frameworks for organizing the roles of individual women and men in public, social and private realms emerged.

Suggestions

UNDP's approach to women's rights: dthe case of Turkey
Devlet, Yelda; Ertürk, Yakın; Department of Gender and Women's Studies (2006)
This study has focused on UNDP’s approach to women’s rights particularly in Turkey. In order to provide a context for the discussion of the role of the UNDP in Turkey on the realization of women’s rights, the thesis examines the emergence of women’s rights discourse within the international arena and its repercussions in Turkey. This has facilitated the understanding of (1) the emergence of a women’s rights movement at the global level, (2) the spread of the idea and perception of ‘women’s rights’ movement ...
Changing discourse on women and islam in Turkey in ethnographic studies
Onur, Petek; Saktanber, Ayşe Nur; Department of Sociology (2016)
This thesis provides an analysis of the change of ethnographic discourse on women and Islam in Turkey. Based on the theoretical framework of feminist postcolonial theory it analyses the ethnographic studies as texts and focuses on the concepts of subjectivity, subalternnes, otherness, and agency in Muslim women's discursive representations and binarism, Eurocentricism, essentialism in the way discourse is produced. It adopts Michel Foucault’s theorization of discourse, knowledge and power as a methodology t...
Faith-based welfare provision to women in Konya
Tekten, Zeynep Serap; Beşpınar Akgüner, Fatma Umut; Department of Social Policy (2014)
The main objective of this study is to examine faith-based welfare provision in Konya from a gender perspective. FBOs’ assumptions and ideology about the nature of women’s poverty and the mechanisms FBOs use to alleviate women’s poverty is discussed. Women, and especially single women, take priority in receiving assistance from FBOs in Konya. The reasons for giving priority to women are based on patriarchal and religious reasoning. Women are prioritised for their caretaker roles as well as their symbolic st...
Feminist solidarity: possibility of feminism in solidarity practices
Astarcıoğlu Bilginer, Sibel; Ecevit, Fatma Yıldız; Department of Sociology (2009)
In this study, possibility of establishing feminist solidarity, sustained and based on feminist politics in Turkey is examined. Commonality discourse, the notion of sisterhood and identity politics, creating illusionary homogeneity are criticized of being exclusionary and limiting. Contemporary accounts of feminist solidarity are investigated in order to find a way out for establishing solidarity across difference. However, it is seen that these contemporary approaches are far from designating a driving for...
Immigrant domestic women workers in Ankara and Istanbul
Çelik, Nihal; Ecevit, Fatma Yıldız; Department of Sociology (2005)
This study focuses on the relationship between global economy and women̕s labor within a feminist standpoint by examining the personal and occupational experiences of immigrant women doing domestic work in Turkey. The main concern of this study is to investigate how working and living experiences of immigrant domestic women workers in Turkey are shaped by their illegal worker and immigrant status. The aim of this study is to listen to the personal experiences of immigrant domestic women workers from themsel...
Citation Formats
M. Yeğenoğlu, “Gendering the individual and the population : patriarchal production of gendered subjectivities in political thought in early Republican Turkey,” M.S. - Master of Science, Middle East Technical University, 2006.