The new actors of women’s movement: women NGOs and their potentials

The original article was published on June 30, 2011. https://dergipark.org.tr/en/pub/eja/article/620890

Erratum Note

The first version of this article was previously presented at the International Multidisciplinary Congress of Women, themed around “Women in the 21st Century Change and Empowerment” (October 13-16, 2009, Izmir). This presentation has been printed in the proceedings book. The research data is based on the author’s doctoral thesis.

Abstract

It is known that neo-liberal policies are effective in the reawakening of concepts such as civil society and civil society organizations. In addition, it is mostly ignored that women’s civil society organizations’ potential of reflecting discriminations make feminist movements visible. Civil society organizations of women have gotten into the process of differentiation and multiplication in the sense of both issues they are dealing with and places they operate in. The centre of the women movement spreads from big cities to peripheral centers. The feminist movement is no longer the movement of a specific class or ethnicity but rather includes groups and compositions that have different features. In the context of the Turkish nation and supranational women, sensitive actors and gender-blindness of mere political struggle contribute to this process. As Iris Marion Young has asserted, although civil society helps groups that have material and organizational power to sustain their social advantages, civil society and civil society organizations, in private, support democratic virtues. In this sense, civil society organizations of women which have different economical and social capital can contribute to the aim of widening public space and can turn the discourse of civil society woman-sensitive. Within this framing, experiences of two different examples from civil society organizations of women which are the carrier actors of women movement in Turkey after 1990 will be formulated. First one of these is KAGİDER (Women Entrepreneurs Association of Turkey) which operates in Istanbul and the second one is KAMER (Women’s Centre) which operates in South-eastern and Eastern Anatolia. With these examples, moving from two different cultures and two different civil society organizations, it seems possible to develop an idea about early period of women movement in Turkey.  

Keywords

• Women movement,civil society,women NGOs,KAGİDER (Women Entrepreneurs Association of Turkey),KAMER (Women’s Center)

References

1. Acuner S. (2007) 90’lı Yıllar ve resmi düzeyde kurumsallaşmanın doğuş aşamaları. In: Bora A, Günal A, editors. 90’larda Türkiye’de feminizm. İstanbul: İletişim Yayınları, p 125−158.