THE FORMATION OF FEMINIST IDENTITY: FEMINISM IN THE 1930’S TURKEY AND BRITAIN

Year 2011, Volume: 19 Issue: 3, 1013 - 1028, 01.09.2011

Ayça Ülker Erkan

Abstract

This article focuses on the improvement of Turkish women’s rights pursuant to reforms made by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder of Turkey, in constructing a modern Turkish nation, and discusses 1930’s women’s movements in Britain. Women’s suffrage in Turkey emerged as a part of a modernization process, during which Atatürk instituted equal rights before most Western countries had done so. He improved women’s status through his innovations thus building the most modern, democratic and secular Muslim state. Still, feminists of the 1980s question the Kemalist project of modernity in search of “liberation beyond emancipation”. Women’s rights in England emerged by women standing up for their rights, whereas those rights in Turkey emerged as a nationalistic policy by Atatürk.

Keywords

Turkish feminism, Atatürk and his reforms, westernization, women’s emancipation, domesticity, women’s movement in Britain.

FEMİNİST KİMLİĞİN OLUŞUMU: 1930’LAR TÜRKİYE VE İNGİLTERE’SİNDE KADIN HAKLARI

Abstract

Bu makale, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti kurucusu olan Mustafa Kemal Atatürk’ün modern bir Türk toplumunu oluşturma aşamasında yaptığı reformlardan biri olan Türk kadın haklarının elde edilmesi ve 1930’lar İngiltere’sinde kadın haklarının durumu konusunu tartışır. Türkiye’deki kadınların seçme hakkı, modernleşme sürecinin bir parçası olarak birçok Batılı ülkelerden daha önce kurumlaştırılmıştır. Atatürk, kadın haklarını en ileri modern, demokratik ve laik bir Müslüman devlet kurma amacı ile devrimleştirmiştir. Halen, “kurtuluşun ötesinde özgürlük” arayışı içinde olan 1980’lerin feministleri, ülkenin modernleşme aşaması olarak görülen Kemalist devrimlerini sorgular. İngiltere’deki kadın hakları, kendi haklarını savunan kadınlar tarafından ortaya çıkartılırken, Türkiye’deki aynı haklar Atatürk’ün ulusal politikası olarak ortaya çıkmıştır.

Keywords

Türk feminizmi, Atatürk ve onun devrimleri, batılılaşma, kadınların özgürlüğü, aile yaşamı, İngiltere’deki kadın hakları.

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