Women’s Politics in the AKP: Party, Party’s Women Branches and Women Electorates

Yıl 2024, SBF Dergisi Erken Görünüm, 1 - 25

Nur Sinem Kourou

https://doi.org/10.33630/ausbf.1316900

Öz

Research on feminization process shows women's political participation and representation as a sequential and relational process. However, especially, emerging analysis studies on conservative/right-wing parties and the political activism of women in these parties revealed that the increased presence of women in politics does not necessarily provide a feminist response to women's issues, nor does it necessarily help the representation of both women and these women's issues. With the curiosity on this situation, this article examines how feminization and anti-feminization processes have coexisted in the right-wing political party in Turkey the case of Justice and Development Party (AKP). It focuses on the political participation process of women through qualitative research on the party’s women’s branches and party’s women voters. My research findings show feminization and anti-feminism have coexist in the relationship between the party and women. While the party provides certain limits and boundries which are considered as anti-feminist conditions, women, on the other hand, strategize their political activism by conforming those limits. To that end, despite the number of women in politics, it does not bring a substantive transformation for women.

Anahtar Kelimeler

AKP’s Women Politics, Feminization, Anti-Feminism, Women’s Branches, Women Voters

AKP’de Kadınların Siyaseti: Parti, Parti Kadın Kolları, Kadın Seçmenler

Öz

Siyasetin kadınlaşması (İngilizce kavramıyla feminization) üzerine yapılan araştırmalar, kadınların siyasi katılımını ve temsilini ardışık ve ilişkisel bir süreç olarak göstermektedir. Ancak, özellikle muhafazakâr/sağ partiler ve kadınların bu partilerdeki siyasal aktivizmi hakkında yapılan yeni analizler, siyasette giderek artan kadın varlığının kadın sorunlarına feminist bir cevap vermediği gibi hem kadınların hem de kadın sorunlarının temsiline de mutlaka yardımcı olmadığı ortaya çıktı. Bu çıkarımların uyandırdığı merak ile bu makale, Türkiye'deki muhafazakar-sağ siyasetin temsilcisi olan Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi (AKP) örneği üzerinden siyasetin kadınlaşması ve toplumsal cinsiyet politikaların anti-feminist doğasının nasıl bir arada olabildiğini incelenmektedir. Araştırma, partiye bağlı kadın kolları ve partiye oy veren kadınlar üzerinde nitel araştırma yoluyla kadınların siyasi katılım sürecine odaklanmaktadır. Araştırma bulguları, siyasetin kadınlaşması ve anti-feminist politikaların parti ile kadınlar arasındaki ilişkide birlikte var olduğunu göstermektedir. Parti, anti-feminist koşullar olarak kabul edilen belirli sınırlar ve kısıtlamalar sunarken, kadınlar bunlara uyum sağlayarak siyasi aktivizmlerini kadın kollarına katılarak, burada siyasal yaşamlarını sürdürerek ve partiye oy vererek stratejik bir şekilde sürdürmektedir. Bu bağlamda, kadınların siyasetteki varlığı, kadınlar için anlamlı bir dönüşüm getirmemektedir.

Anahtar Kelimeler

AKP’nin Kadın Siyaseti, Kadınlaşma, Anti-Feminizm, Kadın Kolları, Kadın Seçmen

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