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ABSTRACT
The patriarchal nature of Turkish society reflects itself in Turkish political culture, within which various social mechanisms have reproduced patriarchal relations. This study is designed as a retrospective one. Personal stories and experiences of female party leaders are presented to analyze the prevailing patriarchy in Turkish politics. The analysis is based on biographical sources of life stories and public statements of female party leaders from four consecutive periods: (1) Nezihe Muhiddin – Early Republican period; (2) Behice Boran – Multi-party period; (3) Tansu Çiller – Post-1980 Coup Period; and (4) Meral Akşener – The AKP period. The conceptualization of political masculinities is employed to analyze their encounters with the politically-embedded patriarchy. The aim of this article is to contribute to the literature by exploring the ways in which political masculinities play out in the context of female party leaders in Turkish politics.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 Özman, “The Image”; Yaraş, “The Making”; Ozdemir-Sarigil and Sarigil, “Who is Patriarchal?”
2 Enloe, “The Persistence,” 1.
3 Akyüz, “Face me.”
4 Starck and Sauer, “Political Masculinities.”
5 Akyüz, “Face me.”
6 Kandiyoti, “Bargaining” and “Locating.”
7 Kurdish political parties have designated co-chairperson status for women, which is not a standard political practice in Turkey. The analysis of co-chairperson practices and its implications requires a more detailed analysis of the workings of patriarchy and political masculinities in Turkish politics. Thus, in this study Kurdish political parties’ female leaders are excluded purposively, and the study focuses on female politicians who became a chairperson within the context of the mainstream political party system.
8 UN Women, Women in Politics 2021.
9 Pateman, “Does Sex Matter,” 57–63.
10 Ibid.
11 Bilgiç, “We are not Barbarians,” 198–218.
12 Butler, Cinsiyet Belası.
13 Starck and Sauer, “Political Masculinities,” 6.
14 Connell, Gender and Power.
15 Sancar, Türk Modernleşmesinin Cinsiyeti.
16 Starck and Sauer, A Man's World?
17 Ibid., 6.
18 Catalyst, “The Double-Bind Dilemma.”
19 Starck and Luyt, “Political masculinities,” 435.
20 Enloe, The Big Push.
21 Connell, Gender and Power, 155.
22 Özgün, “Muhafazakârlık,”; Enloe, The Big Push.
23 Enloe, The Big Push.
24 Kandiyoti, “Bargaining,” 274.
25 Connell, Gender and Power, 155.
26 Çakır, Osmanlı Kadın Hareketi, 126
27 Zihnioğlu, Kadınsız İnkılap.
28 Toprak, “Türkiye’de Siyaset.”
29 Zihnioğlu, Kadınsız İnkılap.
30 Muhiddin, Türk Kadını, 105.
31 Toprak, “Türkiye’de Siyaset.”
32 Ibid., 9.
33 Zihnioğlu, Kadınsız İnkılap.
34 Yeşilyurt-Gündüz, “The Women’s Movement,” 115–34.
35 Zihnioğlu, Kadınsız İnkılap.
36 Baykan, Nezihe Muhittin ve Türk kadını.
37 Mumcu, 40’ların Cadı Kazanı, 83–4.
38 Durdu, “1940’lı Yıllar,” 165–76.
39 Mumcu, Bir Uzun Yürüyüş, 28.
40 Atılgan, “Sosyoloji,” 447.
41 Boran as quoted by Atılgan, Behice Boran, 46.
42 For the statement against Turkey’s participation in the Korean War see https://tustav.org/yayinlar/sureli_yayinlar/baris/b_008.pdf.
43 Atılgan, Behice Boran.
44 Tekeli, “Sosyal Bilimci.”
45 Atılgan, Behice Boran.
46 Mumcu, Bir Uzun Yürüyüş, 15.
47 Bildirici, Maskeli Leydi.
48 Meyer, “Turkey’s Leaders.”
49 Cizre, “Tansu Çiller,” 229.
50 Ibid.
51 Demirkürek, 1980 Sonrası.
52 Cizre, “Tansu Çiller.”
53 Yüksel, Diversifying Feminism, 45.
54 Mandal and Kurzeja, “Femininity and masculinity,” 4.
55 Ibid.
56 Hürriyet Daily News, “Meral Aksener.”
57 Malsin, “Turkey’s ‘Iron Lady’.”
58 Ibid.
59 Hürriyet Daily News, “Meral Aksener.”
60 Meral Akşener Official website.
61 Hurriyet Daily News, “Bahçeli Renews.”
62 Sözcü, “MHP’li Yalçın’dan Akşener’e.”
63 Malsin, “Turkey’s ‘Iron Lady’.”
64 Weise, “The Turkish Marine Le Pen.”
65 Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan issued a decree in the early hours of March 20 withdrawing Turkey from the Council of Europe (CoE) Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence. The treaty sets comprehensive standards for protecting women against all forms of violence. The withdrawal prompted widespread protests from women’s groups and an uproar on social media, where many argued that it signals a huge setback for women’s rights in Turkey.
66 Zihnioğlu, Resmi Tarihin.
67 Kandiyoti, “Emancipated but Unliberated?.”
68 Coşar, “Women in Turkish Political Thought,” 128.
69 Arat, “Türkiye’de Modernleşme Projesi.”
70 Ibid., 148–9.
71 Özcan, “Behice Boran."
72 Arat, “A Woman Prime Minister.”
73 Ibid.
74 Çavdar, “The journey.”
75 Dönmez, “Nationalism in Turkey,” 7.
76 Sayan-Cengiz and Akyüz, “Performances,” 44.
Additional information
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Bezen Balamir Coşkun
Bezen Balamir Coşkun is an Associate Professor of International Relations who specializes in foreign policy and security. She received her Ph.D. degree from Loughborough University (UK). She has worked in several higher education institutions and research centers both in Turkey and abroad including the Center for Applied Turkey Studies (CATS) at Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik (SWP). Since 2016, she has coordinated the Izmir Policy Center, which is a consultancy agency. She is also working as an Adjunct Professor at TED University in Ankara. Her research has concentrated on foreign policy analysis and Turkish foreign policy. To conduct her research, she had received several international funds and grants, and published articles, book chapters, and policy briefs related to the subject. She is a member of Women in Foreign Policy Initiative.