Shaping Gender Policy in Turkey

Gül Aldıkaçtı Marshall

Description

Shaping Gender Policy in Turkey uncovers how, why, and to what extent Turkish women, in addition to the Turkish state and the European Union, have been involved in gender policy changes in Turkey. Through analysis of the role of multiple actors at the subnational, national, and supranational levels, Gül Aldıkaçtı Marshall provides a detailed account of policy diffusion and feminist involvement in policymaking. Contextualizing the meaning of gender equality and multiple approaches to women's rights, she highlights a pivotal but neglected dimension of scholarship on Turkey's candidacy for European Union membership. This book represents one of the few works providing a multilevel analysis of gender policy in predominantly Muslim countries, and highlights Turkey's role at a time of swift structural changes to several political regimes in the Middle East.

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List of Tables
List of Abbreviations
Acknowledgments

1. Conceptualizing the Actors Roles

Theorizing Women’s Visibility within the Configuration of the Grassroots Activism, the State, and the EU
Analysis of Strategies Used by Women’s Groups, the EU, and the Turkish State
Overview of the Book

2. Gender Equality, Women’s Rights, and Stipulations within the Enlarging EU

Framing Gender Equality through Hard Laws
Expanding the Meaning of Gender Equality
Women’s Rights and Gendered Citizenship

3. Before the 1999 Helsinki Summit: The State’s Gender Regime in Turkey

Ottoman Reforms and the Gendered Subject
Kemalist Revolution and the Gendered Citizen
Women amid Political Loyalty and Political Mobilization
Gender (In)Equality in Laws in the Republic of Turkey
The Implications of Laws and Women’s Lived Experiences, 1923–1999

4. Active Citizenship: Women’s Collective Response to the State’s Gender Regime in Turkey, 1980–1999

The Rise of the Feminist Movement
Diversity in Women’s Activism: Islamist and Kemalist Women

5. Aftermath of the 1999 Helsinki Summit: The Role of the EU and the Turkish State in Changing Gender Policies in Turkey

Brief History of the Relationship between Turkey and the EU
Europeanization, Conditionality, and Gender Equality
Emerging Picture of Gender-Equality Reforms

6. Women’s Grassroots Activism in Changing Gender Policies after the Helsinki Summit

Taking Advantage of the EU Membership Process
Relations with the EU
Utilizing the UN Meetings for Policy Changes in Turkey

7. Conclusion: Sustained-Pressure in Shifting Winds

Appendix A: Interviews
Appendix B: Names of Women’s Organizations and Journals in Turkish and English

Notes
References
Index

Sujets

• Sociology
• International relations
• Activism

Informations

• Publié par: State University of New York Press
• Date de parution: 01 juillet 2013
• Nombre de lectures: 1
• EAN13: 9781438447735
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Shaping Gender Policy in Turkey
Shaping Gender Policy in Turkey
Grassroots Women Activists, the European Union, and the Turkish State

Gül Aldıkaçtı Marshall
Published by State University of New York Press, Albany
© 2013 State University of New York
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission. No part of this book may be stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means including electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission in writing of the publisher.
For information, contact State University of New York Press, Albany, NY www.sunypress.edu
Production by Cathleen Collins Marketing by Michael Campochiaro
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Aldıkaçtı Marshall, Gül.
Shaping gender policy in Turkey : grassroots women activists, the European Union, and the Turkish state / Gül Aldıkaçtı Marshall.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-4384-4771-1 (hbk : alk. paper)
1. Women’s rights—Turkey. 2. Sex discrimination against women—Turkey. 3. Feminism—Turkey. 4. European Union—Turkey. I. Title.
HQ1236.5.T9M37 2013 305.4209561—dc23
2012040584
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
For my parents
Contents
List of Tables
List of Abbreviations
Acknowledgments
1 Conceptualizing the Actors’ Roles
Theorizing Women’s Visibility within the Configuration of the Grassroots Activism, the State, and the EU
Analysis of Strategies Used by Women’s Groups, the EU, and the Turkish State
Overview of the Book
2 Gender Equality, Women’s Rights, and Stipulations within the Enlarging EU
Framing Gender Equality through Hard Laws
Expanding the Meaning of Gender Equality
Women’s Rights and Gendered Citizenship
3 Before the 1999 Helsinki Summit: The State’s Gender Regime in Turkey
Ottoman Reforms and the Gendered Subject
Kemalist Revolution and the Gendered Citizen
Women amid Political Loyalty and Political Mobilization
Gender (In)Equality in Laws in the Republic of Turkey
The Implications of Laws and Women’s Lived Experiences, 1923–1999
4 Active Citizenship: Women’s Collective Response to the State’s Gender Regime in Turkey, 1980–1999
The Rise of the Feminist Movement
Diversity in Women’s Activism: Islamist and Kemalist Women
5 Aftermath of the 1999 Helsinki Summit: The Role of the EU and the Turkish State in Changing Gender Policies in Turkey
Brief History of the Relationship between Turkey and the EU
Europeanization, Conditionality, and Gender Equality
Emerging Picture of Gender-Equality Reforms
6 Women’s Grassroots Activism in Changing Gender Policies after the 1999 Helsinki Summit
Taking Advantage of the EU Membership Process
Relations with the EU
Utilizing the UN Meetings for Policy Changes in Turkey
7 Conclusion: Sustained-Pressure in Shifting Winds
Appendix A: Interviews
Appendix B: Names of Women’s Organizations and Journals in Turkish and English
Notes
References
Index
Tables
1.1. Trajectory of Political Opportunities for Feminist Activists and the National and Transnational Pressure Used by Feminist Activists
2.1. European Union Gender Equality Directives
6.1. The Relationship of the Turkish State with the European Union and the United Nations
6.2. Trajectory of Feminist Strategies
Abbreviations AK Parti Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi (Justice and Development Party) AP Anavatan Partisi (Motherland Party) CEDAW Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women CHP Cumhuriyetçi Halk Partisi (Republican People’s Party) DP Demokrat Parti (Democratic Party) EEC European Economic Community EU European Union FP Fazilet Partisi (Virtue Party) KEIG Kadın Emeği ve İstihdamı Girişimi (Women’s Labor and Employment Initiative) KHF Kadınlar Halk Fırkası (Women’s People Party) KSSGM Kadının Statüsü ve Sorunları Genel Müdürlüğü (Directorate General on the Status and Problems of Women) LGBTT Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transsexual, and Transgender MHP Milliyetçi Hareket Partisi (Nationalist Action Party) TKB Türk Kadınlar Birliği (Turkish Women’s Union)
Acknowledgments
This book benefits greatly from the participation of a dedicated group of activist women in my research. I first and foremost thank these activists for sharing their experiences with me. Without their contribution this book would have been partial. I want to acknowledge the hard-working civil servants in the library of the Directorate General of Press and Information in Ankara for kindly helping me find archival sources. Every morning they greeted me with smiles and offered me tea whenever they made some for themselves. I would like to thank the anonymous reviewers of my manuscript whose constructive comments motivated me to continue to improve my manuscript and Dr. Michael Rinella at State University of New York Press for supporting my work.
My deepest gratitude to Ralph who has always believed in me and encouraged me. Thank you for reading the drafts of my manuscript, asking questions about the content of chapters, giving me valuable comments, and pushing me to clarify my writing to make it accessible to readers outside of my field.
CHAPTER 1
Conceptualizing the Actors’ Roles
A couple of years after the accession, some activists from the new member states stated that they wished that the pressure in the accession process to adapt to EU standards on their countries had been as strong as it is currently on Turkey, because this is the magic moment when doors did open to them.
—Roth 2008, 10
True to the accounts of those feminist activists from postsocialist countries in Central and Eastern Europe, pressured by the European Union (EU), Turkey has been undergoing an economic, political, and legal transformation in order to qualify for admission to the EU. Taking advantage of this “magic moment,” women’s grassroots organizations, many of which are feminist, have been pressuring the state to amend gender discriminatory policies and to introduce new measures to improve women’s rights. This book aims to uncover how, why, and to what extent Turkish women, in addition to the EU and the Turkish state, have been involved in gender policy changes in Turkey.
Turkey is a democratic republic with a multiparty, parliamentary system. Its geographic area is larger than any current EU member country. With its close to 75 million citizens, about 93 percent of whom is under the age of 64, it is a dynamic and economically fast-growing country. Its gross domestic product (GDP) per capita, which has been increasing steadily since 1998, is $10,444. Currently, the growth rate of the GDP is higher than most EU members. The majority lives in the urban areas. Those who are in the labor force engage in work primarily in the service industry and manufacturing sector. Once a significant economic component, agriculture now only accounts for 25 percent of the overall economy. 1 Since its establishment as a republic in 1923 following the decline of the Ottoman Empire, Turkey has projected a place for itself among European countries. It became a member of NATO in 1952, and after the formation of the European Economic Community (EEC), which is now known as the EU, it applied for associate membership to the Community in 1959 and signed the Ankara Agreement in 1963 to construct “ever closer bonds” (Nas 2011, 47).
The 1999 Helsinki Summit marked the beginning of the transformation in Turkey as the European Commission, the executive body of the EU, officially recognized the country as a candidate for EU membership. On October 3, 2005, José Manuel Barroso, the president of the European Commission, publicly announced the opening of the accession negotiations with these words: “Today is a milestone in the relationship between the European Union and Turkey. A stable, modern, and democratic Turkey is an objective we should support actively in the European Union and in Turkey. This is why we are starting negotiations” (European Commission 2005). The announcement came about as a result of the passage of a number of reform packages in the Turkish Parliament in the early 2000s that led to the adoption of various EU standards, including some of the gender equality directives, and demonstrated the seriousness of the Turkish state in its quest for membership. The legislative changes continue, though at a slower pace, as I write this book.
Some see this transformation process as the diffusion of European values (Risse, Green Cowles, and Caporaso 2001; Caporaso and Jupille 2001; Checkel 2001; Liebert 2003; von Wahl 2008), recognizing at the same time that internal institutional structures of countries influence “domestic adaptation with national colors” (Risse, Green Cowles, and Caporaso 2001, 1). In the case of gender policies, which are categorized within the field of social policy in EU governance, the EU affirms gender equality as a fundamental European value and expects both the member and candidate countries to transpose and implement the equality directives (Roth 2008, 2007; Aldıkaçtı Marshall 2008; Kantola 2010). Obviously, the EU has more leverage over the candidate countries as it is holding the carrot of membership (Müftüler-Baç 2000; Lannon, Inglis, and Haenebalcke 2001; Schimmelfennig, Engert, and Knobel 2003; Roth 2008, 2007). Turkey has been especially subject to an exhaustive scrutiny by the EU because