Perceptions of feminist organizations regarding the EU's role in the Turkish women's movement

Official URL: http://risc01.sabanciuniv.edu/record=b1606914 (Table of Contents)

The status of women’s rights in Turkey presents a dilemma with 2014 marking 100 years of women in tertiary institutions and gains made in all aspects of life in the Turkish women’s movement while, on the other hand, Turkey has consistently low rankings on international indexes on gender equality alongside statements made by toplevel officials in the Turkish government questioning the very notion of gender equality. In this environment, the question of how feminist organizations, the major players in the Turkish women’s movement working on women’s issues, perceive the European Union (EU) in the movement becomes increasingly important. In approaching this problem by utilizing concepts related to sociological institutionalism and by conducting semistructured, in-depth interviews with activists from three feminist organizations (KA.DER, KAGIDER, and Mor Çatı), this thesis shows that they perceive the EU as a normative power and they themselves as dependent on the EU for the promulgation of women’s rights in the Turkish women’s movement. This thesis further takes into consideration external factors such as major developments in relations between Turkey and the EU throughout the years as well as an emerging narrative in public discourse that has shaped the environment in which feminist organizations operate in.