The single-party era in Turkey has been studied through a state-centered approach, preoccupied with the ideological underpinnings and political discourse of the Kemalist elite. Recently, a new... Show moreThe single-party era in Turkey has been studied through a state-centered approach, preoccupied with the ideological underpinnings and political discourse of the Kemalist elite. Recently, a new body of literature, which shifts the focus away from the state and the elites, began to appear. This thesis is a part of and contributes to this literature. It is a study of state-society relations in 1930s Turkey, focusing on the anti-veiling campaigns in the mid-1930s and aiming to understand the ways in which the Kemalist policies were received, interpreted, negotiated, compromised and/or resisted by various actors in the provinces. It presents a detailed trajectory of the debates on and attempts at women’s unveiling in Turkey and contextualizes the anti-veiling campaigns as part of a new phase the Kemalist regime entered in the 1930s. With a strong emphasis on the significance of studying the local, it analyzes the campaigns within the complexities of their local settings and power dynamics, and thus emphasizes the role of the local elites, the resistance of the social actors and women’s agency in the shaping of the anti-veiling campaigns in 1930s Turkey. Show less
This work is a close look at the life histories of the top Turkish political leaders with the aim of analyzing changes in gender role and gender identity and tensions between the two in the history... Show moreThis work is a close look at the life histories of the top Turkish political leaders with the aim of analyzing changes in gender role and gender identity and tensions between the two in the history of Turkish modernization vis-à-vis with contemporaneous debates on gender. The main objective is to situate modernization in its theoretical as well as historical context through subjective and private meanings as related to modern coming out of the narratives of the wives. It was argued that Kemalist modernization though created a modern outlook for women framed and sometimes limited their experiences of modernization. As the wives experienced it, the tension reflected itself in the relationship between the gender role performance and the gender identity construction. Additionally, it was argued that, under the attacks of different ideological political currents, Kemalist gender regime has become highly marginalized and except its symbolic power lost much of its power to provide women with a gender identity. Show less
