Kadın/Woman 2000, Journal for Women's Studies

Spatial Analysis of Women's Social Status in Virginia Woolf's 'A Room of One's Own'

2025-06-26T18:32:47+03:00

Gilman, Charlotte Perkins, (2023). Erkeğin ve Kadının Dini Babalarımızın İnancı ve Annelerimizin İşi Üzerine Bir Çalışma

2025-06-26T18:46:28+03:00

An Evaluation of Women’s Employment in Türkiye from a Gender Perspective

2025-06-22T22:25:51+03:00

Similar to rest of the world, women have not obtained the same rights and freedoms with men in many areas in Türkiye. One of these areas is women’s labour force participation and their current situation in labour market. Women’s labour force participation has been chronically low in Türkiye. Even if they participate in labour market, they are more likely to take domestic and familial responsibilities and they might leave their work due to reasons related to housework and family more than men. Similarly, women encounter with more obstacles while advancing in their careers just because of their sex. Problems related to women's participation in the labour force are, in addition to other factors, closely related to gender roles which are considered appropriate for men and women. When discussing women's employment, it is of great importance not to ignore gender roles, which are an important part of cultures. This study aims to evaluate the women’s employment in Türkiye from a gender perspective. As a result of the literature review and secondary data examination, it was concluded that gender has a significant impact on the women’s employment in Türkiye.

Examination of the Limitations and Inconsistencies of Different Representations of Women Infiltrating Popular Cinema through the Film Aile Arasında (Among the Family)

2025-06-22T23:10:22+03:00

Popular cinema constructs a fictional world that both reflects and reinforces societal perceptions of women's roles. Films play a crucial role in both depicting and legitimizing women’s position in society by representing their roles within their narratives. In recent years, Turkish popular cinema has produced numerous films centered on women and their stories. A closer examination of these films reveals that female characters are frequently portrayed as strong, economically independent individuals who are also sensitive to gender and human rights issues. However, despite the depiction of these women as independent, their narratives remain constrained by the conventions of popular cinema. A striking example of this limitation is the persistent association of female protagonists’ ultimate aspirations with marriage. In other words, while these films place women at the center of their narratives, their stories are largely confined to the theme of marriage, thereby restricting women’s broader representation. Contemporary Turkish popular cinema continues to exhibit the characteristic features of classical narrative cinema commonly associated with Yeşilçam by reinforcing, rather than challenging, the institution of marriage. This study examines Aile Arasında (Açıktan, 2017), a film that foregrounds female characters within its narrative.

Discursive (Re) Construction of Black Femininity: Venus from Feminist Critical Discourse Analysis Perspective

2025-06-22T23:47:15+03:00

One of the striking plays by a black female writer, Suzan-Lori Parks, Venus is analyzed through Feminist Critical Discourse Analysis (FCDA) in this study. Inspired by a brutal historical reality, Parks (re)positions black women in the patriarchal and racist system. Her black woman, Venus, is objectified through her body, while she also struggles to be the subject of her own inner world. Focusing on the playwright’s discourse, this study sheds light on the complex relationship between discourse and gender through FCDA. Its main concern is that gender is discursively constructed based on ideological and political factors. It claims that discourse justifies and perpetuates gender-based discrimination, resulting in strengthening the patriarchal system at a linguistic level. Based on FCDA’s principles, this study infuses that Parks’s discourse of positioning the black female body as an object of male domination is constructed to reflect power relations, which systematically oppress black women. Relatedly, this study suggests that Parks’s discourse in Venus illuminates the pervasive nature of the objectification and exploitation of the black female body and dismantles historical and societal realities through the systemic oppression and marginalization that black women have faced. By exposing these deep-rooted power imbalances based on white hegemony and patriarchy, Parks’s discourse challenges the longstanding societal norms that have subjugated black women for centuries.

Women in The Shadow of Ideology: Women's Rights in North Korea

2025-06-23T08:34:24+03:00

Described as a 'closed box' in the international system, North Korea is characterized by a governing ideology that penetrates every aspect of life: Juche. Conceived as a philosophy of self-sufficiency, Juche helps North Korea maintain its authoritarian system. In this authoritarian and closed society, women are probably the most disadvantaged group. Indeed, North Korea is one of the world's worst human rights violators. The position of North Korean women, who were shaped as political actors, representatives of the revolution, and founding elements during the founding period of the country, has evolved in a completely different direction today. In the official discourse, women and mothers are used synonymously, but it is often stated that women should devote themselves entirely to the ideology and the leader's guidance. In addition to ideology, the hierarchical order of the Confucian system of thought that has influenced East Asian societies is also behind this idea. In these societies, a woman is obliged to obey her husband and is a mother. While the international community is preoccupied with the threat of North Korea becoming a nuclear power, the rights of North Korean women are ignored. The fact that the majority of North Koreans who defect today are women reveals the seriousness of the situation. This study examines how women's rights in North Korea are shaped within the framework of the Juche ideology. The study will focus on evaluating the discrepancy between the rights officially granted to women and how these rights are implemented in practice, while also analyzing the status of women under the influence of ideology. It aims to uncover the struggle of North Korean women, who are portrayed as integral to the socialist system, in their fight against oppression.

A Contribution to the Suat Derviş Collection: A Study on Her Stories Published in Yeni Şark Newspaper

2025-06-23T08:54:02+03:00

Suat Derviş is one of the important writers of Turkish literature. Various studies on Derviş’s corpus have been and continue to be put forward. İn this study, in the context of Suat Derviş’s stories left in newspaper columns, it is aimed to bring the stories identified in Yeni Şark newspaper into corpus. In addition to the author’s stories titled “Lades”, “Menekşe’nin İntikamı”, “Tevkifhane Köpeği”, “Rüya”, “Bir Mektup”, a translated story titled “Yeni Çığır” was also discovered in the newspaper. The stories, which can be considered as Suat Derviş’s first pen experiences, will enable Derviş’s line of authorship to be revealed more distinctly and the traces of her authorship to be followed more clearly. The stories are analyzed in terms of overploting, character, time and place with the classical method of analysis. Suat Derviş deals with women’s right, feminity and masculinity in his story “Lades”; supernatural events that can be included in horror literature in “Menekşe’nin İntikamı”; animal narrative in “Tevkifhane Köpeği”; unrequited love in “Bir Mektup” and “Rüya”; the importance of the memory genre in her stories “Yeni Çığır”, which was translated from French. It is understood from the subjects of her stories that Suat Derviş as a writer open to innovation since her first pen experiences.

“The End of Innocence” From an Ecofeminist Perspective: Outlying Islands and Ellen's Emancipation

2025-06-23T09:16:00+03:00

Patriarchal practices such as racism, class discrimination, marginalization, oppression, and objectification, along with the exploitation of nature and women, have become increasingly discussed and researched in recent years. In Western culture, nature and women have historically been conceptualized in a way that devalues everything associated with women, nature, emotions, animals, and the body, while elevating everything linked to men, reason, humans, culture, and logic. David Greig’s play Outlying Islands tells the story of two young scientists sent to a remote Scottish island in 1939, under the shadow of war, to study the island’s biodiversity, alongside the island’s caretaker uncle and a female character. The play provides a rich foundation for an ecofeminist analysis, addressing themes of scientific inquiry, human-nature relationships, female emancipation, and the patriarchal desire to control nature and women. Centered on the conflict between nature, humanity, and the modern world, the play positions the harsh climate and environmental conditions as pivotal elements in the narrative.
The portrayal of a remote island used as an experiment by the government highlights the ecofeminist critique of patriarchal ideologies that commodify nature through a disposable lens. In this study, the female character, who represents a more intuitive and embodied connection with nature compared to the male scientists, will be analyzed through an ecofeminist lens. Val Plumwood’s philosophy of dualism will serve as the primary framework for examining the opposing binaries in the play and decoding its ecofeminist message. From an interdisciplinary perspective, this study will analyze how patriarchal domination of women and nature manifests and its consequences within the fictional narrative set in a real geographical context. The aim of this research is to provide a conceptual and comprehensive understanding of ecofeminism while contributing to feminist and ecological literature through the analysis of a theatrical work.

The Birth of the “Woman Question” in Azerbaijan in the 19th Century

2025-06-23T10:17:40+03:00

The article examines the emergence of the “woman question” in Azerbaijan during the 19th century. After establishing the research concept and analysing the relevant literature, the topic is discussed in two sections. The first section examines the daily traditional lives of Caucasian Turkic women, while the second section analyses the changes and transformations of Turkic women during the Tsarist period. A retrospective analysis of the literature on the subject revealed that the problem emerged simultaneously with social and cultural needs. Azerbaijani intellectuals, who espoused the principle of creating an intellectually developed nation, posited that this goal could be achieved through educated women. Aware of the difficulties in educating and developing women who were confined to the home in the traditional patriarchal society, these intellectuals both acknowledged the existence of the women's problem and initiated efforts to establish special schools for girls with the aim of addressing it. As a consequence of these endeavours, a new generation of conscious and educated women emerged in the new century.

The Institutionalization Adventure of Women's Studies in the Academy: An Evaluation of Research Centers, Academic Journals and Graduate Programs

2025-06-23T10:59:38+03:00

The process that started with the “Women's Problems Application and Research Center” established in 1989 at Istanbul University, which is considered as the milestone of the institutionalization of women's studies in Turkey, is one of the first manifestations of an academic positioning that has become quite widespread today. A number of international and local dynamics played an important role in calling for and encouraging the institutionalization of academic feminism in Turkey. Institutionalization practices led by women's studies centers in universities are primarily seen in the opening of graduate programs that include interdisciplinary departments based on women's studies and the establishment of peer-reviewed academic journals whose publishers are mostly universities and women's studies centers. Academic feminism, which is realized through these practices, has undergone change and transformation in the context of different variables from past to present. This study is based on the question “what are the factors, dynamics and components that play a role in the institutionalization of women's studies in academia?”. Accordingly, the subject of this study is the dynamics that enable the institutionalization of women's studies in academia and the current position of these dynamics. The aim of the study is to discuss the impact of women's studies centers, graduate programs and academic journals, which are considered to be a strong basis for the institutionalization of women's studies in universities, which started to be effective in Turkish academia especially after the 1990s and which constitute the academic interest of many academics today, with the conjunctural structures of the historical process. Although there are studies on the institutionalization of academic feminism and women's studies in the literature, these studies have mostly analyzed institutionalization experiences by limiting them to research centers.

Gender Equality in Politics: Women's Representation from International to Local Dynamics

2025-06-23T12:52:43+03:00

This study examines the role of women in politics by analyzing the underlying reasons for their exclusion, with a particular focus on local politics. As in many parts of the world, women's participation in politics in Turkey remains constrained, and gender equality in political representation is yet to be fully realized. Although women's visibility in political spheres has increased in recent years, significant disparities persist. Notably, women’s participation rates in local politics are even lower than in national politics. Within a predominantly male-dominated political arena, women remain less visible at the local level, limiting their capacity to influence the structural dynamics of local governance. Grounded in this premise, the study first explores the structural and sociopolitical challenges that hinder women’s engagement in politics. It then presents an empirical analysis of women's representation and participation in local politics using contemporary data. To contextualize these findings, the study situates Turkey’s gendered political landscape within a comparative global framework. In doing so, it seeks to elucidate the structural mechanisms that shape local political dynamics in Turkey and critically examines the marginalization of women in this sphere. Furthermore, the study analyzes the implications of the 2024 local elections for women's political representation. While the elections marked an increase in the electoral success of female candidates, the persistent structural barriers within local politics continue to restrict women’s access to political representation and participation. Despite these limitations, the study provides a detailed examination of women’s representation in the 2024 local elections, with a specific focus on metropolitan, provincial, and district mayoralties.

Gender, Space, and Women’s Entrepreneurship: A Case Study in Kadıköy, Istanbul (2018–2023)

2025-06-23T13:33:38+03:00

This study explores the evolving dynamics of women’s entrepreneurship in Kadıköy, Istanbul between 2018 and 2023, focusing on how structural inequalities, spatial context, and socio-economic crises shape women’s entrepreneurial trajectories. Based on two rounds of in-depth interviews with thirteen women entrepreneurs, the research highlights the persistent challenges posed by limited institutional support, gendered expectations, and economic volatility, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent inflationary period. While entrepreneurship is often framed as a pathway to empowerment, the findings show that it simultaneously reproduces precarity through unpaid care responsibilities, gendered moral norms, and spatially contingent access to opportunities. Women’s strategies of resilience such as resource-sharing and adapting business models, reflect individual ingenuity, but also reveal the lack of systemic support for gender-equitable entrepreneurship. The study emphasizes the importance of intersectional and place-based approaches to understanding how gender, class, and space interact to shape entrepreneurial agency in neoliberal and patriarchal contexts.

Reflection of Gender Roles on Cinema Through The Movie “Lohusa”

2025-06-23T15:45:08+03:00

Motherhood, childbirth, and caregiving are social phenomena shaped by the genderbased division of labor, determining, reproducing, and justifying many norms that define women's position. From this perspective, this study aims to analyze the film "Lohusa," released in 2023, through topics related to gender. "Lohusa," a comedy watched by a total of 2,128,245 people in cinemas, can be defined as a woman's film, but while it questions the naturalized roles of motherhood and caregiving on one hand, it also serves to naturalize and reproduce the position of motherhood on the other. In this sense, while cinema, as a product of the cultural industry, fulfills the function of approving the existing order, it can also bring to the agenda social issues and phenomena that are not often addressed in popular culture products. Therefore, cinema can be defined as an influential popular culture product with both justifying and transformative power. In the study, using the content analysis method, specific themes were identified from the film, and through these themes, the topics of motherhood, fatherhood, and caregiving within the framework of the genderbased division of labor were analyzed in detail. As a result, although the film "Lohusa" is significant for addressing a topic that has not been widely explored in Turkish cinema from a female perspective, it remains superficial in its approach and lacks depth in defining and addressing the topic as a social issue. Additionally, the film fails to break free from justifying and reproducing certain characteristics attributed to women and men related to gender roles.

Gender in Nuri Bilge Ceylan's Cinema: A Qualitative Analysis of "Winter Sleep"

2025-06-23T19:31:00+03:00

Motion pictures, as objects of sociological inquiry, constitute a significant field of cultural production for examining the construction, reproduction, and representation of gender, primarily due to their capacity to reach broad audiences. In this con-text, the present study aims to explore the phenomenon of gender through an analysis of Nuri Bilge Ceylan's film Winter Sleep. Employing document analysis—a qualitative research method—the study utilizes the Gender Phenomenon Analysis Form to systematically examine representations of gender roles about themes such as occupational choices, spatial positioning, daily life practices, and personality traits of the film's characters. The findings indicate that female characters are predominantly portrayed as individuals excluded from decision making processes, with limited agency in both social and spatial contexts. In contrast, male characters are constructed around notions of power, authority, and intellectual superiority, occupying more central and dominant positions within the narrative. By addressing how gender perceptions are constructed and perpetuated through cinematic discourse, this study seeks to contribute to a deeper understanding of gender dynamics and foster critical awareness of gender representations in film.

Gender Inequality in Subjective Well-Being and Time Use from Tourism Perspective: Analysis with TOPSIS and MOORA Methods

2025-06-23T20:21:15+03:00

Although the tourism sector offers significant opportunities for women's participation in the labor market, the mostly seaso-nal, low-paid and precarious nature of employment in the sector risks reinforcing gender inequalities. In tourism, women are often employed in labor-intensive jobs with flexible but demanding working conditions, which has significant effects on both time use and subjective well-being. This study aims to contribute to the literature by examining how inequalities in tourism employment affect individuals' time use practices, subjective well-being and worklife balance in a multidimensional framework. In this context, women's and men's time use, subjective assessment of well-being and gender-based employment differences are analyzed comparatively across OECD countries. Using TOPSIS and MOORA methods, countries were ranked according to the selected indicators and comparisons were made. The results of the analysis show that Latvia, Luxembourg, Estonia, Denmark findings suggest that these countries have a more gender-balanced structure in both employment structures and time use practices, which positively affects subjective well-being. The findings also show that while tourism employment offers opportunities for women, it also leads to various inequalities, which directly affect time management and subjective well-being, more clearly than in the last-ranked countries. By systematically and comprehensively revealing the potential of tourism to promote gender equality, as well as the limitations to realizing this potential through multi-criteria analysis, the study makes an original contribution to the existing body of literature.

Empowering Urban Women in Indonesia: The Role of Social Media in Maternal, Economic, and Civic Participation

2025-06-23T21:05:17+03:00

The rapid advancement of digital technology, particularly social media, has transformed the socio-economic landscape for urban women in Indonesia. This study examines the role of social media in maternal, economic, and civic empowerment, focusing on platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp, and YouTube. Through a qualitative descriptive approach, indepth interviews with women in Jakarta and surrounding areas reveal how social media fosters self-awareness, entrepreneurship, and community engagement. The findings indicate that social media facilitates access to critical information on parenting, health, and financial management, enhances women's participation in digital entrepreneurship, and strengthens their engagement in civic advocacy and activism. However, the study also highlights challenges, including misinformation, cyber harassment, and algorithmic biases, which can limit the full realization of digital empowerment. The research contributes to theoretical discussions on digital inclusion and gender media serves as both an enabler and a constraint in women's self-empowerment journeys. It underscores the importance of digital literacy, policy interventions, and platform accountability to ensure equitable and safe digital participation for women. The study calls for targeted government and private sector initiatives to enhance online safety, support women-led businesses, and promote digital education. By addressing these issues, social media can continue to be a transformative force for gender equity and women's empowerment in Indonesia.

Black Female as the “Transient Woman”: Anzalduan and Bhabhaian Construction of Subjectivity in Maya Angelou’s I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

2025-06-23T21:44:17+03:00

In her Female Subjectivity in African American Women’s Narratives of Enslavement: Beyond Borders (2009), Lynnette D. Myles conceptualizes Black female subjectivity as an intersubjective act that actively challenges and transforms oppositional views and fixed notions of identity and defines it as the “Transient Woman.” The Transient Woman is a fluid consciousness that moves— in and out, back and forth, —in in-between places toward subjectivity rupturing various forms of Otherness. It is not a close-ended paragon, but rather a beginning of a new consciousness with which the Black woman talks back to the stereotypical images—either sexless or wanton, evil, stubborn, hateful, dependent, and living for others—of Black womanhood prevalent in cultural imagination and textual presentation. By drawing on Anzaldúa’s concept of the “New Mestiza” consciousness and Bhabha’s theory of the “Third Space,” Myles posits that the Transient Woman embodies a new form of consciousness—one that empowers Black women to transform from unconscious objects to deliberate, and active forces within hegemonic society. This paper argues that in I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969), Maya Angelou presents self-consciousness as a developmental journey toward self-actualization, which begins in a state of unconsciousness and gradually evolves into a new, autonomous awareness. Furthermore, it contends that by navigating the challenges of identities within the Third Space and embracing a fluid, dynamic subjectivity, the autobiographical Maya emerges as the “Transient Woman.”

The Representation of Motherhood in Netflix Series: The Case of the Maid and Who Were We Running From

2025-06-23T23:04:55+03:00

This study, arguing that motherhood/mothering is a political act, analyzes two Netflix productions centered on the theme. To analyze the representation of mothering/motherhood, it applies Fiona Joy Green’s (2020) three central concepts within feminist mothering: oppose the institution of motherhood, view mothering as an empowered and political act, and practice matroreform. The method of this study is Feminist Close Reading, which allows for a comparative analysis of whose narratives will be prioritized, amplifying the voices of marginalized perspectives across various traditions. The research focusing on Netflix delivering duplicate content to a large audience across different countries demonstrates that these productions do not romanticize motherhood, impose outdated gender roles, or define women solely through their familial roles. Instead, they reveal that the mothers in these narratives resist societal norms, representing women characters striving to fulfill their authentic identities and stay true to themselves.

Redefining Women's Entrepreneurship: A Conceptual Comparison with General Entrepreneurship

2025-06-26T17:33:19+03:00

This study compares the literature on women entrepreneurship and general entrepreneurship, examining the thematic and conceptual differences between the two fields. The analysis includes articles published in English up to 2025 in the Web of Science database. In the women entrepreneurship literature, a total of 5,058 articles and 8,983 keywords were identified, while in the general entrepreneurship literature, 24,038 articles and 31,385 keywords were analyzed. The findings indicate that the women entrepreneurship literature primarily focuses on themes such as gender, empowerment, social capital, and social entrepreneurship. In contrast, the general entrepreneurship literature encompasses broader themes, including innovation, entrepreneurship education, institutional structures, and economic growth. While concepts like empowerment, social entrepreneurship, and intersectionality are prominent in the women entrepreneurship literature, the general entrepreneurship literature emphasizes innovation, institutions, and entrepreneurial ecosystems. The findings of this study provide a crucial foundation for understanding the unique challenges and opportunities of women entrepreneurs while underscoring the need for a more inclusive perspective in general entrepreneurship literature. These differences highlight the importance of integrating the two fields for a more balanced and inclusive understanding of entrepreneurship. Future research is recommended to ensure greater representation of women entrepreneurship in the general entrepreneurship literature and to foster mutual enrichment between the two fields.

Visions of Raising the Republic in the Province: A Discursive Reading of Childhood, Motherhood, and National Ideals in the Gediz Journal of Early Republican Manisa

2025-06-26T18:05:13+03:00

Childhood, as a socially constructed category, is shaped by specific cultural, political, and historical contexts, and is neither static nor universal. In many nation-building efforts, including that of early Republican Turkey, it has been redefined as a discursive tool to serve the needs of the regime. This study focuses on how childhood was constructed and what values were ascribed to children in the Western Anatolian town of Manisa. Using thematic and discourse analysis and adopting a micro-historical lens, it examines how the Gediz Journal of the Manisa People’s House (1937–1950) engaged with dominant narratives of childhood. The main findings of the study are as follows: 1) the issue of children in Gediz intersected with broader ideological goals of modernization, nation-building, population politics, and gender roles, and it was articulated in ways that reflected these agendas; 2) Children were depicted as vital assets to the nation-state and imagined as future citizens entrusted with ensuring its continuity; 3) The family and the school emerged as the two primary institutions tasked with this mission, with mothers positioned as the principal nurturers expected to raise the future of the Republic; 4) While the journal localized many topics—such as Manisa’s history, folklore, urban development, and socio-economic concerns—its treatment of children reflected a top-down, state-driven narrative. Emphasis was placed on children’s physical, mental, and moral development to safeguard the Republic’s ideological continuity through the combined efforts of the family, especially mothers, and the state. By centering its analysis on childhood, this article questions the descriptive tendency prevalent in existing scholarship on People’s House publications by focusing specifically on the Gediz journal. It underscores the need for critically engaged and localized readings to develop a more comprehensive understanding of how nation-building, modernity, and gender norms were constructed and disseminated in the early Republican period.