Women’s Civil Society in the Early Republican and Multi-Party Period (1923-1980)

In the early Republican and multi-party period (1923-80), the state initiated reforms and pursued a modernization agenda. Similar to the last period of the Ottoman empire, the new Republic was mainly motivated by secularist principles and Turkish nationalism, where women were defined in the framework of a “modern ideology”. As Seckinelgin (2004: 155) argues, “the position of women must be seen central in this process; it was used as one of the most important interventions to initiate this process”. Women’s formal emancipation succeeded early, as a part of the modernization and civilisation project. In 1926, the Islamic legal code was replaced by the civil code and introduced new legal rights for women such as equal rights in marriage, divorce and the custody of children (Arat 2008: 392). In 1934, women gained the right to suffrage, and the status of women was improved in education and employment. The Republican reforms and Kemalist ideology socialized women in a particular way and Turkish middle-class women adopted these roles and enhanced the Kemalist female identity (Durakbaşa 1998). For instance, Durakbaşa (1998) illustrated that Kemalist fathers brought up their daughters as exemplary Republican women and supported them to ensure that their daughters were educated to participate in the public sphere. At the same time, these men continued to endorse moral codes in the family. As Kandiyoti rightly points out, Turkish women were now “emancipated but not liberated”(Kandiyoti 1987: 320). In practice, there was little difference between the traditionalist and modernist patterns in relation to the gender roles.

During early Republican and multi-party period, women collaborated with the state, and until the 1980s women did not challenge the restrictions caused by the state (Arat 2008: 392). The state policy reflected the secular state-building project where women were thought to benefit from the various reforms introduced by Atatürk. For instance, Atatürk encouraged Western clothing for women, discouraged veiling and banned polygamy in marriage. As Tekeli (1997) argues, these reforms were mainly directed to the public sphere and neglected the patriarchal family structure in the private realm. Therefore, the Turkish form of “state feminism” mainly concentrated on the public sphere and the secular role of women. It was aligned with the state ideology and strongly supported by the principles of Kemalism. Therefore, female activism was promoted Kemalist state values and was conducted within the boundaries of the state.

In the early years of the Republic, women had actively demanded political rights, yet, their activities empowered the state rather than their feminist identity. In his analysis, Zafer Toprak (1986; 1988), showed that women started the struggle for political rights after the establishment of the new Republic. Nezihe Muhiddin, a well known feminist in the Ottoman women’s movement and publisher of the journal Women’s Way (Kadın Yolu) and her friends attempted to establish the first women’s political party called the Women’s People’s Party (Kadınlar Halk Fırkası) in 1923.

However, the Women’s People Party was not officially recognized because the 1909 election law forbade women from participating in politics. Instead, women were advised to establish an association by the Kemalist elite. They founded the TKB in 1924 with the aim to advocate political rights, particularly, to support women’s participation in politics as well as to enhance social rights. The existence of horizontal relations was not common during the early Republican period, due to the decline in the number of women’s organizations and strict control of the state over civil society.

During this period, only state supported organizations were allowed to function. Yet, the TKB established branches around Anatolia to raise awareness of activities of the association and to enhance solidarity between women.

Europe was an important symbol for the TKB. Like the visionaries of Kemalist modernizers, Ziya Gökalp, the association borrowed elements of Western civilization for the women’s movement but maintain their culture. This case illustrates how Kemalist women’s associations re-interpreted Western values and principles for their own use. They made strong references to Western women as a model for progression. For instance, as highlighted in Chapter 4, a representative of the TKB explained how the organization had made strong references to Western women as a model.

The women in the organization were interested in establishing connections with the women in Western countries. They followed their activities, made connections, participated in their activities and exchanged information. They also had connections with Eastern women but most of the time, the TKB did not participate in their activities since they imitated European Women as a model for progression and did not want to be regarded as Eastern women. (Interview TKB 2011).

The TKB established international connections and participated in the International Alliance of Women in 1926. A delegation from the association represented Turkey in the international women’s congress in Paris, and in the following years other activists from the association were involved in other

international feminists conventions (Durakbaşa 1998; Zdanowski 2014:56). However, the association was indirectly closed in 1935, following the XII Congress of the International Alliance of Women for Suffrage and Equal Citizenship conference, which took place with the justification that its mission was fulfilled and women had been granted political rights and the right to vote in elections.

Strong state tradition and a focus on nationalism and modernization continued to characterize the Republican women’s civil society. Women’s issues and particularly educated modern women had an important place in this context.

Women’s civil society aligned with the Kemalist ideology and activist women and their groups were seen as representatives of the secular state. As Aldıkaçtı-Marshall (2013: 49) stresses, “in the absence of the autonomous feminist movement during the 1940s and 1950s many women, especially in urban areas, mainly put their efforts toward supporting the new administration and remained royal to the secular project”.

Therefore, the relationship between the state and women’s civil society were intertwined until the 1980s.

Due to a volatile political environment and successive military coups, women’s issues were sidelined until the 1980s, but women continued to mobilize within political parties and student movements during the 1960s and 1970s. Political parties from right, left, and nationalist stances opened women’s branches.

Furthermore, women in socialist groups and socialist parties discussed women’s issues. However, women’s issues were discussed in relation to other themes such as the oppression of the working class and socialism as a solution to women’s problems.

The Progressive Women’s Association (İlerici Kadınlar Derneği) was founded in this environment led by a class-conscious leadership of the Workers Party of Turkey (Türkiye İşçi Partisi-TİP) and reached many women in Turkey. Equally important were influential trade unions and youth organizations at the universities. Importantly, a women’s student movement at the universities developed new strategies of mobilization, which were later used in the 1980s in the independent women’s movement. Therefore, women had been quite active even before the 1980s period.