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Status of Women in Turkey: Cross-Cultural Perspectives

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2009

Çigdem Kagitçbasi
Çigdem Kagitçbasi
Affiliation:
Psychology Department Bogaziçi University
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Extract

The status of women in Turkey may be examined from several perspectives. One perspective might focus on the public sphere and take into account the legal, political, and institutional reforms of hte Republican era and their reflection in the increasing literacy rates, educational attainment, political participation, labor force participation, and professionalization of women in Turkey. A second perspective might focus on the private sphere, mainly the family, and consider family dynamics and interaction patterns as well as the place of the woman in the family. This paper will adopt the second perspective. Before taking it up in detail, however, it may be helpful to consider briefly the general picture of the public sphere. This should provide us with necessary backgorund and help put our findings into context.

Type
Articles
Information
International Journal of Middle East Studies , Volume 18 , Issue 4 , November 1986 , pp. 485 - 499
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1986

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References

1 An earlier version of this paper was presented at the 18th Annual Meeting of Middle East Studies Association, San Francisco, Nov 28–Dec 1, 1984.

2 Abadan-Unat, N., “The Modernization of Turkish Women,” The Middle East Journal, 32, 3 (1978), pp. 291–306;Google Scholar and Abadan-Unat, , ed., Women in Turkish Society (Leiden, 1981).Google Scholar

3 Abadan-Unat, Women, p. 1.

4 For example, Kandiyoti, D., “Sex Roles and Social Change: A Comparative Appraisal of Turkey's Women,” Sings: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, 3, 1 (1977), 57–73;Google ScholarKandiyoti, , “Urban Change and Women's Roles in Turkey: An Overview and Evaluation,” in Kagitçibasi, Ç., ed., Sex Roles, Family and Community in Turkey (Bloomington, Indiana, 1982), pp. 101–120.Google ScholarKiray, M. B., “Changing Roles of Mothers: Changing Intra-Family Relations in a Turkish Town,” in Peristiany, J., ed., Mediterranean Family Structure (Cambridge, 1976), pp. 261–271;Google Scholar Kiray, “The Women of Small Town,” in Abadan-Unat, Women, pp. 259–274; Kagitçibasi, Ç., The Changing Value of Children in Turkey (Honolulu, 1982);Google ScholarKagitçibasi, , “Old-Age Security Value of Children and Development,” Journal of Comparative Family Studies, 13 (Special Issue, 1982), 133–142;Google Scholar Kagitçibasi, “Sex Roles, Value of Children and Fertility,” in Kagitçibasi Sex Roles, pp. 151–180; Kagitçibasi, , “Women and Development in Turkey,” International Journal of Turkish Studies, 2, 2 (1983), 59–70;Google ScholarÇulpan, O. and Marzotto, T., “Changing Attitudes Toward Work and Marriage: Turkey in Transition,” Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, 8, 2 (1982), 337–351;CrossRefGoogle ScholarKuyas, N. F., “The Effects of Female Labor on Power Relations in the Urban Turkish Family,” in Kagitçibasi, Sex Roles, pp. 181–206.Google Scholar

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6 Kagitçibasi, Changing.

7 The principal investigators and the countries participating in the Value of Children Study were Russell Darroch and Masri Singarimbun (Indonesia); Sung Jin Lee (Korea); Rodolfo Bulatao (Philippines); Tom Sun and Tsong-Shien Wu (Taiwan); Betty J. Chung, Eddie Kuo, and Peter S. J. Chen (Singapore); Chalip Buri-Pakdi, Visid Prachuabman, and Nibhon Debavalya (Thailand); Çigdem Kagitçbiasi (Turkey); Lois Hoffman, James T. Fawcett, and Fred Arnold (U.S.A.). The Turkish VOC Project was supported by the International Development Research Centre of Canada. The study was also conducted in Germany. The still unpublished resultes of the research by the West German team (Esther R. Mechler, Brian R. Flay, and Andrejs Urdze) are not presented here, as they are not comparable to the rest in terms of the sample characteristics.

8 Kagitçibasi, Changing.

9 Rotter, J. B., “Generalized Expectancies for Internal versus External Control of Reinforcement,” Psychological Monographs, 8 (1966), 1–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

10 Kagitçibasi, “Sex Roles, Value of Children”; Kagitçibasi, “Women.”

11 For example, Homans, G. C., Social Behavior: Its Elementary Forms (New York, 1961);Google ScholarThibaut, J. W. and Kelley, H. H., The Social Psychology of Groups (New York, 1959).Google Scholar

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13 Kagitçibasi, Ç., “Socialization in Traditional Society: A Challenge to Psychology,” International Journal of Psychology, 19 (Special Issue, 1984), 145–157.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

14 The items in Table 2 have the following meaning: factor l: economic value of children (factor score) ecoval: economic value of children econhelp: economic help expected from children desired: desired number of children ideal: ideal number of children son pref: son preference who cont: son's contribution to important life value type of work: prestige/professionalization ranking of employment