This thesis highlights the significance of patriarchal structures and their reproduction in women&rsquo / s social position through the feminist perspective. Patriarchy is a dominant structure both on production and reproduction sphere. Patriarchy, which is a dominant structure in every sphere of social life has material basis and controls both women&rsquo / s labour and sexuality. With this framework some concepts such as the types of women&rsquo / s labour, paid and domestic labour, family, honour, violence and masculinity are used in order to understand patriarchy. Patriarchy is not a fixed structure / on the contrary it has been changed according to the different mode of production and different social and cultural structures in which it takes place. In the scope of this thesis, the examples of &lsquo / social realist&rsquo / and &lsquo / national cinema&rsquo / are analysed sociologically. The social, economic and political structure of Turkey in between 1960-70 has some special importance. In addition to that, the institution of cinema had some important changes at the same period. Meantime, it is important that not many studies were done in woman&rsquo / s subordination for this period in Turkey. Not only woman&rsquo / s subordination in the scope of patriarchy, but also mutual relations of men and the role of men in reproduction of patriarchy were analysed in the film analysis.

In this thesis, ipek Ongun&rsquo / s three books on good manners and etiquette, which especially aim at teenage girls, are analyzed in detail. Born in 1943, Ongun is a popular Turkish writer in teenage literature who has sold over a million books since 1980s. It is necessary to investigate especially the cultural, social and aesthetic messages given in her books. The writer&rsquo / s non-fiction trilogy has been extremely influential on teenage girls in Turkey in the 1990s, and they still are. These are Bir Piriltidir YaSamak (Living Is a Glitter, 1991), Bu Hayat Sizin (This Life Is Yours, 1993), and L&uuml / tfen Beni Anla (Please Understand Me, 1995). The themes of major importance in the trilogy are social life, traditions, schools, parenting, beauty, and personal care. This study examines the content of this trilogy from a critical perspective, especially raising questions regarding Ongun&rsquo / s messages leading the construction of female identities from a feminist viewpoint. The qualitative research method has been adopted for the analysis and several comparisons have been carried out between Ongun&rsquo / s books and certain popular teenage etiquette books published in the US. The study concludes that although some of Ongun&rsquo / s messages might be found beneficial for certain segments of the teenage population, the fact that she is not an expert in teenage psychology and development, poses several critical questions about the validity of her messages. Besides, Ongun&rsquo / s target audience seems to be the upper-middle classes of the society also raises questions regarding the universality of her messages.

In this thesis, the systematic usage of sexual violence towards women as a weapon during the Yugoslavian Civil War is analyzed. The study attempts to underline the role of gender identities of women during the Civil War as a means for the victimization of women through sexual violence, especially mass rapes. It is argued that with the disintegration of Yugoslavia, as men clashed for power, the portrayal of women as mothers and carriers of the nation under the nationalistic discourse caused these women to become the primary targets of the war. It is also argued that the primary aim of rape as a weapon of ethnic cleansing during the war was to destroy the harmony and unity of the enemy by dishonoring and violating their women.

With 2011 womens movement in Turkey has a new tool for combating violence against women in their hands / Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence, a.k.a. the Istanbul Convention. The Convention will add several new tools to the ones used by the womens movement in Turkey since 1980s.

With the foundation of the Turkish Republic in 1923, improving the status of Turkish woman and creating a new republican woman image turned out to be pivotal issues. Women&amp / #8217 / s rights were considered as the indicators of the Turkish modernization, therefore were placed at the core of the agenda of the new republican regime. However, before the foundation of the Turkish Republic, there was a strong Ottoman-Turkish Feminism which came into existence in the late period of the Ottoman Empire and continued in the early years of the Turkish Republic. Although the Republican Reforms are considered as the unique source of equality between Turkish man and woman in the public sphere, the contributions of the Ottoman-Turkish Feminism on the progress of the status of the Ottoman-Turkish women should not be overlooked. The Ottoman-Turkish Feminism aimed at ameliorating and improving the living conditions of the Ottoman-Turkish women. Gaining equal political, economic and educational rights with men were the crux of the movement, as they were in the Western First Wave Feminism. However, struggling for the abolish of the female slavery, forming a national family, creating a new woman image were the other issues that were discussed widely during the Ottoman-Turkish Feminism. Women&amp / #8217 / s associations and women&amp / #8217 / s magazines were the two important vehicles of the Ottoman-Turkish Feminism in the struggle of gaining equal rights. Nezihe Muhittin was one of the leading activist woman who took part in the various activities conducted under the roof of the Ottoman-Turkish Feminism. Muhittin participated in the foundation of diverse women&amp / #8217 / s associations and she was an efficient social worker. Besides her activism, Muhittin was also one of the eminent literary figures of the time. She contributed to the formation of the new woman image as she wrote various short stories, articles and novellas all of which touch upon crucial issues about Ottoman-Turkish womanhood. In the light of this theoretical framework, this study focusses on the literary works of Nezihe Muhittin, analysing the reflections of the Ottoman-Turkish Feminism on the novellas written between the years 1911 and 1944. With the aim of detecting the implications of the Ottoman-Turkish Feminism on the literary works of Nezihe Muhittin, frequently referred themes are compared with the main tenets and discussions of the movement. By the same token, the good and evil woman characters in the novellas are compared with the appreciated and criticised woman types of the time. By doing so, it is aimed to demonstrate that Muhittin&amp / #8217 / s literary works can be considered as the products of the Ottoman-Turkish Feminism.

The number of men within the academia who analyze patriarchy, masculinities and gender inequality seem to be increasing in Turkey especially for the last couple of years. This can be considered as an evidence for the influence of feminism over men. Although more men today are interested in those fields of feminism to criticize men&rsquo / s hegemony, it is rather important to know that how much extent they are open to change their relation with patriarchy in order to confront it. This study attempts to provide a critical evaluation of men who are academically interested in struggling against patriarchy. For this aim, in-depth interviews were made with thirteen men in the academia in order to comprehend their standpoint and thoughts about men&rsquo / s engagement with feminism. It is seen that most men in the research group are willing to cooperate with feminists to confront patriarchy. However, it is also found out that it is arduous for men to change their relation with patriarchy because patriarchy provides men with institutionalized privileges. In this respect, this study argues that male contribution to feminism would be beneficial as much as problematic. Moreover, instead of answering it directly as &lsquo / yes&rsquo / or &lsquo / no&rsquo / , this study suggests to respond the main question that whether men would be true allies of feminism by following the change in men in terms of their attitudes towards patriarchy.

The aim of this thesis is to explore the stance of feminist movement towards a dialogue with Islamist women and the &lsquo / headscarf problem&rsquo / in Turkey in 2000s. This is done by examining three magazines which claim to contribute to feminist movement and women&rsquo / s studies in Turkey, namely Feminist YaklaSimlar, Kadin &Ccedil / aliSmalari Dergisi and Amargi, all of which have been started to be published in 2006. It tries to explain the way in which feminists framed the issue has changed since the 1980s and 1990s, when the feminist movement and the debates on headscarves were on the rise in Turkey. In order to understand the shift of feminist discourse(s) on the headscarf issue, it also tries to explain how the women&rsquo / s movement and women&rsquo / s status in Turkey have transformed since the 19th century, along with the debates on the headscarf.

Myths have been an undeniable source in both shaping and expressing the values, norms and behavioural patterns in societies. However, the archetypes in these myths have helped to oppress women in their personal and social lives and have forced them to accept identities which actually are not theirs. Feminist archetypal theorists propose that through a detailed study of common images of women&rsquo / s writings, fantasies, dreams and myths, the archetypes that women possess will be uncovered and the female experience will have the chance to be voiced more accurately. The aim of this thesis is to explore Surfacing and The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood and Indigo and The Leto Bundle by Marina Warner to lay bare the attempts of both writers to break away from the male-oriented myths so as to rewrite female experience via rewriting myths. In four novels, the archetypes and mythical elements are used in rewriting the gender and sexual identity markers which have long been imposed on women by patriarchal mythmakers. By rewriting these markers, both writers not only voice the genuine female experience and the body but also pave the way for the creation of new myths which would celebrate female identity and freedom.

Since the 1990&rsquo / s, interest in the European Union (EU) gender equality policies has increased among feminist scholars and activists. In this context, studies focusing on equal pay for work of equal value, equal treatment in education, and access to employment, among others have been undertaken and different dimensions of the EU gender equality policies have been a subject of much debate. This thesis is an effort to critically review the potential of these policies vis-&agrave / -vis their capacity to bring about gender equality in the EU Member States and examine their implications for Turkey as a candidate country. The fundamental argument that underlines this thesis is that the EU gender equality regime, which is mainly concerned with equality in the work place, falls short of effectively responding to the complexities of gender inequality within diverse women&rsquo / s experiences and socioeconomic settings. In Turkey, women&rsquo / s organizations have used the EU accession process to demand major legislative reforms. As a result, it can be said that &lsquo / equality before law&rsquo / is now more or less achieved in Turkey. However, in practice, gender inequality is a pervasive problem in all spheres of life. In the area of employment serious gender v pay gaps exist and unemployment rate of Turkish women is on the rise. Women also face discrimination in other areas of concern such as in access to education and political participation and they encounter multiple forms of violence in both public and private spheres of life. In view of the diversities of women&rsquo / s experiences both in member as well as candidate countries of the EU, the thesis concludes that if the EU is to be a viable project in truly bringing about gender equality it needs to move beyond economics to include social goals within its core policies as well.

This thesis is designed to analyze the relations between the Egyptian women&rsquo / s NGOs and the state in Contemporary Egypt through the interviews conducted with members and administrators of eleven selected women&rsquo / s NGOs based in Cairo. The main aim is to show how these NGOs with different aims and different working areas build their relations with the state, what kind of problems they face and how they cope with them as well as, if there are any, elaborate the relation patterns between the state and different women&rsquo / s NGOs in different fields. The sample of the research consists of twenty-seven women, members and administrators, from eleven women&rsquo / s organizations based in Cairo. The women&rsquo / s organizations that constitute the subject of this research study were selected out of the leading advocacy, research, charity and development NGOs in Cairo. Within this framework, the thesis is mainly based on the qualitative data of the in-depth interviews and the interpretations of the responses given by the interviewees. On the other hand, in order to better analyze and understand existing relations between the state and women&rsquo / s organizations in contemporary Egypt, women&rsquo / s activism and NGOs and their shifting relations with the state will be examined historically as well.