The main aim of this study is to investigate the tools of the women&amp / #8217 / s activism which are used in transforming the gender equality agenda in Turkey in terms of legislative reform. To illustrate and study of the tools of women&amp / #8217 / s activism descriptively, a case study on the women&amp / #8217 / s activism for legislative reform in Turkey is conducted. The findings of the research verified the research thesis that women&amp / #8217 / s activism that occurred after 1980s and institutionalized during 1990s was incredibly influential in transforming the Turkey&amp / #8217 / s political agenda. The inner organization manner of women&amp / #8217 / s movement, its use of the media, lobbying activities such as finding allies in the commission and parliament, engagement with international women&amp / #8217 / s rights mechanisms, conducting effective communication through list-serve, arranging street demonstrations and actions can be enumerated as important tools.

This study examines changing gender roles and women&amp / #8217 / s status under the light of t&ouml / re/yasa and shar&amp / #299 / &amp / #8216 / a among the Inner Asian Turkic and Mongolian societies and Ottomans in Anatolia especially between the thirteenth and the first half of the sixteenth centuries. In this frame, this study traces gender roles and women&amp / #8217 / s status in Inner Asia before the influence of Islamic culture and civilizations by using oral and written sources as well as anthropological studies. It also focuses on the formation of t&ouml / re and yasa among Inner Asian societies and shar&amp / #299 / &amp / #8216 / a in the Muslim world. Finally, this study investigates gender roles and women&amp / #8217 / s status in relation with customary (yasa/t&ouml / re and &ouml / rf-i sultani) and religious laws (shar&amp / #299 / &amp / #8216 / a ) among the Mongol Ilkhans, Timurids and Ottomans. Gender roles and women&amp / #8217 / s status are examined according to political, social and cultural characteristics of these dynasties from a comparative perspective.

The purpose of the thesis is to analyze the inclusion of the Kurdish women in the modernization and nation-building processes of Turkey, and to understand how they experienced these processes. Regarding the issue, although the literature reflects how the educated, urban, upper class, Turkish women experienced these processes, the experiences of women from different ethnic and religious groups and lower classes have not been studied yet. Therefore, this study aims to discuss the experiences of women from different ethnic-religious backgrounds with a feminist approach. In this thesis, I analyzed the transformation of the pre-Republican modernization/Westernization process into a nation-building construction process in the Republican period, and also the integration of women in general into this new process. I executed a research on The Elazig Girls&amp / #8217 / Boarding Vocational School, founded under the Elazig Girls&amp / #8217 / Institute in 1937, in order to explore how Kurdish people were affected by these modernization/Westernization and national-building construction processes and how Kurdish women were involved in these processes through the mediation of education. The thesis has the following three conclusions: First, the school had achieved its mission of the integration of these women into the Turkish culture by the adaptation of the Turkish language and culture by them. Second, the school had become successful in its objective of making these women adapt the ideal Republican woman identity and become the representatives of the Republican ideology. Third, these women experienced such an adaptation process generally not traumatically.

The main purpose of the present study was to investigate the effects of individual differences on Sexual Harassment (SH) perceptions at the workplace. Specifically, the effects of attitudes toward women&amp / #8217 / s gender roles and personality attributes (i.e., self-esteem and emotional affectivity) on SH perceptions were examined. Another purpose of the study was to explore the stereotype domains of sexual harassers and to compare it with those of managers. A preliminary study was conducted by interviewing 56 Turkish working women. Based on the content analyses of the responses, a measure of social-sexual behavior manifestations relevant to the Turkish culture and a measure of harasser stereotypes were developed. In the main study, the social-sexual behavior measure was used to assess harassment perceptions and experiences of women, the stereotype measure was used to explore the nature of harasser and manager stereotypes. A total of 353 women employed in various organizations participated in the main study. Social-sexual behavior items based on sexual harassment perceptions yielded six factors (i.e., unwanted personal attention, verbal sexual attention, sexist hostility, physical sexual assault, insinuation of interest, and sexual bribery and sexual coercion). Each factor was regressed on the individual differences variables. Negative affectivity predicted perceptions of unwanted personal attention, verbal sexual attention, and sexist hostility type of behaviors. Attitudes toward women&amp / #8217 / s gender roles predicted physical sexual assault and sexual bribery-sexual coercion type of behaviors. Self-esteem was found to predict all sexual harassment factors, except sexist hostility. Women&amp / #8217 / s stereotypes towards harassers were found to be significantly different from their stereotypes towards managers, except one domain, which was dominancy. Cluster analysis suggested three different profiles of stereotypes towards harassers, and three different profiles of stereotypes towards managers. Women having stereotypes of negative or negative and powerful harassers perceived significantly more sexual harassment than those with ambivalent stereotypes towards harassers.