HIDDEN WAR AGAINST WOMEN

For the last couple of decades, there has been a dramatic regress in the women’s economic, social and political positions in Turkey. The number of women participating in job market decreased from 34.1 percent in 1990 to 23.5 percent in 2009. Almost 85 percent of the working women are still stuck in traditional female jobs. A diminishing representation of women in politics and increasing violence against women have been other features of this regression. At the same time period, a transformation of Turkish media came with the boom of the number of commercial TV channels, radio stations, magazines and newspapers. This newly transformed media did manage traditional gender roles to infiltrate the thoughts of women, majority of whom stayed out of job market. The images of women created through the advertisements, TV serials, TV talk shows, and magazines have been more altruistic family oriented type than women questing for equal rights. Today, more and more women watch TV programs, support cosmetic industry, spend lots of money on clothing, and are very interested in their body, value traditional gender roles and do not ask for equality. Recently, the scholars began to discuss the rise of conservatism in Turkey without addressing the backward shift in women position in various spheres of life. All these problematical issues mentioned above need to be considered within a sociological framework that should be able to show us the current situation of women in Turkey. This presentation attempts to do this

Keywords:

Woman, media, women employment conservatism,

PDF

___

Altınay A. Gül. ve Yeşim Arat (2008) Türkiye’de Kadına Yönelik Şiddet. İstanbul: TÜBİTAK
Buğra Ayşe (2010) Toplumsal Cinsiyet, İşgücü Piyasaları ve Refah Rejimleri:
Türkiye’de Kadın İstihdamı. İstanbul: TÜBİTAK (TÜBİTAK Proje No: K524) Buğra A., Keyder, Ç. 2010. New Poverty and the Changing. A Report Prepared forthe United Nations Development Programme.
Byerly C. M. and, C. Ross. 2006. Women and Media: A Critical Introduction.
Madlen: Blackwell Publishing. Byth M. (2004). Spin Sisters: How the Women of teh Media Sell Unhappiness and Liberalism to the Women of America. New York: Martin’s Press
Dow, B. J. 1996. Pime-Time Feminism.
Directorate of Family and Social Research. 2009. Yoksulluk Algısı ve Faludi Susan (1991) Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women.
New York: Three Rivers Press. Irigaray, L. 2006. Ben, Sen, Biz: Farklılık Kültürüne Doğru. İmge: Ankara
Manga J. (2003). Talking Trash: The Cultural Politics of Daytime TV Talk
Shows. New York: New York University Press. Radyo Televizyon Üst Kurulu [RTÜK] (2010). Kadınların Televizyon İzleme
Eğlimleri Araştırması 2. Kamuoyu, Yayın Araştırmaları ve Ölçme Daire Başkanlığı: Bilkent, Ankara Rivers C. (2008). Selling Anxiety: How the News Media Scare Women.
Lebanon: University Press of New England. T.C. Başbakanlık Devlet Planlama Teşkilatı ve World Bank. 2009. Türkiye’de
Kadınların İşgücüne Katılımı. Rapor No: 48508-TR.
Toprak B.; Bozan İ.; Morgül T.; Şener N. (2009). Türkiye’de Farklı Olmak: Din ve Muhafazakarlık Ekseninde Ötekileştirilenler. İstanbul: Metis.