BEKAR ANNELER AİLE OLUYOR: TÜRKİYE’DE GELENEKSEL AİLENİN YENİDEN İNŞASI

Bu çalışmada ana amacım, boşanma ya da kocanın kaybı ile evlilikleri sonuçlanan kadınların ekonomik, sosyal ağ ve sosyal destek, kültürel ön yargılar ve Türkiye'de tek ebeveynlik meseleleri gibi konuları dul ve boşanmış bir kadın olarak nasıl deneyimlediklerini kavramaktır. Temel argümanım, dul ve boşanmış kadınların aile, piyasa ve devlet arasında sıkışmış olması; cinsiyete dayalı iş bölümü, ataerkil toplum algısı üzerine kurulmuş sosyal politikalar, bu kadınların yaşamlarını istedikleri şekilde yaşamalarına ve kendi ayakları üzerinde durmalarına izin vermiyor olması. Bu çalışmamda, boşanmış ve dul kadının, bekar anne olarak yaşadığı zorluklarla başa çıkabilmek için Türkiye’deki geleneksel aile kalıplarını yeniden inşa ettikleri göstermeyi amaçlamaktayım. Kadınların ataerkilliğe ilişkin deneyimlerindeki değişimi anlamak için, Ankara'da yaşayan boşanmış on dokuz anne ve on altı eşi vefat etmiş (dul) anne ile yarı yapılandırılmış görüşmeler yapıldı. Çalışmanın bulguları, boşanmış ve eşi vefat etmiş kadınların ailelerinin “ideal aile” anlayışı tarafından tanımlandığını göstermektedir. Bekar anneler toplumdaki ataerkil sistem baskısı nedeniyle evlilikleri sonlandıktan sonra ailelerinde geleneksel aile normlarını benimseyerek aileyi gerçekleştirmeye çalışmaktadırlar. Boşanmış ve eşi vefat etmiş kadınlar, ailelerin çelişkiliğini ve otorite sorunlarını ortaya çıkarmaktadır; çünkü bekar anneler Türkiye'de geleneksel aile modeline uymamaktadır.

SINGLE MOTHERS DOING FAMILY: RE-FORMING TRADITIONAL FAMILY IN TURKEY

In this study, my main purpose is to grasp how women whose marriage is ended up either by divorce or theloss of the husband experience the life after marital dissolution as a widow and a divorced woman ineconomic, social network and social support, cultural stigma and single parenting issues in Turkey. I claimthat widowed and divorced women are trapped in between family, market and state; and that gender based,family oriented patriarchal society and social policies do not allow these women to live their life the waythey want and to stand on their own feet, and make them lean on their families or men. In this study, myargument is that divorced and widow women are doing family in order to cope with the difficulties of beingsingle mothers. In order to understand the change in women’s experiences with patriarchy, semi-structuredinterviews were conducted with nineteen divorced mothers and seventeen widow mothers living in Ankara.This study shows us while the divorced mothers were trying to construct a new family; they reconstruct thetraditional family approach by letting grandfathers to be authority figure in the family. The findings of thisstudy point out that divorced and widow women families are defined by the family ideal. Single motherstry to perform the family by adopting traditional family norms in their family after marital dissolutionbecause of the pressure of patriarchal system in the society. The cases of divorced and widow women showus that family ambivalence and authority problems occur because single mothers do not fit the traditionalfamily model in Turkey.

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