Abstract:

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

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