Women's rights in Turkey and steps towards gender equality

Abstract

The end of the Cold War brought about various reforms in the fields of democracy, respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms within Europe. As a result of this, the European Union became more unified as both a political and economic union. This lead to various enlargements of the Union and today, there are a further 3 candidate countries requesting to join the EU - Romania, Bulgaria and Turkey. As an EU candidate country, Turkey has had to change and is still changing, a wide range of policies, which include its human rights record while giving more importance to women's rights and equality within the country. Adhering to the acquis communutaire especially the laws relating to human rights and women's rights, might not be such an easy task for a country as Turkey, since in the past, violations in this field were quite common. However, full membership of the Union requires Turkey to abide by these laws. In my thesis, I will go through the different stages of women's emancipation in Turkey. Chapter 1 deals with Turkish women during the Ottoman Empire - the way they lived and the way society treated them. The effects of Islam and the restraints the religion may have on women is dealt with in Chapter 2, while Chapter 3 shows the drastic change in the position of women in Turkey during the 19th and 20th centuries. Women have moved from being their husband's servants to becoming Prime Minister. The last 2 chapters show how the EU deals with combating gender discrimination - with Conventions, Charters and programmes - and a discussion on the evolution of the woman in Turkey.