The "modern and independent" women of Generation 1980: Self and subjectivity among secular, middle-class women in Istanbul, Turkey
Item
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Title
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The "modern and independent" women of Generation 1980: Self and subjectivity among secular, middle-class women in Istanbul, Turkey
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Identifier
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d_2009_2013:f37ac62be5c8:11691
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identifier
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12287
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Creator
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Egit, Esin,
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Contributor
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Michael Blim
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Date
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2013
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Cultural anthropology | Womens studies | Middle Eastern studies | Identity | Istanbul | Self | Subjectivity | Turkey | Women
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Abstract
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The focus of this dissertation is Turkish women of "Generation 1980" (born in the late 1960s and early 1970s), a cohort of urban, middle-class, and secular women who came of age in the 1980s in Istanbul, and their struggles with and against "traditional" and "modern" gender ideologies. Based on sixteen months of fieldwork conducted in Istanbul between 2004 and 2007, this study analyzes the formation and transformation of a distinct female subjectivity, made visible through close attention to these women's narratives of self, other, and society.;Increasingly, women in urban Turkey have begun to question traditional gender roles at an early age, and challenge socially expected life trajectories. Women's narratives and memories of their early youth indicate that a shared sense of pride and accomplishment has emerged among women of this cohort, which I call "self-assured" subjectivity, as women are convinced that they are unquestionably "modern and independent." Women's accounts also, conversely, reveal that in situations that challenge their identity as "modern and independent" women, they find themselves surprised, confused, frustrated, and unprepared to respond. In such cases, women blame themselves rather than perceive their problems in the larger context of the gender inequality in and patriarchy of Turkish society. As they experience this discontinuity in their identity, they turn to friends and intimates, to the private and personal realms, for help, reassurance, and confirmation of their "modern and independent" identity.;Women's response to these "unexpected" situations, I argue, must be seen in light of the depoliticized public context in which they grew up. Generation 1980 came of age during a time when the junta government was actively and brutally depoliticizing the public sphere; Republican (Kemalist) ideology was being revitalized by the army; and the economy was undergoing rapid economic liberalization and privatization. Generation 1980 learned to distance themselves from politics and to seek gratification and satisfaction in the private, representing what I call the "apolitical" political self. Drawing on recent of theories of self and subjectivity in psychological anthropology, this dissertation argues that women's self-assured subjectivity, while empowering them in many ways, ultimately limits them as social agents because of their concomitant lack of political engagement.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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2009_2013.csv
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degree
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Ph.D.
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Program
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Anthropology
