Extending the ‘Private’ Sphere: Conservative Women ’s Politics of Charity in Turkey

Titel in Übersetzung: Die Erweiterung der 'privaten' Sphäre: Die Politiken der Wohltätigkeit der konservativen Frauen in der Türkei

Veröffentlichungen: Beitrag in FachzeitschriftArtikelPeer Reviewed

Abstract

This paper puts forward the thesis that conservative women, organized through charity NGOs, extend the 'private' sphere in Turkey's current neoliberal-conservative environment by contributing to the discursive privatization of poverty and social protection in general. The starting points for the current study are the feminist movements that challenge patriarchy but also the observation that organized conservative women in Turkey actively contribute to patriarchal structures. This paper considers two Istanbul-based NGOs run exclusively by women. It studies their politics of charity against the overall policy environment under the ruling AKP; characterized by a meshing of neoliberalism with religious conservatism. Privatization of poverty and social protection is intrinsic to neoliberal restructuring and its constitutive ideology, conservatism, in Turkey. This paper shows that Islamically oriented conservative charity NGOs, run by women, reinforce rather than challenge neoliberal-conservative patriarchy. They do so by emphasizing women's roles as 'natural' caregivers and discursively extend the 'private' sphere to depoliticize (female) poverty and promote community-based charity.

Titel in ÜbersetzungDie Erweiterung der 'privaten' Sphäre: Die Politiken der Wohltätigkeit der konservativen Frauen in der Türkei
OriginalspracheEnglisch
Seiten (von - bis)948-959
Seitenumfang12
FachzeitschriftJournal of Gender Studies
Jahrgang28
Ausgabenummer8
DOIs
PublikationsstatusVeröffentlicht - 17 Nov. 2019

ÖFOS 2012

  • 504014 Gender Studies

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