Gender and the Politics of Constitution Making Process in Turkey: From 2011 Onwards

 

In their recent article, together with the coauthor of the article, Sezen Yaras and Ahu Yigit analyzed the gendered constructions of presidential authority within the candidates' constitutional proposals in 2014 presidential elections. Although their findings provide important clues about the gendered tools of constitution making in contemporary Turkey, such single case focuses are not enough to follow and keep track of dynamic shifts in these tools by all actors of constitution making. Instead, a longitudinal analysis is of critical importance for a comprehensive discussion of how gender plays a constructive role in this process. This involves keeping track and reopening into discussion how certain constitutional proposals totally disappeared or are radically transformed in this process and whether that brought loss or new chances for feminist interventions.

 

This study aims to conduct such an analysis in order to identify different faces that patriarchy takes, under which circumstances it attempts to cooperate with feminist voices and which strategies it uses to exclude them. For these purposes, the process starting from the Constitutional Reconciliation Commission meetings in between 2011-2013 and the election of the first president of the presidential regime will be analyzed.