AN ANALYSIS ON THE REPRODUCTION OF GENDER RELATIONS IN THE YOUTH SECTION OF THE REPUBLICAN PEOPLE’S PARTY

Abstract

The objective of this article is to explain the gender regime that dominates two district youth organizations (Bakırköy and Üsküdar Branches) of the Republican People’s Party (CHP), and thus, to assert whether an organizational structure and functioning based on the principle of gender equality exist in these organizations. To begin with, relations between the “civil feminism” represented by women’s movement that gained momentum in the early years of the Republic, first under the leadership of the Women People’s Party and then, under the leadership of the Turkish Women’s Union and the “state feminism” that emerged as a consequence of the Republican People’s Party’s will to represent the whole society, are discussed and it is tried to be summarized the historical development of the “gender-blindness” and gender inequality related to it, which emerged as a result of the Republican People’s Party’s rulers’ seeing the “woman problem” and “gender inequality” as problems within the scope of national development, westernization, modernization projects since its establishment. Subsequently, the most important data of the field work conducted within the scope of the master’s thesis, which is the basis of this article, is analyzed. The gender regime of the two district youth organizations is interpreted in the axis of following 5 main reproductive elements: Gender-based task sharing, members’ gender equality perceptions and discourses, actions and activities aimed at these issues, their discourses on sex quota and perceptions of feminism allegedly perpetuated under a certain influence of the ominous historical relations between left movements and feminist movements.