Women as Agents of Modernization in Turkey

Abstract

In this paper I would like to articulate on the role of women, especially as artists, in the change of culture from traditional Islamic patterns to a more open and democratic approach, from the mid 19th to the mid 20th century. My claim is that although there was a dynamic discourse on modernization and what it entailed as taste and conduct, it was only when women appeared on the social and public scene that a real change in the social, artistic and political spheres could take place. Women acted as live examples of their arguments vis a vis the prejudices that impeded social change. My paper will show that, contrary to general assumptions there were heated arguments that concerned lifestyle and aesthetics, beginning in the mid 19th century, and that only when women became involved that these had an effect in practical life. Furthermore, my paper will also show that in the two important turning points of social and cultural change in Turkey, namely in the end of the 19th century continuing into the republic, in the mid 20th century, and in the 1980's, women played important roles as artists in giving the Turkish cultural scene a new stamina.