Browsing by Subject "Identity-building"

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Open Access
Ballots for security: women’s electoral rights as an identity shield against material threats
(2024-08) Ergün, Ezgi
Having achieved a certain level of border security with the signing of the Treaty of Lausanne, Türkiye implemented a series of reforms in the early stages of its identity-building process to be included among modern Western states. However, during these reforms, no progress was made regarding women’s rights to vote and be elected. In the discussions held in the Grand National Assembly of Türkiye in 1924, female citizens were deprived of these rights. In 1934, however, women were enthusiastically granted the right to vote and be elected, and decision-makers expressed their wish for the same rights to be extended to women in all modern states as soon as possible. The literature has discussed that the decision to grant women the right to vote and be elected was influenced by the non-material threat perception of Turkish political elites. However, the impact of the material threat perception of these elites has not been analyzed before. In this thesis, the impact of material threat perception on decision-making processes leading to the granting of women’s suffrage was examined using process tracing and content analysis methods. Parliamentary minutes, Atatürk’s parliamentary opening speeches, and two of the most circulated newspapers of the period (Cumhuriyet and Milliyet) were analyzed using content analysis. The research has revealed that since its foundation, Türkiye’s decision-making elites aimed to establish the state’s identity as a Western and civilized state. This goal became particularly significant in the late 1920s due to the material threat perceived from Fascist Italy. The symbolic value of women’s rights gained importance as a means to include Türkiye among Western democratic states’ in-group. For the decision-making elites, who had previously expressed women’s suffrage as a future goal to be achieved when the time was right, December 1934 marked the right moment. This timing was influenced by the increasing uncertainty in the international system, the escalation of armament in other states, and the heightened perception of material threats to Türkiye’s border security. Therefore, in this thesis, I argue that Turkish governmental elites decided to grant women's electoral rights because of its symbolic importance in showcasing Türkiye's new identity as a response to the material threats they perceived.