A retrospective study of patriarchy in Turkish politics: political masculinities and female party leaders in Turkey

The patriarchal nature of Turkish society reflects itself in Turkish political culture, within which various social mechanisms have reproduced patriarchal relations. This study is designed as a retrospective one. Personal stories and experiences of female party leaders are presented to analyze the prevailing patriarchy in Turkish politics. The analysis is based on biographical sources of life stories and public statements of female party leaders from four consecutive periods: (1) Nezihe Muhiddin - Early Republican period; (2) Behice Boran - Multi-party period; (3) Tansu ciller - Post-1980 Coup Period; and (4) Meral Aksener - The AKP period. The conceptualization of political masculinities is employed to analyze their encounters with the politically-embedded patriarchy. The aim of this article is to contribute to the literature by exploring the ways in which political masculinities play out in the context of female party leaders in Turkish politics.