Social Status of Woman: The Touchstone of the Contemporary Civilization

Agricultural societies, in which the religious thoughts were effective, saw woman as a second-class person who was to be depended upon man. The fact that women should accompany men to achieve a healty social development was realized some 300 years ago. As for Turkey, although this basic fact had been noticed by the end of 19th century, the concrete steps to raise women’s social status was not taken untill after the foundation of republic. Atatürk, taking the reality that socıal status of women constituted the touchstone of the contemporary civiliation into consideration, made revolutionary leaps forward in this field. His initiatives were the products of such a farsightedness that they were adopted by modern states and international organizations in the forthcoming years. However, in the post-Atatürk period women’s rights in Turkey began to deteriorate due to the socialogical problems produced by rural depopulation and Islamization caused by domestic and external political developments. Today Turkish women are well ahead of the women of other Islamic countries, thanks to the sound foundation laid down by Atatürk. Yet there is a long way ahead to bring about the equality between women and men, and to put the women’s rights into practice completely. In the article below, the matter has been examined in a Kemalist and critical view depending upon original studies as well as documental materials.