FEMINIST IDENTITY FROM THE SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE: THE TURKEY CASE

Abstract

Feminist research has been carried out in different disciplines such as psychology, sociology, women’s studies, literature, etc. for many years. However, the concept of feminist identity developed by feminists as a social group is a recent research subject that is highly complex and controversial. Enough research on feminist identity has not been conducted in Turkish scientific literature. Turkey may be regarded as a heterogeneous sample consisting of various feminist groups which support the women's movement on the basis of unique values. There is a need for defining feminist identity at the national level within the framework of the social dynamics specific to Turkey and developing a sensitive approach to cultural differences in empirical research. Feminist identity is an important issue that needs to be understood and discussed in terms of gender equality at both individual and social levels. Because psychology as a scientific field that is equipped with strong theories about identities, may significantly contributes to the debates on feminist identity, the concept has been discussed from a social psychological perspective in this review. Moreover, the dynamics of feminist identity in Turkey have been summarized in the relation with the main arguments of this paper.

Keywords

• feminism
• feminist identity
• political orientation