General Directorate on the Status and Problems of Women
GENERAL DIRECTORATE ON THE STATUS AND PROBLEMS OF WOMEN
An institution that serves as a liaison between the Turkish state and society on the issue of women's rights and problems.
The General Directorate on the Status and Problems of Women was founded in 1990 in line with the requirements of the United Nations Convention on Elimination of All Kinds of Discrimination against Women. Attached to the Turkish Prime Ministry, its activities are supervised by the State Ministry responsible for women and the family. The directorate is comprised of four main departments: Educational and Social Affairs; Economic Affairs; Documentation, Publications, and Statistics; and Foreign Affairs.
Its major objectives are to protect and to promote women's rights; to improve women's social, economic, cultural, and political status; and to ensure that women enjoy equal rights and opportunities in all walks of life. To these ends, it conducts and finances research projects with a policy orientation; collaborates with other public institutions, local administrations, and women's associations; and raises consciousness through the mass media about women's issues.
During its first years, the directorate raised serious suspicions among nongovernmental women's organizations, most of which believed that its aim was to control and co-opt women's independent activism. These perceptions greatly diminished with the appointment of a former nongovernmental leader as its director and with the success of its collaborative projects and campaigns.
See also Gender: Gender and Law; Turkey.
Bibliography
Berik, Günseli. "State Policy in the 1980s and the Future of Women's Rights in Turkey." New Perspectives on Turkey 4 (1990): 81–96.
General Directorate on the Status and Problems of Women. Available from <http://www.kssgm.gov.tr>.
Kardam-Monterey, Nüket, and Ertürk, Yakin. "Expanding Gender Accountability?: Women's Organizations and the State in Turkey." International Journal of Organization Theory and Behavior 2, no. 1–2 (1999): 167–197.
BurÇak Keskin-Kozat