Women organizations during the Second Constitutional Period

The role of women in the family and the community was reconsidered in the Ottoman Empire, as a result of the modernization movement during the Tanzimat period. Tanzimat bureaucrats, who believed that modernization of the society could be possible on condition that all individuals of the society including women made progress, set out a number of legal regulations to improve the social status of women. Besides administrative, judicial, economic, social, educational and cultural reforms, Tanzimat statesmen gave a special importance to the women education. Indeed, except for the primary schools, secondary schools for females such as İnas Rüşdiyes (junior high schools for girls), Darülmuallimat (Female Teacher School) and Kız Sanayi Mektebi (Female Industrial School) were established for the first time in this period. The women who graduated from these schools started to participate in working life and opened a brand-new epoch in Ottoman women life. Intellectuals published numerous articles about the women issue in the newspapers and the periodicals during the Tanzimat period. Furthermore, the first women magazine, Terakki-i Muhadderat (Progress of Women), was started to publish in 1869. These developments brought about the beginning of the long emancipation process of the Ottoman women.The first women organizations in the Ottoman Empire were established by Greek and Armenian women during the 1860?s. The first Muslim women association was founded in 1876 to help to the wounded soldiers, and the second one was established during Turkish-Greek War of 1897 to assist to the families of the martyrs. Women question earned a new dimension thanks to the liberal atmosphere during the second Constitutional period. There were numerous discussions in the press related to the women rights, women-men equality, women education, polygamy, women workers etc. during this period. Pro-European, Pan-Turkist and Islamist intellectuals have different opinions on these questions. However, the traditional society structure was the biggest obstacle about the women question. Apart from non-Muslim women newspapers and periodicals, Turkish women published some ten newspapers and journals during the second Constitutional period. Besides they founded around fifty associations for the purpose of poor relief, women rights and education, improving their social status, helping each other, employment of women, fellow or national solidarity etc. That the Muslim women started to act in organized manner by means of these associations gave rise to important developments in their social status and participation to the social life.