Socioligical reasons and political effects of gender inequality in the European Union and Turkey

ABSTRACTMaster?s ThesisSociological Reasons and Political Effects of Gender Inequalityin the European Union and TurkeyAtiye KALKANDokuz Eylul UniversityInstitute of Social SciencesEuropean Union DepartmentEuropean Union ProgramGender inequality is a concept encountered all over the world, and inevery aspect of life itself. When we examine the reasons behind the concept, wecome across with a notion, namely patriarchy. Patriarchy is a notion that feedsand ingrains gender inequality.When we investigate the roots of patriarchy, concepts such as privateproperty, ancient city states, value given to militancy and demography emergeas the phenomena which cause patriarchy, and thereby the inequality.However there was a matriarchal period before patriarchy when genderinequality did not exist. Symmetry among genders was present during thatperiod. This symmetry disintegrated together with the arrival of patriarchy.While the values attributed to men increased and values specific to womendepreciated, consequently women took a secondary position in society.Although the secondary position of women is being linked to theirbiology, the real reason behind this is gender models and other roles attributedto women and men. The role attributed to women through patriarchy appearseverywhere and women are confined to a private area by being excluded fromthe public area. Patriarchy expresses itself in language and religioncontinuously, emphasizing the secondary position of women. Women duringthis period are unable to participate in the political arena.Equality has been provided by law, however has not been able to beinternalized and disseminated to all areas of society. Progress in equality will beguaranteed with the existence of women in public areas, achievement in genderequality in politics, and the reflection of feminine values to the culture. Withincreasing importance of knowledge and the predominancy of feminine values,the information society will contribute positively to the achievment of equality.Keywords: 1) Patriarchy, 2) Matriarchy, 3) Sex,4) Gender, 5) Gender Inequality, 6) Public Area,7) Private Area