Intersecting and differentiating trends in women's organizations in Turkey: Challenge, compromise, complaisance

The subject of this study is the background, dynamics and relationships of changing and differentiating organizational practices and forms of action of women's organizations. In this study we see the capacity of changes and opposition determined with the form of the relation of women's organizations with the women's movement and the relation with power structures such as government and main stream bodies. The argument of the study is: women's organizations' main aim is to be the part of women's movement which enables changes; they work for the targets of the movement; they make opposition to the main stream power structures and when as much as they bring on alternatives they develop their capacity of enabling changes and organizing opposition. The study is based on a feminist research carried out with seventeen different women's organizations in 2016 in Diyarbakır and Batman which have different experiences, ideological bases, organizational practices and networks. This research points out the role of 'social movement organizations' and 'women's NGOs' as two different perspectives; one, being a part of a movement, which has a women's liberation approach and an ideological base; the other, being founded in civil society area as a nongovernmental organization. The second mode of organization is strictly in relation with the trend of civil society and NGOization approach rising up in the whole world from the beginning of 1990's. This trend is majorly the reflection of reconciliation area which is constructed by the outcome of relations, the women's organizations developed with governmental institutions, main stream foundations and funding organizations. This mode of organizations emphasizes the cooperation and arrangements with these institutions and project based working forms for the resolution of women's problems. Most of this type of organizations have no opposition aim because they have supposed themselves outside the area of politics and ideologies. These two different trends both differentiating and existing together, with the authenticity of the research area, enlighten the discussions have been made in the women's movement for the last thirty years and provide an opportunity for the discussion of these subjects on the basis of feminist politics. Key words: Women's organization, NGOization, Social movement organization, Batman, Diyarbakır