Women and process of social structuring in terms of neopatriarchal approach: Middle east and Turkey

The aim of this study is to examine patriarchal structure and gender inequality, as old as human history and developed cooperation with all production systems, and their reflections in contemporary Turkey and Middle East. The framework of the analysis was based on the neopatriarchy theory developed by Hisham Sharabi for the Middle East geography in the 1980s. In that geography a patriarchal structure prevailed in the Pre-Capitalist period but, in the process of being involved in capitalism, the patriarchal structures and institutions that existed in these societies neither removed, nor become institutions in modern sense. Patriarchy evolved and integrated to the new system and become a neopatriarchal structure. The reflections of the neopatriarchal structure are observed at all levels, from education to economy, from politics to women. In our study examined the adequacy and validity of neopatriarchy theory in the field of explanation about social structure and the position of women in contemporary Middle East and Turkey.