Gender, patriarchy and space:Urban life experiences of women university students in Mersin

This study examines from a sociological and feminist perspective the gender inequalities, patriarchal oppression and control mechanisms faced by young women who leave the family home and study at university in a different city, and how they experience them socially and spatially in everyday life. This study, which focuses on the patriarchal forms of domination and relations that surround women in all areas of life, investigates the gender discrimination that young women's experience in areas such as housing, security, freedom of movement, and the use of public spaces during their university education in the city where they are strangers, using a feminist method. The aim is to understand the social and spatial practices and experiences of women university students in relation to gender inequalities by revealing which problems and difficulties, restrictions and obstacles they encounter in these areas, where and how, and what kind of coping and defense strategies they develop. In the study, in-depth interviews were conducted with 30 female undergraduate students who left their families and cities to come to Mersin for higher education and study at Mersin University Çiftlikköy Campus. The findings of the study show that gender discrimination and security concerns that women face in areas such as housing, freedom of movement and use of public space play an important role in women's choice of location. Although women can act more individually compared to their lives in the family home, they cannot make decisions about their own lives completely independently and are subject to the approval of family members.