Construction of "Womennes" in old women's narratives: Women of hard life (Muş province example)

This study aims to understand the traditional women's experience in the province of Muş. It is aimed to reveal what kind of resistance mechanisms the social, cultural and religious practices of women living in provincial culture have developed for women. The conceptualization of "Women of a Difficult Life" made it necessary to address women as the primary subject of a difficult life. The primary objective is to examine in detail the experiences, perspectives on life, ways of interpreting the situation they are in, and the relationships they have established with their husbands and the actors around them with whom they are in close contact, of women in their sixty who have gained life experience within their own difficult living conditions. Through this thesis, it is aimed to identify the difficult life that is unique to women, to make visible the states and emotions of womanhood, and finally to compare the experiences of women with the inferences that older women make about the present. The study is designed in three parts. In the first part, sociological and feminist approaches, theories and definitions are presented in order to address the female gender from a sociological perspective rather than a biological definition. In this way, the origin and historical process of the concept of 'gender' is discussed and analyzed, and the elements that make women 'women' in today's social structure reality and the situations that play an active role in the process of constructing their identity are discussed. In the second part, as a complementary section on the concept of gender, a gender analysis was made specifically for women. The aim was to capture the social manifestations of women and femininity and their feelings and emotions, to draw a unique social framework for women, and to draw attention to women's landscapes in Turkey. The section was reinforced with titles developed around the construction of women and femininity, women as a social subject and women of Turkey. In the third and final part of the study, field research was conducted to better understand and interpret the social assumptions about gender that make their lives difficult by listening to the life stories of women through interviews with elderly women using qualitative research method. Key Words: Family, Gender, Older Women, Sociology, , Women.