Publication: Kadin/Woman 2000
Publication Date: 01-JUN-03
Format: Online - approximately 7884 words
Delivery: Immediate Online Access
Author: Toktas, Sule
Article Excerpt
Ozet
Ogulla, Kizlar ve Anneler: Turk Kadinlarinin Cocuklarinin Cinsiyeti ile ilgili Gorusleri
Cocuga bicilen deger annelerin cocuklarinin toplumsal cinsiyetlerine dair gelistirdikleri anlam ve beklentileri etkilemekte ve bu etkilesim sonucu kiz cocuk ve erkek cocuk anneligi farklila.smaktadir. Annelik ve cocuk tercihi arasindaki ilisskinin irdelenmesi toplumsal cinsiyetin sosyal ve aile-ici iliskiler acismdan edindigi yeni gorunumler ve ifadeler hakkmda onemli ipuclan saglamaktadir. Bu baglsamda, annelerin kendi toplumsal cinsiyet kimlikleri ile cocuklarm toplumsal cinsiyetlerine atfettikleri tanimlamalar ve farkli cinsiyelten cocuklara gore yapilan farkli annelikler arasinda karsilikli bir etkilesim olducgu dusunulebilir.
Bu etkilesimin nasil bir seyir izledigini anlamak icin orneklem grubunun 1960-1970 arasi Turkiye'deki cesitli Kiz Enstitulerinden mezun ogretmen ve akademisyen kadinlarin teskil ettigi, yontem olarak da odak grup ve derinlemesine mulakatlarm kullanildigi niteliksel bir arastirma yapilmishtir. Bu makalede annelerin cocuklarina atfettikleri toplumsal cinsiyet degerleri isiginda kendi toplumsal cinsiyetlerini nasil kurguladiklari sorunsali arashtirma sonuclan isiginda tartisilmaktadir. Gerceklestirilen mulakatlar su sorulara cevap aramistir: Annelerin kiz cocuk ve erkek cocuk arasinda gordugu farklar nelerdir? Anneler cocuk yetistirirken nelere onem vermektedirler ve bu onemli gorulen degerler ile toplumsal cinsiyet kurgulan arasinda bir baglanti var midir? Farkli toplumsal cinsiyetteki cocuklara yapilan annelik nasil farkhlasmaktadir? Modernlesme ve Turkiye ozelinde annelik kulturel olarak nasil ssekillenmektedir?
Anahtar Kelimeler. toplumsal cinsiyet, toplumsal cinsiyet bilinci, annelik, anne-cocuk iliskisi, kiz enstituleri.
Abstract
Gender role attributions affect mothers' gender preferences and their altitudes towards their children according to the functional value of the child for the mother. In this respect, it is believed that gender preferences and gender role attributions of mothers towards their children can highlight how women evaluate their own and their children's gender in social and intra-family relations. Hence, it is thought that a correlation can be built between the gender awareness of mothers and their perception of the gender of the children. In this regard, a qualitative study composed of focus groups and in-depth personal interviews had been conducted with Turkish women teachers and academicians who graduated from Girls' Institutes between 1960 and 1970. This article discusses the results of this study that focuses on gender awareness through gender role attributions of mothers with regard to their children. Some of the interview questions were: What do mothers think about the differences between daughters and sons? What do mothers consider as important when raising their children? How is the gender of child affect mothering styles? How is the context of mothering culturally defined as in the specificity of modern Turkey?
Key Words: gender, gender awareness, motherhood, mother-child relationship, girls' institutes.
Introduction
No matter what the prescriptions are, there is no unique form of motherhood. Although there is a dominant rhetoric regarding motherhood that address as motherhood and mothering as a uniform and universal issue however, realistically the practices of women vary on different levels and in different cultures. Despite this hegemonic rhetoric on motherhood, women of different cultures, religions, nations, regions, classes, ages, races, and reproductive capacities experience motherhood in a different context. The experiences of mothers are diverse; moreover, women's perceptions of mothering experiences also differ. (1)
One of the dynamics in the diversity of the experience of mothering is the gender of the child; that is whether the child is a girl or a boy makes a difference in the style of mothering. Although Sigmund Freud deals with the issue of the differences between boys and girls on the psychological developmental level and analyzes them with respect to the children themselves, feminist psychologists criticized Freud's approach and situated his works within a more woman-mother centred focus. Consequently, it has frequently been emphasized in the literature that due to mothers' perceptions of the gender of their own child, mothering styles differs accordingly. (2) For instance, mothers take more disciplining responsibility and perform a role of greater interference when raising their daughters. (3) It has also been claimed that the core of the mother-daughter relationship is constituted by means of a heritage and the transmission of a model and shared 'discourse of femininity' which allows for the basis of a feminine identity. (4) In the literature on mother-daughter relationships, the feeling of closeness and 'companionship' are additional concepts that receive academic attention. (5) Even more, it has been written that the duration of breastfeeding differs accordingly to the gender of the child--sons are breasffed longer than daughters. (6) For this regard, gender role attributions affect mothers' gender preferences and their attitudes towards the children according to the functional value of the child for the mother. (7)
In this respect, it is thought that gender preferences and gender role attributions of mothers towards their children can highlight how women evaluate their own and their children's gender in social and intra-family relations. Hence, it is thought that a correlation can be made between the gender awareness of mothers and their perception of the gender of the children.
The Study
Based upon the correlation between the gender awareness of mothers and their perception towards the gender of their children, a specific group of Turkish women is selected as samples for the research in this study. In this regard, the Turkish women that were studied are Girls' Institutes graduates in the period between 1960-1970 who also worked as teachers or academicians. The research regarding how women develop consciousness toward their experience of gender in patriarchal society (gender awareness) was dealt in the questions regarding how women view the gender of their children. Fourteen life history interviews and three focus group interviews were conducted in order to find out how women perceive the gender of their children, how they ideologically frame gender roles and what they prescribe for their children as gender roles.
In this research, thirty-two women were interviewed in total. In the three focus groups, eighteen women were interviewed whereas in the life histories, fourteen women were interviewed. As the graduation dates were specifically for middle-aged women, the age variance was between forty-two and fifty-nine at the time of research. All of the women were working except for the two teachers who recently retired. Thirteen of the women were academicians working at the Faculty of Vocational Education in a Turkish university in Ankara, the capital of Turkey, and nineteen were teachers working at various Girls' Technical Education High Schools in Ankara. As for their branches of study, fourteen women were trained in sewing, six in embroidery, five in child development, four in painting, two in handicrafts, and one in family Economics and Nutrition.
The family background of women was primarily urban and of a middle socio-economic status. Some of the fathers of the women were state officials and military officers but there were also several who were artisans and farmers. The fathers' education level varied between primary school and university. Most of the fathers had junior high school education. On the other hand, all of the mothers of these women were housewives and most of them had only primary school education. When the women who were interviewed were young, although their families were nuclear in general, the relations with the broader family (with grandparents, uncles and aunts) were close and these close relatives had significant impact on family affairs. Another contradictory finding in the interviews was that although the parents' family was nuclear in form, decision making was in absolute control of the father or other patriarchal...
NOTE: All illustrations and photos have been removed from this article.
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