Abstract
Women’s Movements and Media: An Analysis of the Representation of the 8th March International Women’s Day in the National Newspapers
The present study aims to analyse how the 8th of March International Women’s Day, one of the symbolized social movements of women’s struggle, is presented in national newspapers of Turkey. Within this context, the reports of three national newspapers, which have different tendencies (Hürriyet, Cumhuriyet, Yeni Akit) about the 8th of March International Women’s Day in the last five years, have been studied by descriptive analysis. Social movements, in which people organise and act out their thoughts to create a change in society or express their aims, have played a significant role to provide social change, along with modernisation. The transformation in the social movements of 1960 separated from central organising and turned into non-central structures. The groups which gathered as a result of this inversion aimed to change or transform problematic structures, organisations or situations. The fact that new social movements were established on demand for identity influenced the struggle of women who do not have equal rights all over the world. The acts of women who rise up against problems, which are resulted from social gender codes such as gender apartheid, violence and inequality, have been effective all over the world. Although there are different arguments about how the 8th of March, the date of one of the most commonly known women’s acts in the world, emerged, the common point is that women played an active part in the formation of this date. How the 8th of March is approached by the newspapers in Turkey is important in that it shows what meaning the national press attributes to the 8th of March and women’s movements. Although the perspectives of those newspapers towards the 8th of March International Women’s Day show differences according to the reports dated 8th-9th March in the last 5 years, it has been inferred from those analyses that some newspapers still commentate on women in terms of maternity or family whereas some ignore this date and do not make news about it. Still, some approach this date by referring to women’s problems.
Keywords
Gender, Women, Women's Movements, 8 March International Women's Day
