Toplumsal Cinsiyet ve Mekânın Karşılıklı İlişkisi: Patriyarkanın Sosyal Mekânı Örgütleyişine Dair Bir Tartışma

Space is where we can see most tangibly that cultural citizenship values exclude women literally. This is because cultural construction of space has inherent in its symbolism the legitimacy to exclude women from power and influence. Therefore, the specific aim of feminist geography is to investigate, make visible and challenge the relationships between gender divisions and spatial divisions, to uncover their mutual constitution—-structuring of social space by patriarchy- and problematize their apparent naturalness. In this paper, my purpose is to examine the extent to which women and men experience spaces and places differently and to discuss how these differences themselves are part of the social constitution of gender as well as that of place. Firstly, I will try to uncover the male-centered epistemology that dominated academic geography—especially by focusing on the geopolitical understanding—and the way in which spatial thinking was influenced by the discipline’s masculinist approach. Secondly, I will discuss the reciprocal relation between gender and social space by dealing with the key concepts of feminist geography. In doing this, I will examine the relationship between socially constructed concepts of ‘public’ and ‘private’ and the construction of gendered identities. And finally, I will also criticize the distinction between public and private spaces by focusing on contemporarily socio-economic and cultural practices of women.