Gendered Spaces in the Public Sphere: Women-only Beaches in Turkey
Abstract Code: 20911

Abstract

Urban spaces are not designed to include all gender identities has revealed a pattern in which women are excluded from public spaces. With the awareness of gender equality, this view has begun to change in some geographies and progressive steps have been taken for women to be active subjects of public spaces. In Turkey, where the public space has historically been allocated to men, gendered-segregared spaces have been created in the public space where women can develop homosocial relations especially in the last 20 years. This study focuses on women's beaches, which are gaining popularity among these areas. The aim of the study is how gendered public spaces affect women's relationship with the city. Face-to-face interviews were conducted with 56 women in 9 cities. While these places enabled some women to establish a strong relationship with the city, they had a restrictive effect on some women. Women, who see homosocial spaces as a tool to escape from house, have started to go to places in the city they have not been to before, through the relationships they have established and the knowledge they have acquired in homosocial places. Some women have noticed that they feel more discomfot from being in heterogeneous places than before.