Framing feminism: The case of KA.DER as a women's organization in Turkey

This article explores the underlying dynamics of rights claiming by looking at a women's non-governmental organization named KA.DER (Association for the Support and Training of Women Candidates), which works to encourage women's political participation for office in Turkey. Following a liberal feminist approach, KA.DER frames its claims based on the equality principle. While KA.DER publicly promotes a “politics of equality” in their mandate and activities (which is a liberal approach to feminism), they actually invoke a “politics of difference” approach as revealed in the interview data. For example, the organization promote the representation of women in politics as a group right. In the interviews, they also claim that women are different than men in terms of political decision making. My analysis is based on interviews I conducted in June and December 2013 with active members of KA.DER in several different branches. Four themes emerge from in-depth interviews: increasing the number of women in politics, issue of representation, parity/equal representation instead of the quota system and promoting women's perspectives in politics.