The Construction of Female Citizenship Through Etiquette Books: Turkey, 1930-1943

This book is an investigation into how the etiquette books of the early Republican period attempted to shape society in terms of class and gender issues. The analysis of the books, which are important tools to “civilize” society in both the public and private domains, is important because of their effects on the different dimensions of the period’s discourse around citizenship. Through etiquette codes, the ideal citizen who would constitute the new privileged class of the Republic was to be constructed in accordance with the discourse of Wes ternization, but conspicuously adapted to local circumstances.

Accordingly, not only the citizen’s dress and deportment, but also the citizen’s body and sexual life were to be completely renewed. On the other hand, while the books were defining the “acceptable” citizen, women were taken as an important measure of compliance. Thus, as the symbols of the new and modern life, women’s appearance, manners, and all feminine pursuits became signifiers of the social status of modern Turkish men.

Consequently, this book reveals that the class and gender dimensions of etiquette books are not independent of each other, but intersect and support one another.