From Female Masculinity to Hegemonic Femininity: Evolving Gender Performances of Turkish Women Diplomats

What is it about?

This paper studies gender performances of Turkish female diplomats drawing on 14 semi-structured interviews, and shows that perceiving the impossibility of overturning masculine norms, female diplomats engaged in individual-level gender performances to empower themselves and becoming successful diplomats rather than identifying and reacting against structural inequalities. Our research reveals that pioneering generations of Turkish female diplomats mostly performed female masculinity, distancing themselves from stereotypical feminine qualities such as being emotional and weak and replaced them with assertiveness and rationality. On the contrary, newer generations of women diplomats are more prone to perform hegemonic femininity, underlining how female attributes such as empathy, emotions and nurturing are compatible with rising humanitarian and public diplomacy. This shift and diversification in the gender performances of Turkish women diplomats is situated in the context of global changes in the institution of diplomacy as well as changing priorities of feminist movement and foreign policy in Turkey. We note that while these changing conditions have enhanced the diplomatic value of qualities associated with femininity, the enactments of hegemonic femininity are not necessarily empowering women diplomats and may inadvertently provide a basis for undermining the role of and status of women in the growingly conservative and anti-feminist political context in Turkey.

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