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Sexual Harassment in Turkish Academia Through the Lens of Gendered Academic Citizenship

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Gendered Academic Citizenship

Part of the book series: Citizenship, Gender and Diversity ((FEMCIT))

Abstract

This chapter brings attention to a key issue influencing gendered academic citizenship, namely sexual harassment. The chapter examines the phenomenon of sexual harassment and recent institutional responses to the problem in the increasingly conservative Turkish academic context. The chapter conceptualizes sexual harassment as an attack on bodily integrity and consequently as a potential impairment of women’s recognition and belonging within the academic community. In this framework, bodily integrity and control over one’s body is conceptualized as a key but under-researched dimension of academic citizenship. The chapter identifies three key factors leading to sexual harassment (conservatism and sexism; hegemonic masculinity and heteronormativity; and ambiguous perceptions about sexual harassment), discussing their interrelationships and the ways they threaten gender equal academic citizenship.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    CEDAW (The Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination against Women) spells out in detail women’s human right to equality and non-discrimination and maps out the range of actions that must be taken to achieve this equality. It is one of the core international human rights treaties of the United Nations and it requires state parties to undertake legal obligations to respect protect and fulfill women’s human rights.

  2. 2.

    https://istatistik.yok.gov.tr/ retrieved on 25 May 2019.

  3. 3.

    This is the sixth wave (2010–2014) of World Values Survey, the seventh wave has not been publicly shared yet.

  4. 4.

    The first author of this chapter is the editor of the cited study, which has not been published yet.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey

    Yıldız Ecevit & F. Umut Beşpınar

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  1. Yıldız Ecevit
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  2. F. Umut Beşpınar
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Correspondence to Yıldız Ecevit .

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  1. Department of Sociology, University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway

    Sevil Sümer

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Ecevit, Y., Beşpınar, F.U. (2020). Sexual Harassment in Turkish Academia Through the Lens of Gendered Academic Citizenship. In: Sümer, S. (eds) Gendered Academic Citizenship. Citizenship, Gender and Diversity. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-52600-9_7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-52600-9_7

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