Nezihe Muhiddin and the Struggle for Women’s Franchise. The Defeat of Feminism by Nationalism in Early Republican Turkey

ABSTRACT This article focuses on Nezihe Muhiddin, a pioneering figure in Turkish–Ottoman first‐wave feminism, who sought to secure women's political rights by attempting to establish the Women's People Party in 1923, over a decade before women gained suffrage. After the party’s rejection, she founded the Turkish Women’s Union in 1924 to continue her endeavour. However, internal conflicts and a smear campaign led to her expulsion, the end of her political career, and her eventual oblivion. This paper interprets Muhiddin’s marginalization as a watershed moment in the struggle between feminism and nationalism, contributing to the establishment of a nationalist and patriarchal Turkish state. Drawing on Jill Vickers’ concepts of ‘women‐friendly democracies’ and ‘getting on the ground floor’, it contends that Muhiddin's exclusion from the Republic’s founding moment had enduring consequences for women’s political participation and continues to significantly impact the low level of female political participation in contemporary Turkey.