Another way is possible: looking at women‟s lives through the filter of divorce

Abstract

This study primarily deals with women‟s experience of divorce in Turkey, and it aims to explore the following questions: how do the structure of marriage, the roles that women are expected to assume, and their perception of themselves within their families affect their decision to get divorced? Can any causality be established between the changing economic countenance of Turkey and the performance of manhood and womanhood on the decision of women to get divorced? What kind of strategies do women employ before and after divorce? Twenty-seven semi-structured life-story interviews were conducted in six different cities of Turkey. The average age of the participants is fourty-five, and the average length of time after divorce is ten years. The interviews lasted for almost thirty hours. The study demonstrates that the fatherhood performance women were exposed to when they were growing up plays an influential role on the decision mechanism in women‟s married lives, and the husband constitutes a second fatherhood from which women prefer to escape. Working life facilitates this escape. When children are involved, marriages are sustained until women decide to end it at the most appropriate time. Financial problems are experienced as a result of unemployment, and domestic violence in marriage are prevalent among the participants. Most of the participants interpreted divorce as a relief and a way out of an oppressive state despite its challenging results.