This article analyses the nature and the structure of women's organizations in 1990s Turkey. It surveys women's organizations and attempts to position them in their national and international political contexts by reviewing the types of gender need addressed by them. It also positions women's organizations by grouping them according to their larger historical and political agendas within the country. Women's organizations are defined as organizations whose founders and beneficiaries are women. Women's agency through collective action, in the form of women's organizations, is crucial in transforming the politics of gender in Turkey. Looking at the predicament and prospects of these women's organizations provides an important insight into the changing gender politics in the country.

Women's organizations in Turkey can be analysed on two levels. On the macro level, they are indicators of the collective capacity of women to determine the politics of gender in contemporary Turkey; and on the micro level, they are forces of change working to improve the well-being of women with programmes on health, education and income generating activities. Women's organizations are influenced by political and social approaches to gender issues in Turkey, past and present. They are also affected by the changing approaches to gender and development issues by international donor agencies, due to the financial support and technical assistance that they receive from these institutions. In summary, this study examines first of all women's organizations in historical and political context and makes an account of their impact on social and political agendas. It discusses the organizational capacity and potentials of these organizations in the contemporary political climate of the 1990s, and points out some of the possible institutional structures and co-operation between women's organizations, government agencies and international donors which could be developed in order to achieve the policy objective of gender equality. The political culture of Turkey poses a number of obstacles to women's participation in the public arena, particularly politics. Women's