With the hope of a world where pleasure is taken not from being powerful, but from being human

Due to International Women's Day, women were once again discussed all over the world, problems were voiced, and the struggles waged to date were recounted. Thus, for March 8, 2025, just as the whole world did, we wrote, told, and shared stories that were mostly the same as or similar to previous ones. Something is certainly getting better. There are important gains from a struggle process that spans centuries. At the very least, we can speak, we can express ourselves, and we have achieved our economic freedom, even if to a certain extent. However, we are still at the very beginning of the road. It will take a lot of time and much more struggle for gender inequality to be completely eliminated. 

But the real problem, beyond gender inequality, is that human consciousness has not developed. Unfortunately, humanity has not been able to build a humane world for itself. In the world that humans have built with their own hands, the race for power has taken precedence over all other orientations, values, and principles, and it continues to do so. 

Humans first learned to dominate nature, then their own peers. The desire to seize power in order to dominate and, gradually, to take pleasure from power must be the real reason why a humane world could not be established. Those who seized power developed ways to manage and direct those who lacked power by bringing them under their own dominion and control, in line with their own goals. Moreover, they began to take pleasure in controlling, managing, and directing—that is, in having power. Consequently, the entire system was built upon this. Holding power, keeping it under control, and managing it. Over time, this understanding spread and became established at a mass level. The master-slave system, which began in primitive ages and continued within the feudal order, was also shaped within this understanding. Both the dominance of the minority who possess material power over the masses and the man's imprisonment of the woman within his own sphere of property are products of this system. 

Holding power and dominating gradually turned into a tool of pleasure. Those in power, who have brought their sphere of dominance under their own control, strive to keep those who lack power within their spheres of dominance not only to operate the system, but also because they take pleasure in this way of functioning. The state of power being a tool of pleasure continued within the capitalist system after the end of feudalism. Therefore, neither modernization, which prioritizes the individual, nor the transition to democratic administrations has been able to end this relationship between the rulers and the ruled, the powerful and the powerless. As long as power continues to be a tool of pleasure for humans, humanity will perhaps continue to discuss problems on the axis of inequality on March 8ths for centuries to come. 

But it is certainly possible to shorten this process. First of all, it is necessary to address the problem within a broad framework without confining it to certain ideological areas. In other words, we need to talk about the human problem before the women's problem. Before asking how women can be saved, we need to seek an answer to how humans can be saved. For this, we must look from as wide a framework and as deep a perspective as possible. If we focus on the pieces within the big picture without seeing the whole, we cannot get to the root causes of the problem. If that happens, we will continue to say the same words, read the same poems, and busy ourselves with the same tears every March 8th. 

For this, one must read history well. We must analyze the development and transformation processes of societies and cultures very well. We must try to understand the actors, apparatuses, and tools that have shaped human history from the past to the present in all their aspects. We must examine human relationships, interaction, and communication from the past to the present. We must not forget that discourse and narrative constitute a significant part of human interaction and communication. It is necessary to look at which narratives and which stories have guided the cultural processes of societies from the past to the present. Every period of human history has developed its own unique style of discourse and narrative. Therefore, some data can be obtained by tracing the history of humanity's discourse and narrative. Popular cultural texts, films, novels, painting, music, etc., can be useful in this sense. 

On the other hand, in order to get to the source of the problem, it is necessary to try to understand the production processes and relations that humanity has shaped throughout history. To what extent and how did women take part in production relations from the past to the present? If the relationships between marriages and the material structure in clans, tribes, and dominant segments are examined, it will be seen that women were often used as an instrumental device rather than playing an active role in production relations. 

Another issue is education and raising awareness. Again, when looking at history, it is observed that women were often deprived of educational opportunities and were kept away from their representative role in the public sphere by being confined to the home in almost all societies. Without education, it is not possible to gain awareness and claim one's own rights. 

Biological differences between men and women are important. Perhaps until recent years, these differences could have been used as an excuse by some segments for the inequality between the two sexes. However, today, with digitalization and automation technologies, the superiority of physical strength in the production and work environment is gradually disappearing. Most jobs that require physical strength are now done with automation-based technology. Most of these are operated by human brainpower. In that case, for women to take a much more active role in production processes, they need to strengthen their mental and cognitive competence. For this, education is very important. A woman may not be as physically strong as a man, which is actually something that can be overcome with physical training, but she is not less strong than a man in terms of brain and mind. In terms of mental competence, apart from the claims of charlatans, there is no scientific study proving that there is a difference between men and women. In that case, considering brain-focused technological developments, it can be said that the world of the future will provide significant opportunities for women. As long as women, and of course all people, are aware of this and give the necessary importance to education. 

With the hope of a world where pleasure is taken not from power, but from being human.