Madness at the Gates of the City: The Myth of American Innocence

Abstract

**Abstract:** *Behind Turkish Lattices: The Story of a Turkish Woman’s Life*, originally published in 1911, offers an American perspective on the lives of Turkish women during the early years of the Second Constitutional Era. Hester Donaldson Jenkins, who served as a professor at the American College for Girls from 1900 to 1909, narrates her observations of Turkish women’s experiences through childhood, education, marriage, and in some cases, divorce. While Jenkins portrays this period as one filled with promise for Turkish women's emancipation, her account is marked by a Western-centric bias that often overlooks the agency and selective modernization efforts of Ottoman women. Her narrative frequently employs orientalist tropes, portraying Turkish women as ignorant, uneducated, and in need of Western cultural intervention. Despite these limitations, Jenkins' work provides valuable insights into the cultural perceptions of her time. She emphasizes the perceived necessity for Western influence to "modernize" Turkish society, a stance that reflects broader imperialist attitudes of the era. However, she fails to acknowledge the nuanced ways in which Ottoman women had already engaged with modernity, selectively adopting elements from the West while preserving their cultural identity. This study critically examines Jenkins' portrayal and its implications for understanding historical representations of Turkish women.

(The abstract and keywords were prepared retrospectively for indexing purposes using AI-assisted tools and editorial review, based on the original article. They did not appear in the original publication.)