Women’s Representation in Turkey in Terms of Local Participation

Social gender inequality is one of the basic inequalities in the society. Although women’s struggle for equality for centuries resulted in getting important gains in the early 20th century, problems occurred when legal regulations were put into practice. the max seen field of this inequality in Turkey like in the world is the situation of women for political decision making mechanism. In this context, the position of women in social life in perspective of social gender is important in terms of explaining the position of them in political sphere. In recent years, studies discussing the place of women in the society have been made based on social gender context, but the place of women in political life has become a subject not dwelled on very much with active participation size. 1930 is the year when women acquired the right of election in municipal elections and 1933 is the year when they acquired the right of election for parliament. Although it is about 80 years, the political place and effectiveness of women is a subject that is still discussed. Local governments are the nearest service unit for the problems of public and especially women. The decision making position of public in local governments is the basic of local politics and this is the easiest and the first step of political participation. The desire for participation has been increasing day by day with the influence of the interest to localisation and strengthening of local governments. Participation context for women have been helping for politics’ reaching to a more democratic structure. It is very important that the lack of women’s representation be removed and local politics be strengthened. So, it is necessary to increase the participation of women on the level of representation. In this study, the focus is on the secondary position of women in local politics and local governments, and their position on decision making mechanisms will be discussed. In this context, active political participation levels of women in local governments which are the base of democracy will be examined comparatively with examples from the world. Also the study aims to give political offers about increasing the role of women in local governments.