Women's participation and representation in local governments: The case of Adana

Various studies have shown that the representation of women in local governments, who constitute half of Turkey's population, is low. In most studies, reasons such as the influence of the political culture of the society, the lack of economic security of women, their lack of sufficient knowledge and equipment, and the fact that parties give priority to men in their candidate lists are listed as reasons for the failure to ensure equality of women's representation in national and local representation. However, it is widely believed that women's participation and representation in local governments, which they associate with their traditional roles, is more accessible. However, women in Turkey are at a lower level in local politics than in national politics. In this study, we investigated whether equality existed in the local representation of women in Adana. Adana province was chosen because it is economically developed, half of its population comprises women, it is cosmopolitan, dynamic, and has a voter base for all political parties. The provinces of Ankara, Bursa, Aydın, and Gaziantep were then examined. Ankara and Bursa provinces were chosen because they are two of the five most populated provinces in Turkey. It was chosen to examine whether the fact that the metropolitan mayors are women in Aydın and Gaziantep provinces affects the local representation of women. Later, these examples were compared to of those Adana. Based on these examples, it has been determined that women's local representation has not reached the same level as that of men, even though nearly 100 years have passed since they gained these rights. Based on the examples in the study, this study aims to contribute to the national representation of women by offering suggestions to ensure equality in the local representation of women in Turkey. Keywords: Political Participation, Woman, Local Government, Adana