A research on the services of municipalities for women in Turkey: The cases of Gaziantep metropolitan municipality and Ankara metropolitan municipality

This study aimed, by evaluating the understanding of social municipality and women-friendly municipalities from a conceptual and historical perspective, to analyze the development of this process in Turkey with examples. The thesis was developed based on the question "Can it be said that social municipality includes women-friendly practices and these practices are developed from a gender perspective?". The research analyzed online reports, written and online bulletins, and publications of Gaziantep Metropolitan Municipality and Ankara Metropolitan Municipality by qualitative content analysis method. In-depth interviews were conducted with the employees of both municipalities as supporting data. In addition, the presentations which are about activities of both municipalities in the Humane Life and Democratic Society Association's "Experience Sharing Meeting" was also examined. According to the findings, It has been concluded that a social municipality can form a basis for a women-friendly municipality, but certain points stand out to say that the activities of a municipality support gender equality. These points are; to have a motivation that supports gender equality, carry out needs assessment studies by supporting women's participation, create a roadmap targeting gender equality, such as Local Equality Action Plans and carry out Gender Responsive Budgeting studies for the implementation of this plan. As a result, it has been concluded that it is necessary to make practices for the mentioned points a strategic priority to say that a municipality that adopts a social municipality approach also adopts a women-friendly municipality approach.