Women in local politics in turkey: The place of female mayors in women's movements

The lack of women's political participation and the exclusionary nature of politics towards women and women's issues have been prominent in the struggle for women's rights and equality around the world and in Turkey. Although women in Turkey gained the right to vote and be elected in local and general elections with the legal reforms in 1930 and 1934 respectively, most policymakers are still men, and there has been insufficient focus on the role and function of politics and female politicians in empowering women. The subject of this thesis is the discourse and practices of female mayors who have been elected and served/has been serving in accordance with constitutional requirements since the 1930s up to present day, in terms of the struggle for gender equality. Within this framework, a qualitative method was adopted, and a total of twelve female mayors were interviewed. Eight of the interviews were conducted during the Covid-19 pandemic using various remote and online communication methods, while four were conducted face-to-face. The responses given by female mayors to semi-structured interview questions were evaluated using critical discourse analysis. The practices of female mayors aimed at achieving gender equality were examined within the framework of their discourse on this issue. Thus, the aim was to reveal the effectiveness of female mayors during their terms of office as observable data and to lay the groundwork for future studies on this subject.