Democracy, political representation and women: A comparative study on Turkey, India and New Zeland

Political representation, appertaining to citizen's voting for the representatives that will govern them, is a concept that is really essential for today's democracies. Representation of women in politics has been quite late and they are still not equally represented in the public sphere with men today. The aim of this study is to examine the underrepresentation of women as citizens in politics from a comparative perspective. In the study; political representation and participation of women over the comparison of Turkey, India and New Zealand have been assessed and the reasons why women are less represented in important decision-making mechanisms such as parliaments, ministries etc. Compared with India and Turkey, in New Zealand, a higher proportion of women are represented in parliament, ministries and other important decision-making mechanisms. In Turkey and India; social patriarchy and the masculine nature of politics push women out of important decision-making mechanisms. According to the results of the field study conducted with the participation of women politicians from the three countries subject to the study; women face serious difficulties in the excretion of women in politics in Turkey and India and these difficulties are continuing when they become politicians. The insight which sees the politics as a men's work is more dominant in Turkey and India. In New Zealand; since women have been in politics for many years, a less gender-based understanding has been formed in politics. When these countries, different from each other, are compared, we see that the problems women encounter are similar to each other.