Housewives in the context of political socialization and political participation: The case of Afyonkarahisar

In the societies of the contemporary world governed by Democracy, the legitimacy of political decisions is strengthened by the close follow-up of the people's political processes. Therefore, it is very important for individuals and society to participate in the political process in a balanced way benefitting all kinds of political participation and political socialization in addition to the right of all citizens to vote. In this respect, the authorities of women and their participation in decision-making mechanisms, who make up half of the world's and each country's population, is of great importance. It is obvious that the goals of modernity and development cannot be achieved without ensuring the effective participation of women in all aspects of the governance and without reaching a mediocre suitable for the spirit of political participation in social gender roles in the decision-making processes. In this direction, the aim of this study is to analyze to what extent housewives, who make up a significant part of the women population in Turkey are internalized and uninternalized with political processes in the social life they live in, and at what level their political participation and political socialization levels are. In the research, firstly, the basic concepts in political science and political sociology are defined and starting from the conventional period, women's struggle for political participation is included. In the field research conducted in Afyonkarahisar city center, in-depth interviews are conducted with 24 participants determined by the stratified purposeful sampling technique, and the findings are analyzed with the discourse analysis technique. As a result, it is seen that a significant part of housewives are far from political life, and it is evaluated that the reason for this situation is the socio cultural conditions of housewives and the roles and duties assigned to housewives by the society. Keywords: Politics, political participation, political socialization, housewife.