Women in Turkey: The Right and left parties' attitudes towards gender equality in parliamentary representation

The idea that people are the foundation of sovereignty sparked discussions about representation, election procedures, and representative democracy. Male voters who owned property and paid a specific amount in taxes were the ones who initially gave birth to parliaments. Women were excluded for a very long time, despite the fact that male representation increased when voting rights were extended to all men. The women's civil rights movement has evolved around the axis of political rights, and in the twentieth century, women's right to vote and be elected has been achieved. Now, the twenty-first century witnesses the problem of putting the concept of gender equality into practice. In the late Ottoman period, the movement for women's rights conducted through newspaper and magazine publishing achieved a significant victory with the gaining of the right to vote and be elected in 1934. Nonetheless, the proportion of female lawmakers, which was below 5% until 2007, represents yet another obstacle to Turkish democracy. Examining the statutes, party platforms, election manifestos, and gender-focused legislative proposals of the political parties represented in the Turkish Parliament from 2002 to 2018 in the context of this issue has allowed for the identification of both the similarities and differences between the views of left- and right-wing parties. In the final analysis, it has become evident that political parties stand in the way of women's representation in parliament, and that, aside from a few instances, there are very few distinctions between the positions of Turkey's left and right wing parties on this matter.