The effects of women MPs on the public policy production process for gender equality (1983-2018)

Gender refers to behavioral patterns that are based only on reproductive biological gender. And since it cuts all social groups vertically, gender has a universal identity in this respect. This vertical interruption brings together the gender-unequal division of labor and the separation of space in the axis of the male-dominated relations network. Accordingly, the roles deemed suitable for women associated with the private sphere are being mothers and wives, staying at home and undertaking the reproduction process of men. In contrast, men are associated with the public sphere and are coded with active and decisive roles in the dynamics of social life in a wide range from production processes to country management. Such a separation means that women are also excluded from the administrative and public decision-making bodies. In this case, policy decisions that will affect the entire society are made by only one half of the population. According to feminist researchers, gender inequality will continue to be reproduced as long as public policies continue to be produced in male-dominated parliaments without taking into account gender differences. On this issue, one of the main claims of the researchers is related to the increase in the rate of female representatives in the parliaments. Accordingly, the presence of more women politicians will transform the content and outcomes of the policy towards gender equality. According to the view that takes its logic from the idea of sisterhood, regardless of the political position of women, there are common experiences about gender-based discrimination. For this reason, women in parliaments are ready to act together to solve problems related to widespread gender inequality, even if their political position is very different from each other. In this thesis, the equivalence of the feminist researchers' claims mentioned above in terms of TBMM was investigated. Minutes of the 4370 General Assembly minutes that were reached between the dates of 24.11.1983-16.05.2018 and 45 legislative years, and the commission combinations related to gender constituted the primary historical sources. The said minutes were first examined by textual analysis and the main data were determined. These data are legislative activities of women lawmakers that address the problem areas of gender inequality. After this step was completed, the main data mentioned were subjected to textual analysis one more time. Thus, the attitudes of women lawmakers towards widespread gender inequality and the effectiveness of including the women's perspective in the policy process were revealed. In addition, the activities of women deputies against the thought of sisterhood were determined. The feminist approach and the social structuralist approach have been adopted together throughout all the data collection and interpretation steps of the study. With the completion of the textual analysis, it was understood that the proportion of women representatives in the Turkish Grand National Assembly between 1983 and 2018 increased regularly in each election period. In addition, it was determined that women lawmakers played an active role in the public policy process towards gender inequality with a rate of 77.6%. The sensitivity of women lawmakers to gender inequality is independent of the political parties they belong to. However, the rate of having more than one legislative activity is related to the fact that they are members of the ruling or opposition party in each election period. This is related to the duty of opposition parties to control the use of power in the parliamentary system. Women lawmakers did not see the differences of their sociological and political profiles as an obstacle to incorporating sisterhood in the policy process. However, they also stated that they were uncomfortable with such situations. Keywords: Public policy, gender equality, gender policy, women deputies, sisterhood.uncomfortable with such situations.