Promises of the employment of women of political parties in Turkey's general elections: Justice and Development Party case

Elections are accepted as the main determinants of democratic societies and political party or parties that assume the power to rule the country as a result of democratic elections take over this task. Policies determined and intended to be implemented by political parties are delivered to the voters in the pre-election process, and votes are demanded by making promises for the task of governing the country. The parties that have gained this power continue their efforts to achieve the same power for the next election process by realizing their promises. Declarations are books that allow to examine these policies in detail. Women's employment started to gain an important place in employment policies after 2000s in the changing world order. Since the employment policies and practices of countries are determined by political parties, the promises made by political parties to voters on this issue are considered as one of the basic indicators of the policies to be implemented. Turkey, in a parliamentary system through the single-party government formed by the Justice and Development Party has governed during about sixteen years. In this process, women's employment policies were also determined and shaped by this political party. In this research, the promises for women's employment in the election manifestos that brought the Justice and Development Party to the power of a single party were analyzed within the scope of the research question using the qualitative content analysis method, using the MAXQDA program. Thirty-eight codes in total were used in the election promises and these codes were classified into nine categories. With the result that the scope of women's employment policies, which were addressed with different issues in each election period, was expanded after each period and reached the most comprehensive form in 2015, it was observed that most of the promises were realized. As a result of this research in the shaping of female employment in Turkey, the impact of policies issued by the Justice and Development Party election promises and policies demonstrated that formed in what direction. The research was concluded with a solution proposal for the problems identified in the election statements.