Believe in the power of women!

"I am out of my shell now, no one can put me inside again!" 

Hearing this brought tears of joy to my eyes. For weeks, I – along with a few other trainers – travelled from one city to another across Turkey, working on two separate projects. They both had the same aim: increasing the number of female politicians in our country. 

This year, millions in Turkey will vote in the local elections on 31 March, casting their ballots for more than 100,000 mayors, municipal council members and neighbourhood heads. We hope to see women take at least half of these seats. 

The young woman who said she had broken out of her shell is in her late 20s. She wants to change her world and her surroundings for the better. Initially, she said she was hesitant, she wasn't sure about entering politics. She took part in our training programme just to see if politics was something she could do. After the event, she was certain. "Yes, I can," she said. 

By the end of the training programme, those of us who had both organised and implemented the projects were exhausted. Yet seeing her and numerous other women demonstrating determination and enthusiasm in the quest to increase female representation in Turkish politics made it all worthwhile. 

One of the projects was conducted by civil society organisation KA.DER, which works to increase the number of women in all decision-making positions where members are elected. 

KA.DER was established in 1997 and has been lobbying ever since for female candidates, while also campaigning to increase public awareness of equal gender representation by organising political education aimed specifically at women. UN Women Turkey and the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency also partnered the project.

The other project was organised by We Act, a joint initiative involving a local intellectual platform – Daktilo1984 – and ALDA, a European association promoting local democracy across an expanded Europe. Their project on female politicians was also funded by the EU delegation to Turkey. 

Since December 2023, many cities have been visited and more than 600 women have participated in training programmes to learn about Turkey's election system, political party dynamics, communication strategies, speeches and public speaking, as well as how to conduct an election campaign. 

Both projects were conducted over four to five days. Depending on the city in question, participants were able to discuss and learn about election-related regulations, economy, gender-friendly budgeting, as well as using social media effectively.

A long, thorny road

Turkey was one of the very first countries to grant women suffrage and allow them to stand for election. This right was granted in 1934, before European countries such as France and Belgium. These days, however, it is one of the countries with the lowest rate of female political representation and participation in Europe. 

Last year in May, women won 121 out of 600 parliamentary seats in the national elections. Lower than the desired level of 50%, maybe, but still the highest level of female representation in modern Turkish history. Only one woman currently holds a position in the Turkish cabinet: Social Services and Family Minister Mahinur Goktas.

When it comes to local government, the picture is much worse. Three percent of mayors, 6.66% of the mayors of the largest provinces and just 2% of neighbourhood heads are women. 

The share of female mayors remained drastically low following the last local elections in 2019, despite having increased from 0.8% to 3.2%, an improvement of 300% compared to the 2014 local elections. Similarly, the share of female municipal council members rose to 11% in 2019 from a previous level of 4.2%. The number of female neighbourhood heads across Turkey, which had been 674 in 2014, increased by 59% in 2019, to over 1,070. 

These increases do make us hopeful of achieving better levels of female representation in the upcoming elections in March 2024. 

No easy task

We know it won't be easy, however. 

During the training programme, we told participants that voters have much higher expectations of women candidates than of men standing for the same roles. This is something that applies not only in Turkey, but the world over. Most of the time, issues such as family support are not really a problem for male candidates, while they remain a concern for women standing for office. 

Yet, there are a few reasons unique to Turkey that reinforce the glass ceiling for women. Firstly, there is no quota system for women, neither in the general nor in the local elections, despite years-long campaigns led by women's rights organisations to this end. 

Secondly, there are no legal regulations in Turkey that require formal candidate selection procedures. Some mechanisms seek the opinion of local branches regarding the choice of candidate. But the final call is always made by political party leaders, who are invariably men. 

KA.DER chair Nuray Karaoglu explained that women were determined to stand as candidates, but that parties were dragging their feet on the issue. She did add that they were pressuring parties to nominate more female candidates and also encouraging the public to demand more female nominees. 

The third reason can be attributed to Turkey's polarised political climate. The opposition, which lost the general elections in May 2023, sees the local elections as a chance to reclaim victory. Both the opposition and ruling alliances are therefore reluctant to nominate female candidates, especially in hotly contested seats, because they think they are less electable. 

Men only: 'rentier economics'

One of the projects' trainers, political scientist Professor Emre Erdogan, from Istanbul's Bilgi University, pointed out that men are unwilling to share opportunities arising from the "rentier economics" at local government level with women. 

"Owing to polarisation, there are some places where one particular party may be polling as high as 70%. Regardless of the nominee, these places will always be won by that certain political party. So, if they want, they can nominate women. But they don't," he said. He believes there are two main reasons for this.

"Firstly, local administrations, especially municipal councils, in Turkey are very involved in rentierism," Erdogan explained. "No one actually knows when and how many times these [municipal councils] meet and what exactly they do. But they make decisions about the rentier issues of the cities – which areas will be designated for construction, which tenders will be held and which firm they will be given to, how economic interests will be distributed. Men simply do not want to share these benefits with women."

"Political parties could appoint women to their lists for the city councils, but they don't even do this in their safe constituencies, owing to these rentier interests," he added. 

Erdogan continued that inter-party relations always favour men. Such dynamics are dominated by men, which is why party leaders are not "brave enough" to nominate women to electable positions, regardless of their party's political ideology. 

Women are everywhere

Although political parties are not willing to nominate female candidates, as the projects' participants complain, women are found everywhere at grassroots level during election campaigns. 

"Our parties may not be particularly willing to nominate us, but they are totally willing to use our power. We're the ones going door to door talking to voters. We are the ones organising rallies, designing placards, thinking about minor practical campaign details, such as the meals for the party workers," one participant said.  

While male politicians may not want to share the rentier benefits of local government with women, political parties do at least demand a lower fee from women when they sign up to be nominated. The fees change depending on the position they're standing for, but most are only charged half what the men are required to pay. This principle is also adhered to by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP). 

It remains a small concession for female candidates, however. After all, politics and elections require a hefty amount of spending. This emerged as one of our participants' main concerns. When we spoke to them about campaign budgeting, many complained that they have limited budgets and that they have to rely on the solidarity of other women volunteers. 

Sisterly solidarity despite polarisation

The degree of solidarity present among local women, especially in the cities of Anatolia, was a common observation made by the projects' training staff. When I asked Elif Menderes, who conducted a full-day course on how to public speaking, what was unique about her experience about the training, I was not surprised by her answer. She said "solidarity among women, despite the degree of political polarisation". 

"It was so great to see how the women organised, especially in Anatolia. Maybe they were not organised in official terms, but the solidarity among them was so beautiful," she said. "One section of the course I gave was on how to deliver speeches using a microphone. There, women were speaking one by one, and because they were from different political parties, they sometimes gave speeches that either contradicted or were critical towards each other. But even if this was the case, they still encouraged and applauded one another," Menderes explained. 

She said she was also touched by the women's perseverance. Their attitude of not giving up, despite all the barriers ahead of them, was very promising for the future, she said. 

'The longer the list, the happier we are'

Polls have also shown that the Turkish public remains supportive of women's perseverance in politics. Recent research carried out in September 2022 by the "I Elect Association", which lobbies for female candidates in politics, and the well-regarded polling firm KONDA, revealed that 62% of those surveyed said female politicians would help Turkey develop and become a better society. 

A similar number percentage supported mandatory quotas for women in political parties. Nearly three-quarters of respondents said they would support a woman from their family entering politics.

Political parties were required to deliver their nominee lists and independent candidates submit their nominations to the Supreme Election Board by 12 February. We compiled our own list, featuring the many names of participants whose candidacy applications have been completed.

Another trainer, Semin Gumusel Guner, who lectured participants on media relations and communications campaigns, believes the longer the list, the better. "It will be even more delightful if the names on this list get elected," she said. But she added that potential nominees needed to be clear about one thing: their parties may well not nominate them, and even if they are nominated, they may not get elected by voters. 

"If this is the case, don't give up. Start working towards the next election and please do not forget that your presence here and all these things that we discussed together within the framework of this training is extremely important," she told them. "This is a seed, and this seed will transform politics in Turkey, slowly but surely," she said. 

"This is the power of women, believe in it." 

Ayse Karabat

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