Abstract
Political parties are gateways to electoral politics in Turkey. That is why the candidate selection process which takes place within the parties is so instrumental in determining women’s political representation. With a lot at stake, the parties tend to relegate the selection of candidates into their well-guarded “secret garden.” It is throughout this non-transparent procedure that female candidates get excluded or placed at the bottom of the electoral lists. Across the political spectrum, women’s inclusion appears to be of secondary importance and women are used as parts of a bargain between the local party structures and party headquarters. This chapter shows that the so-called democratizing measures often produce adverse effects on women’s representation and that centralized selection of women can produce the highest women’s ratio.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
2820 Siyasi Partiler Kanunu. 1983. http://www.mevzuat.gov.tr/MevzuatMetin/1.5.2820.pdf.
Achin, Catherine. 2007. Sexes, genre et politique. Paris: Économica.
Achin, Catherine, and Sandrine Lévêque. 2006. Femmes en politique. Repères. Paris: La Découverte.
AKP. 2015. “AK Parti Yönetmenliği.” http://www.akparti.org.tr/kadinkollari/akparti/parti-yonetmelikleri#bolum_.
———. 2016. Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi Tüzük ve Program. Ankara: AKP.
AKP Kadın Kolları. 2015. Kadın Kollarında Devir Teslim. Ankara. http://www.akparti.org.tr/kadinkollari/video/78410/kadin-kollarinda-devir-teslim.
Al-Ali, Nadje, and Latif Taş. 2018. “Dialectics of Struggle: Challenges to the Kurdish Women’s Movement.” 22. LSE Middle East Centre Paper Series. London: LSE. http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/87484.
Alparslan, Mine. 2014. “Les modes de gouvernement des partis politiques en Turquie. L’exemple du Parti de la justice et du développement (AK Parti) et du Parti républicain du peuple (CHP) (2001–2010).” PhD thesis, Paris, Université Paris I—Panthéon Sorbonne.
Arat, Yeşim. 2005. Rethinking Islam and Liberal Democracy: Islamist Women in Turkish Politics. Albany: State University of New York Press.
Ayan Musil, Pelin. 2011. Authoritarian Party Structures and Democratic Political Setting in Turkey. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Bjarnegård, Elin. 2013. “Clientelist Networks and Homosocial Capital.” In Gender, Informal Institutions and Political Recruitment, 151–81. London: Palgrave Macmillan UK.
Bjarnegård, Elin, and Meryl Kenny. 2015. “Revealing the ‘Secret Garden’: The Informal Dimensions of Political Recruitment.” Politics & Gender 11 (04): 748–53.
———. 2016. “Comparing Candidate Selection: A Feminist Institutionalist Approach.” Government and Opposition 51 (03): 370–92.
Bozgan, Özgen Dilan. 2011. “Kürt Kadın Hareketi Üzerine Bir Değerlendirme.” In Birkaç Arpa Boyu… : 21. Yüzyıla Girerken Türkiye’de Feminist Çalışmalar, edited by Serpil Sancar, 757–99. Istanbul: Koç Üniversitesi Yayınları.
Çadır, Mustafa. 2011. Kadının Siyasal Yaşama Katılımında Siyasi Parti Kadın Kollarının Rolü. Ankara: T.C. Başbakanlık Kadının Statüsü Genel Müdürlüğü.
Çağlayan, Handan. 2007. Analar, Yoldaşlar, Tanrıçalar. Kürt Hareketinde Kadınlar ve Kadın Kimliğinin Oluşumu. Istanbul: İletişim.
———. 2012. “TBMM’de Cinsiyet Kompozisyonu Açısından Aykırı Bir Örnek: DTP/BDP ve %40 Cinsiyet Kotası ve Ardındaki Dinamikler.” In Kürt Kadınların Penceresinden, Resmî Kimlik Politikaları, Milliyetçilik, Barış Mücadelesi, 1st ed., 121–52. Istanbul: İletişim.
Childs, Sarah, and Philip Cowley. 2011. “The Politics of Local Presence: Is There a Case for Descriptive Representation?” Political Studies 59 (1): 1–19. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9248.2010.00846.x.
CHP. 2015. Cumhuriyet Halk Partisi Yönetmenlikleri. Ankara: CHP.
———. 2018. CHP Tüzüğü. Ankara: CHP.
Clark, Janine Astrid, and Jillian Schwedler. 2003. “Who Opened the Window? Women’s Activism in Islamist Parties.” Comparative Politics 35 (3): 293–312. https://doi.org/10.2307/4150178.
Correa, Fernanda Vidal. 2016. “Gender Stereotypes and Patronage Practices in Women’s Careers: A Study of the Mexican Executive Branch.” Cogent Social Sciences 2 (1): 126–202. https://doi.org/10.1080/23311886.2016.1266202.
Crowder-Meyer, Melody Ara. 2013. Gendered Recruitment Without Trying: How Local Party Recruiters Affect Women’s Representation. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Demir, Zekiye. 2015. “Kadınların Siyasete Katılımı ve Katılımı Artırmaya Yönelik Stratejiler.” KADEM Kadın Araştırmaları Dergisi 1 (2): 35–47.
Diyarbakır Büyükşehir. 2014. “Diyarbakır Büyükşehir Belediyesi Meclis Üyeleri.” Diyarbakir.Bel.Tr. 2014. https://web.archive.org/web/20140926142738, http://www.diyarbakir.bel.tr:80/meclis.aspx.
Drechselová, Lucie. 2019. “Women’s Political Representation and Women’s Branches in Turkey: Untangling a Complex Relationship.” 1. TEZ Gender Working Paper. Hamburg, Hamburg University.
Erel, Umut, and Necla Acik. 2019. “Enacting Intersectional Multilayered Citizenship: Kurdish Women’s Politics.” Gender, Place & Culture (June): 1–23. https://doi.org/10.1080/0966369X.2019.1596883.
Franceschet, Susan, Mona Lena Krook, and Jennifer Piscopo. 2012. The Impact of Gender Quotas. New York: Oxford University Press.
Izmir Büyükşehir. 2014. “İzmir Büyükşehir Belediyesi Meclis Üyeleri.” Izmir.Bel.Tr. 2014. https://www.izmir.bel.tr/MeclisUyeleri/131/tr.
Johnson, Niki. 2016. “Keeping Men In, Shutting Women Out: Gender Biases in Candidate Selection Processes in Uruguay.” Government and Opposition 51 (03): 393–415. https://doi.org/10.1017/gov.2016.6.
KADER. 2015. “Kadın Istatistikleri.” Ankara: KA-DER.
Kadın Koalisyonu. 2014. “2014 Yerel Yönetim Seçim Sonuçları.” Istatistikler. Ankara: Kadın Koalisyonu. http://kadinkoalisyonu.org/2014-yerel-yonetim-secim-sonuclari/.
———. 2018. “2018 Milletvekili Seçimleri: Kadın Adayların Durumu.” Ankara: Kadın Koalisyonu. http://kadinkoalisyonu.org/2018-milletvekili-secimleri-kadin-adaylarin-durumu/.
Kavas, Asmin. 2018. “Karşılaştırmalarla 81 İl İçin Toplumsal Cinsiyet Eşitliği Karnesi - 2018.” 3. 81 İl İçin Toplumsal Cinsiyet Eşitliği Karnesi. Ankara: TEPAV.
Kenny, Meryl. 2011. “Gender and Institutions of Political Recruitment: Candidate Selection in Post-Devolution Scotland.” In Gender, Politics and Institutions—Towards a Feminist Institutionalism, edited by Mona Lena Krook and Fiona Mackay, 21–41. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
Kenny, Meryl, and Tània Verge. 2016. “Opening Up the Black Box: Gender and Candidate Selection in a New Era.” Government and Opposition 51 (03): 351–69.
Kittilson, Miki Caul. 2006. Challenging Parties, Changing Parliaments: Women and Elected Office in Contemporary Western Europe. Ohio: Ohio State University Press.
Kışanak, Gültan. 2018. Kürt Siyasetinin Mor Rengi. Istanbul: Dipnot Yayınları.
Krook, Mona Lena, and Fiona Mackay. 2011. “Introduction: Gender, Politics, and Institutions.” In Gender, Politics and Institutions—Towards a Feminist Institutionalism, 1–20. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
Lovenduski, Joni. 2011. “Foreword.” In Gender, Politics and Institutions—Towards a Feminist Institutionalism, edited by Mona Lena Krook and Fiona Mackay, vii–xi. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
Massicard, Élise, and Nicole Watts. 2013. Negotiating Political Power in Turkey: Breaking up the Party. Routledge Studies in Middle Eastern Politics. Routledge.
MHP. n.d. MHP Kadın Kolları Yönetmenliği. Ankara: MHP. www.mhpkadinkollari.org/usr_img/docs/parti/yonetmelik.doc.
Milliyet. 2015. “CHP Afyonkarahisar İl Kadın Kolları Başkanı Görevinden İstifa Etti.” Milliyet, March 22. http://www.milliyet.com.tr/chp-afyonkarahisar-il-kadin-kollari-afyonkarahisar-yerelhaber-687628/.
Norris, Pippa, and Joni Lovenduski. 1995. Political Recruitment: Gender, Race and Class in the British Parliament. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Özbudun, Ergün. 2000. “Parties and the Party System.” In Contemporary Turkish Politics: Challenges to Democratic Consolidation, edited by Ergün Özbudun, 83. London: Lynne Rienner Publishers.
Pruysers, Scott, William Cross, Anika Gauja, and Gideon Rahat. 2017. “Candidate Selection Rules and Democratic Outcomes. The Impact of Parties on Women’s Representation.” In Organizing Political Parties: Representation, Participation, and Power, edited by Susan E. Scarrow, Paul D. Webb, and Thomas Poguntke, 208–33. New York: Oxford University Press.
Sawicki, Frédéric. 1994. “Configuration sociale et genèse d’un milieu partisan. Le cas du parti socialiste en Ille-et-Vilaine.” Sociétés Contemporaines 20 (1): 83–110. https://doi.org/10.3406/socco.1994.1366.
TBMM. 2018. “Türkiye Büyük Millet Meclisi Milletvekilleri Dağılımı.” Ankara: Türkiye Büyük Millet Meclisi. https://www.tbmm.gov.tr/develop/owa/milletvekillerimiz_sd.dagilim.
Tekeli, Şirin. 1982. Kadınlar ve Siyasal—Toplumsal Hayat. Yerli Araştırmalar Dizisi 6. Istanbul: Birikim Yayınları.
Topak, Oğuz, and Ayşen Uysal. 2010. Particiler. İstanbul: İletişim.
Turan, Ilter. 2006. “Old Soldiers Never Die: The Republican People’s Party of Turkey.” South European Society and Politics 11 (3–4): 559–78. https://doi.org/10.1080/13608740600856587.
Ülkücü Medya. 2016. “MHP’li Nevin Taşlıçay’a Yeni Görev.” Ülkücü Medya, November 14. http://www.ulkucumedya.com/mhpli-nevin-taslicaya-yeni-gorev-84789h.htm.
Yeniçağ. 2017. “İYİ Parti’de Kadın Kolları Olacak Mı?” Yeniçağ, February 11. https://www.yenicaggazetesi.com.tr/iyi-partide-kadin-kollari-olacak-mi-176306h.htm.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2020 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Drechselová, L.G. (2020). The Road Toward Election: Women’s Exclusion from Electoral Lists. In: Local Power and Female Political Pathways in Turkey. Gender and Politics. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-47143-9_3
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-47143-9_3
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-47142-2
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-47143-9
eBook Packages: Political Science and International StudiesPolitical Science and International Studies (R0)