Women in Turkey and Comparative Analysis of Women's Condition in Political Party Programs

If the condition of women in Turkey is evaluated in terms of education, violence, employment, and the like variables from the most general point of view, it will be right to start with an evaluation on the literacy condition according to gender above all because the results are striking. For example, as the year 2014, out of 2.663.096 illiterate people 2.208.336 are women (TUIK, 2014). This data is important as it refers to a huge gap between genders in terms of the level of education. Moreover, women's employment in Turkey is another important problematic area. For example, as of 2014 in Turkey the ratio of contribution of women to the labor force is 30.3%, the ratio of women's employment is 26.7%. (TUIK, 2014). Another problematic area shows itself in political representation. Although the ratio of women deputies in Turkey has increased over the years, the share of women deputies in the parliament has increased to 14.7% with the 2015 elections. Another problematic area that has been talked about and discussed most nowadays is violence against women. In the 2014 Domestic Violence Against Women in Turkey Research, across the country, the ratio of women who have experienced physical violence in any period of their lives by their husbands or ex-husbands is 36%. The ratio of women who have experienced emotional violence in any period of their lives is 44%; the ratio of physical or sexual violence experienced together is 38%.As seen, women in Turkey are in a disadvantaged position in terms of social, economic, political, and the like variables compared to men. The purpose of this study is to uncover how political parties deal with this disadvantaged position women are experiencing and the problems it creates and what kind of an approach they have to solve the problems determined. In other words, programs of political parties in the parliament will be content analyzed in terms of violence, education, employment, discrimination, equality, freedom, and the like and the results will be compared in the line with their respective parties. The basic reason why this study is conducted on examining political parties and their party programs is that political parties are the main incentive means that force the government to fulfill the desires and needs of the majority of the society and that party programs are a reference text that covers political party's ideology, priorities, and suggested solutions for the problematic areas.