Turkey: A Gender Gap that Refuses to Go Away

Ahead of tomorrow's International Women's Day, a Turkish NGO is shining a light on Turkey's persistent gender gap problem. The group, the Association for Education and Supporting Women Candidates (KADER), conducts an annual survey that looks at the number of women in high places in Turkey, with the results usually fairly dismal. This year's study is no different, as Today's Zaman reports:

“For five years the situation has not changed. We are tired of reporting the same statistics each year. We are concerned,” said Çiğdem Aydın, representing KA.DER. The reason for their outrage was explained in the statistics they have compiled. In a nationwide campaign prior to the June 12 elections last year, they asked for 50 percent representation in Parliament, but the percentage of women who entered Parliament remained at only 14.2 percent. This is a small increase from 9.1 percent female lawmakers in Parliament in 2007. Moreover, out of 26 ministers in Turkey's cabinet there is only one woman, Family and Social Policy Minister Fatma Şahin.

In other administrative public offices, the situation is also bleak: Only 26 female mayors out of 2,924; 65 village heads out of 34,210; one female governor out of 81; five female rectors out of 103 and 21 female ambassadors out of 185. There are no female undersecretaries and no female members at the Supreme Court of Appeals, Court of Accounts or the Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency.

“What do we have in Turkey?” KA.DER representatives asked again. “Violence against women, exploitation of female labor and bodies, female poverty, female unemployment, child brides and girls who are not sent to school.”

Other statistics also paint a troubling picture. One study found that Turkey has the highest percentage of child brides among European countries, while the World Economic Forum's global gender gap report places Turkey at 129 out of the 134 countries surveyed. Turkey has also long struggled with high levels of domestic violence (take a look at this Human Rights Watch report).