THE DECISIVE ROLE OF COMMUNICATION IN TURKISH WOMEN'S PERCEPTION OF POLITICS

Abstract

Although Turkish women received their political freedoms even before many European countries, today Turkey lags behind many countries in terms of the proportion of women in active politics. This research, which aims to question the reasons for this decline and whose findings are the subject of this paper, also shows the problems women face in politics and their expectations from politics. In this research, which was conducted with the participation of 958 women representing different sociocultural segments, a very different and comprehensive diversity of findings was provided through the original questions included in the questionnaire. The women who responded to the research questions agreed that the number of women in politics is too low and expressed their suggestions for solutions to improve their conditions. In Turkey, women voters outnumber men. Therefore, the findings of this research will help political parties to communicate with and understand women properly and will provide important clues to politicians who want to gain the support of women voters. These findings will also give ideas to sociologists and political scientists who want to investigate the way of doing politics and voter tendencies in Turkey. A democracy can only be a true democracy if women have the right to participate in politics on an equal basis with men and if they can exercise this right freely. The findings of this research give very important messages to society on how this can be realized.