Women make up 3 percent of local gov't managers in Turkey

Duvar English

Women make up only three percent of local government managers in Turkey, according to a 2020 report prepared by the Environment and Urbanization Ministry, ANKA news agency reported on July 25.

In 2014, among a total of 291,401 mayors, councilors and village/neighborhood heads, only 7,404 were women, according to the report.

In 2019, the number of women local government managers increased to a mere 7,883 among a total of 292,096 managers, staying at 3 percent.

Following both the 2014 and 2019 local elections, only three women assumed the post of mayorship in 30 metropolitan municipalities.

There are a total of 519 metropolitan district municipalities in Turkey, to 23 of which women were elected as mayors during the 2014 local elections, whereas this number increased to 25 after the 2019 local elections.

As for the rest of the 51 provincial municipalities, only one woman was elected to become the mayor, in both the 2014 and 2019 local elections. 

In these 51 provincial municipalities, 12 women were elected to become the district mayors among a total of 789 during the 2019 local elections.  

During the 2019 local elections, 20,745 municipality councilors were elected, among whom only 2,284 were women.

In 2019, among the total of 18,196 village heads (“köy muhtarı”), only 115 were women, whereas of the total 32,019 neighborhood heads (“mahalle muhtarı”), only 970 were women.

In 2019, a total of 80,696 members of council of elders were elected in villages, among whom only 1,007 were women.

Women constitute about half of Turkey's population (40 million), but their representation in management positions, let alone in labor participation is very low.

The number of women participating in the workforce was 32.6 percent in April as of this year.