An Attempt to Conceptualize Women’s Representation in Turkey’s Local Politics

The extensive body of research on gender and politics has focused on the subject of women’s political participation and representation based on the concern to attract attention to the underrepresentation of women in politics. Despite the significance of women’s underrepresentation, and Turkish case is not an exception, the aim here is to take an initial step to conceptualise women’s representation in local politics in Turkey. Thus, the purpose of this paper based on a field study supported by TUBITAK is to explore what women’s political representation as female mayors denotes in local politics in Turkey on the basis of data gathered from in-depth interviews with female mayors elected in 2004 and 2009 local elections. In doing so, the aim is to reveal how the descriptive and substantive representation manifest in the local politics of Turkey.