Women’s Political Representation in the Justice and Development Party of Turkey

Women’s representation is a very important issue in Turkey’s democratic process because their representation has been dramatically low in the Turkish parliament. Women constituted less than five percent of total members of the parliament (MPs) from 1935 to 2007. The percentage of women MPs increased to 9 and 14 percent respectively in the 2007 and 2011 national elections in which conservative Justice and Development Party (JDP) won absolute majority. It has been puzzling that the descriptive representation of conservative Muslim women became much more notable both in the parliament and the JDP’s decision-making organs in a short time period without the introduction of any positive discrimination measure. This article seeks to explore why the conservative AKP tends to include women as party members and elected representatives and what are the implications of increasing descriptive representation of conservative Muslim women for substantive representation. The research reveals that three sets of factors are influential for the AKP’s adoption of more ‘women-friendly approach.’ First, intra-party women’s organizations play significant role in providing not only the space for women to become active in the party and opportunities to demand further representation and present these demands to the party leadership. Second, women’s high performance in mobilization and vote garnering is recognized by the party. Third, as a conservative party that had Islamist roots, the JDP wants to present itself as moderate and inclusive.