This book explores the 'Turkish paradox' - women's lower representation in local politics than in parliament. By analyzing life stories of 200 female municipal councilors and party representatives, it offers a comprehensive assessment of what makes local politics in Turkey particularly inaccessible to women. It places women's pathways within the cycles of exclusion, starting by political socialization, going through the candidate recruitment process and continuing after the election. The research presented here brings together gender studies and political sociology and offers novel applications of concepts including intersectionality and biographical availability. It covers all major political parties and diverse local configurations in Turkey, and reveals political strategies of women in conservative parties as well as the reasons behind the exceptionally high representation of women within the pro-Kurdish political parties. The book further sheds some light on the intricate relationship between women's political activity and regime change in the context of democratic backsliding.

Lucie G. Drechselová is a researcher at the Oriental Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences. She was previously a lecturer at the Paris Institute of Political Studies, and co-edited Kurds in Turkey: Ethnographies of Heterogeneous Experiences (with A. Çelik, 2019).

This book explores the "Turkish paradox" - women's lower representation in local politics than in parliament. By analyzing life stories of 200 female municipal councilors and party representatives, it offers a comprehensive assessment of what makes local politics in Turkey particularly inaccessible to women. It places women's pathways within the cycles of exclusion, starting by political socialization, going through the candidate recruitment process and continuing after the election. The research presented here brings together gender studies and political sociology and offers novel applications of concepts including intersectionality and biographical availability. It covers all major political parties and diverse local configurations in Turkey, and reveals political strategies of women in conservative parties as well as the reasons behind the exceptionally high representation of women within the pro-Kurdish political parties. The book further sheds some light on the intricate relationship between women's political activity and regime change in the context of democratic backsliding. Lucie G. Drechselová is a researcher at the Oriental Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences. She was previously a lecturer at the Paris Institute of Political Studies, and co-edited Kurds in Turkey: Ethnographies of Heterogeneous Experiences (with A. Çelik, 2019).

Autorentext
Lucie G. Drechselová is a researcher at the Oriental Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences. She was previously a lecturer at the Paris Institute of Political Studies, and co-edited Kurds in Turkey: Ethnographies of Heterogeneous Experiences (with A. Çelik, 2019).

Klappentext
This book explores the Turkish paradox women's lower representation in local politics than in parliament. By analyzing life stories of 200 female municipal councilors and party representatives, it offers a comprehensive assessment of what makes local politics in Turkey particularly inaccessible to women. It places women's pathways within the cycles of exclusion, starting by political socialization, going through the candidate recruitment process and continuing after the election. The research presented here brings together gender studies and political sociology and offers novel applications of concepts including intersectionality and biographical availability. It covers all major political parties and diverse local configurations in Turkey, and reveals political strategies of women in conservative parties as well as the reasons behind the exceptionally high representation of women within the pro-Kurdish political parties. The book further sheds some light on the intricate relationship between women's political activity and regime change in the context of democratic backsliding.
Lucie G. Drechselová is a researcher at the Oriental Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences. She was previously a lecturer at the Paris Institute of Political Studies, and co-edited Kurds in Turkey: Ethnographies of Heterogeneous Experiences (with A. Çelik, 2019).

Inhalt

1. Chapter 1. Women's Political Involvement and Local Politics in Turkey

1.1. What Is It about Local Politics in Turkey that Makes It Particularly Inaccessible to Women?

1.2. Women's Status and Political Representation in Contemporary Turkey

1.3. The State of the Art: a Scarcity of Studies about Women in Local Politics 1.4. Qualitative Study Articulating Political Sociology and Gender Studies

1.5. The Structure of the Book

Chapter 2. Contextualizing the Turkish Paradox

2.1 Historical Perspective on Women's Political Underrepresentation in Turkey

2.2 A Party-Specific Perspective on Women's Political Exclusion

2.3 A Local Perspective: the Closure of Local Politics to Women

2.4 Concluding Remarks

Chapter 3. The Road towards Election: Women's Exclusion from Electoral Lists

3.1. The Exclusion of Women by Local Recruiters

3.2. The Unbearable Weakness of Women's Branches 3.3. Democracy, Not for Women?

3.4. Centralization: a Price for Selecting Female Candidates?

3.5. Concluding Remarks

Chapter 4. Female Councilors: Who Passes the Filter?

4.1. The Dominant Profile among Female Councilors

4.2. The Unconventional Profiles

4.3. Gendered Resources and Stigmas

4.4. Concluding Remarks

Chapter 5. Constraints on Women's Political Agency

5.1. Social Order and Local Politics

5.2. The Party Environment: a Hostile Environment for Women

5.3. Gendered Differences of Local Configurations

5.4. Concluding Remarks

Chapter 6. Navigating Local Politics: Women's Careers and Strategies

6.1. Adaptation Mechanisms and the Spirit of Self-Sacrifice

6.2. Individual Strategies: between Ephemeral Change and Butterfly Politics

6.3. Collective Mobilization and Institutional Change

6.4. Concluding Remarks

Chapter 7. Women's Representation and the Cycles of Exclusion from Local Politics

7.1 Gendering Political Science and Restoring Interest in Women's Descriptive Representation

7.2. Who Succeeds in Turkish Local Politics? 7.3. Gatekeepers: The Key Role of Political Parties

7.4. Constraints on Women's Collective Action

7.5. Women and Democracy: A Troubled Relationship