Afyon Kocatepe Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Dergisi

Öz

Political rights were incrementally given to women in Türkiye. Respectively, they were given the right to take part in the elections in 1930 for the municipal elections and in 1933 for the neighbourhood election and the right to elect and be elected in the parliamentary election on 5 December 1934. Türkiye is among the first countries to give women the right to elect and be elected in the parliamentary election. At that time, even some western countries such as France and Italy did not give women the right to elect and be elected yet. In the elections held in 1935, 17 woman deputies were elected. When one more woman deputy was elected in the mid-term election held in Çankırı in 1936, the number of women deputies increased to 18 during the 5th Term in the Turkish Grand National Assembly. The first women parliamentarians were selected among the women considered to be cultured and to have a high level of moral courage to be a model and a guide. In determining the candidates for women deputies , Mustafa Kemal Atatürk and the central management of the Republican People's Party were influential. The impact of party organisations in the provinces was limited. Except for the Ankara deputy Satı Çırpan, others were people with a particular educational level. Satı Çırpan could not attend school and learned how to read and write at national schools. The remaining 17 women deputies were secondary school and higher education graduates. The majority of them were teachers, and they knew one or more than one foreign languages. Apart from being Turkish citizens, most of the women deputies had no connection with the election districts from where they were nominated as candidates. They could not show the impact expected from them in the parliament. This case can be explained merely with sociological and psychological reasons. They were undoubtedly under the influence of their conditions of growing up. It has been seen that even though they were in the know, they could not show moral courage in the parliament where men predominated.