Marking the 91st anniversary of granting women full voting and election rights on Thursday, Family and Social Services Minister Mahinur Özdemir Göktaş pledged to continue efforts to strengthen women’s rights and eliminate persistent barriers.
Speaking at the “91st Anniversary of Turkish Women’s Suffrage” program held at the Grand National Assembly, Göktaş said Dec. 5, 1934, represented a historic milestone in Türkiye’s modernization, signaling a major political and social transformation. At the time, she noted, Türkiye emerged as a pioneering country by recognizing women’s political rights ahead of many European nations.
The minister emphasized that the reform was not only significant for its timing but also for the scope of rights it extended. She paid tribute to Türkiye’s first female lawmakers, saying their presence paved the way for greater female participation in public life. “We have come a long way in ensuring that women have a voice and decision-making power in every sphere,” she said.
Under President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s leadership, she added, women’s empowerment has become a central priority. “Over the past 23 years, we have carried out reforms of a transformative nature. With constitutional amendments, we embedded the principle of positive discrimination into our legal system, ensuring women’s equality of rights and opportunities is protected by the state,” she noted.
In 1930, Turkish women were granted suffrage in local elections held that year. Four years later, Turkish women were among the first in Europe to achieve the right to vote and run for elected office through a constitutional amendment. Since then, women have been active in national politics and founded the National Women's Party of Türkiye in 1972 and the Women's Party in 2014.
It is still a man’s game in the country and although women have a relatively larger presence in Parliament, few women are elected as mayors in 81 provinces.
Women’s suffrage and the right to stand for electoral office have a tarnished history in parallel with Türkiye’s shaky political scene. Led by founding President Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the country switched to a republic in 1923, but it was not until 1946 that it adopted a multiparty democracy. Democrats split from the all-too-powerful Republican People’s Party (CHP) and introduced Türkiye to true, multiparty democracy.
However, they met with a tragic end as the country’s first coup in 1960 derailed democracy. That coup would pave the way for more of its kind and haunt the women seeking a voice in politics. Women had a right to stand for office, but it applied only to “certain women.” It was not until a 2014 amendment that women wearing headscarves had a chance to be elected. The amendment by the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) ended the decades-old influence of an ultra-secular mindset in Turkish politics, an unprecedented victory for women wearing the headscarf, who were shunned from politics under the pretext of secularism.
