Turkish women are not represented in politics said EU's commissioner, Fule, as he spoke today in a women's right conference in Istanbul.
Stefan Fule, European Commissioner for Enlargement and European Neighbourhood Policy, was in Turkey on Thursday to join a conference on women's rights organized by Turkish Ministry of Social Policies and Family and the European Union.
Fule congratulated Turkish Social Policies and Family Minister Fatma Sahin for her work on women's rights in Turkey.
“Turkey is not alone in fighting against gender inequality,” said the EU commissioner.
He suggested Turkey to target EU's standards such as “those who withraw from school must be less than one out of ten”, “full social equality for gender”.
Fule stressed that, “Compared to Europe, in Turkey, women representation in politics is low.”
In order to solve this, “each political party should have more women representatives,” Fule said.
Fule also touched on campaigns that call on young girls to go to school in Turkey. Fule also pointed that Turkey's average is way high for girls who withdraw from school.
Also, Ingibjorg Solrun from the EU said “education is essential to stop violence against women”. Solrun noted that particularly young men need to be educated in such issues.
Women population in Turkey is almost exactly half of 75 million, according to Turkish statistical authority, TurkStat. Number of women in the Turkish Parliament was about 4 percent in 1935, but according to the TurkStat, it is over 14 percent by 2012. Turkey has only one woman minister in the cabinet.
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