The 20th century has been an era in which women have gained more rights in legal, political, economic and cultural fields. However, women in many parts of the world are still fighting to obtain them.

In recent years, women have been actively trying to establish equality between men and women and obtain women's human rights. The basic obstacles preventing women from achieving human rights are the gender discrepancies in culture, religion, customs and traditions. In Turkey, women are aware that their country is a democratic, secular and developing country, and they are increasingly gaining access to education and health services. However, they also realize that there is a long and difficult struggle ahead before true equality with men can be obtained.

From the beginning of this century, noticeable progress within the Turkish Women's Movement concerning women's human rights has been recorded. Between the beginning of the century and today, the most important improvements for women in our country have evolved in the areas of women's human rights and women's position in society. It is most probable that Turkey is one of the countries where women's human rights are improving most rapidly and in a satisfactory way.

After I980, Turkey began an economic restructuralization process and implemented new policies for foreign trade and production. Increased integration with the outside world and the appearing of suitable production techniques, privatization, rapid population growth, urbanization, high inflation, decrease in public revenues including taxes and increase in public debts were the main characteristics of this period. These developments within the economy resulted in increased unemployment, a receding social security system, accelerated break in the agricultural society, growing employment in the informal sector, which affected women directly and created even greater hardship.

Turkey is among the countries which signed The Beijing Declaration and The Platform for Action without any reservations. The main goal of this Declaration, which is designed to improve living conditions globally and give peace to mankind, is equality between men and women.

Although women's rights have improved in our country, we are aware of the fact that in certain areas like education, health, employment and participation in political life, we have not yet reached a satisfactory result.

Due to this, Turkey has made a commitment to remove it reservations stated in the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women at the 4th World Conference on Women and emphasized that solving the problems of women in the areas of education and health is Turkey's primary goal. According to these commitments, by the year 2000 the literacy rate of women will be increased by 100% and mother and child mortality will be decreased by 50%. In order to remove the reservations from the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women, changes have to be made regarding the discriminatory items in The Civil and Penal Codes. For the amendments in the Civil Code, a draft has been prepared by the State Ministry Responsible for Women and Family Affairs and has been sent to the Turkish Grand National Assembly.

Other priorities for Turkey, as urgent as its previous commitments, are to strengthen the national mechanism for the advancement of women, fight violence against women and integrate the gender perspective into all public policies and programs.

During the last two years since the 4th World Conference on Women in 1995, there has been an increased public awareness about, and especially among, women. However there is a need for men to obtain the same awareness.

Women are aware that the implementation of the Platform for Action will improve their lives, so they are fighting for its realization. Currently special events concerning women like Women's Day, No to Violence Against Women's Day, and the Anniversary of the Turkish Women's Political Rights are being celebrated with more enthusiasm and participation.

Turkey's National Action Plan was prepared between 19-20 December 1996 in accordance with the Beijing spirit and in the light of the 4th World Conference on Women with the greatest possible participation of state institutions and organizations, women's organizations, political parties, unions, professional associations and media coordinated by the Directorate General on the Status and Problems of Women and edited by a committee formed by the Prime Ministry Housing Development Administration, the State Institute of Statistics, the Directorate General on the Status and Problems of Women, Women’s S Foundation, and the Contemporary lawyers Association.

In order to realize the Action Plan, the participants and concerned parties must take part in this effort. Only this way can living conditions for women be improved. I would like to take this opportunity to thank especially the employees of the Directorate General on the Status and Problems of Women and everyone who contributed to the design of this plan, and I invite all concerned to cooperate in the implementation of this Action Plan.

Isilay SAYGIN

State Minister 

In our country there are no laws prohibiting girls from attending pre-school, general, technical-vocational training and higher education. However, between the country's rural and urban regions, between geographical regions and the cities' various sections, there is a difference in attendance between girls and boys depending on the level of development.

Since the foundation of the Republic, primary education has been compulsory in Turkey, and in 1990, 30.7% of the female population and 10.1% of the male population were illiterate.

Until 1997 the compulsory education period was five years, and the enrollment rate during this period was virtually equal for boys and girls. During the 1994-95 school year the rate for girls was 88.6% and 92.6% for boys. However, in higher education, the gap between girls and boys widens, and girls are the disadvantaged group. For example, during the 1994-95 school year, the percentage of girls who attended secondary education was 59.1% and 78.2% for boys. In Turkey, formal education encompasses general, vocational and technical education institutes where a minimum of three years of schooling is required after primary education. In the 1994-95 school year, in general secondary and high schools, the percentage of girl students was 40.1%, and in technical-vocational secondary and high schools it was 38.1%.

The technical and vocational education which is designed to prepare students for the requirements of the labor market and to direct them towards employment and income generating activities is far from achieving its goal as far as girls are concerned. Girls who had newly enrolled in the technical secondary and high schools in the 1990-91 school year constituted 26% of the girls who newly enrolled in the vocational-technical secondary and high schools, and the percentage of the ones newly enrolled in religious education schools -which is a part of the technical-vocational education - was 32.3%. In the 1994-95 school year girls' enrolment in technical education decreased to 25.6%, whereas it increased to 41.8% in the religious education schools. The enrollment ratio for girls in the 1990-91 school year for the vocational schools, which are offering education programs in areas such as commerce, tourism, health care, agriculture, law and fine arts, was 41.7% and in 1994-95 it dropped to 32.6%. Particularly in the region of Southeast Anatolia, both the schooling rate and the number of female teachers working in the village schools are gradually decreasing. But it is obvious that having female teachers working in areas which are not quite economically developed and where traditional values are prevailing is extremely important for the education of girls.

Although women's participation in higher education has shown an increase over the years, there is still great disparity between women and men. In the 1994-95 school year, the ratio of female students enrolled in university education increased to 38.4%.

According to 1994-95 data, the participation percentages of women studying at universities are: home economics 80%, medicine and health professions 64%, communication and documentation 62%, commerce, fine arts and industrial programs 55%, natural sciences 45%, social sciences 37%, and engineering 20%.

During the last ten years, the biggest increase in women's participation in higher education has been in areas where women are already concentrated, such as social sciences, fine arts and education. However, although they are not traditional subjects, women's participation in commerce and business administration has also increased extensively.

Also, in engineering, which is not considered a typical female occupation, the percentage of girl students increased from 18.7% in 1982-83 to 24% in 1992 - 93. But this increase can be explained by the presence of different departments within the general category of engineering. For example, in architecture and city planning departments, the share of female students was 50% the same year.

Compulsory education, which was five years till July 1997, has been changed, and the Primary Education and Training Law which has been approved, extended it to eight year's and was published in the Official Gazette Nr. 23084, dated 18 August 1997, and is currently in force. Thus the implementation started with the 1997-98 school year. The eight-year compulsory education will have a great impact on the schooling of young girls.

The Ministry of National Education has various informal training and education programs for young girls and women who have never enrolled in formal education or who left school prematurely. For girls who 1eft school for various reasons and for women, there are opportunities to learn income generating skills, and they are also encouraged to establish cooperatives.

The project which is to be implemented by the Ministry of National Education called "Improvement of Young Girls and Women's Education" will be a very important tool to solve the adult illiteracy problem. This project includes opening reading and writing courses for those in the 7-I4 age group who are not attending formal schools and for illiterate individuals above 14 years of age. Furthermore, for those who are literate but without a certificate, second grade courses will be opened.

"Vocational and Technical Education Development Project" (VTEDP) includes a new restructuralization in vocational and technical education institutes, and according to the modular education system, formal and informal education curricula are implemented in an integrated way. In this education model, girls who attended formal education but left it at an early stage will be given an employment opportunity with a certificate according to the module in which they trained. Furthermore, women who are not able to attend formal education for various reasons are allowed to choose modules and obtain a certificate according to their own level.

The Ministry of National Education has also started an open high school project which began in the 1994-95 school year, and it will ensure an important educational opportunity for girls who left school without completing their education and for women of all ages.

• Ensure equal educational opportunities for women and men.

• Reach the goal of 100% literacy by the year 2000 to become.
• Provide support services like day care centers, kindergartens and public nurseries for women resuming their education.
• Provide guidance for girls to direct them into all working areas, not just traditional feminine professions.
• Review all school programs and educational materials at all levels to eradicate all "gender biased perspectives and expressions.
• Prepare gender-sensitive educational materials and use them especially for in-service training and in programs which includes teaching formation.

• Design sexual education programs for all levels of education.

Objective: Ensure women to have an equal share with men in formal and informal education

1. Modify the national education programs in order to increase women's democratic participation and raise their political awareness.
2. Improve and strengthen the cooperation between the Ministry of National Education and the Directorate General on the Status and Problems of Women to prevent girls especially those who are living in rural regions, from prematurely leaving school in formal education.
3. Encourage girls to attend vocational education, especially in non-traditional areas with the cooperation of the Ministry of National Education.
4. Make religious lessons optional instead of compulsory by the initiative of the Ministry of National Education 
5. Ensure that the Ministry of National Education's public education courses will be open especially in rural areas, where girls have no possibility to continue their education after the eight-year compulsory education, instead of where vocational schools already exist.

6. Provide free lodging opportunities for girls at all levels of education and allocate special quotas in this area.
7. Expand sex education programs within formal and informal education to include reproductive rights and sexual health care of healthy adolescence, with the contribution of relevant NGOs, women's centers at universities, professional associations, and women's organizations.
8. Develop informal education programs to train women in income generating activities with the cooperation of the Turkish Employment Institute, since the informal education courses for women have great importance for home economics and contribute to the development.
9. Provide educators with a gender-sensitive perspective during their in-service training in informal education.

1. Form a pressure group in order to increase the allocation of educational funds and call upon the relevant official institutes and non-governmental organizations for education to be free of charge at all levels.
2. Increase women's share in formal and informal education with the cooperation between the Ministry of National Education and the NGO's, and ensure that it is equal to men's, as well as the education being secular and enlightening.

3. Require funds from national and international sources to encourage female teachers to work in rural areas in order to increase girls' attendance in formal education.
4. Inform the young girls living in rural regions about scholarships, credit opportunities, boarding schools, mobile education and the like, and form a public opinion if needed to take positive action for the girls.
5. Carry out vocational and technical education services which are designed to prepare students to perform as medium level professionals for industrial and service sector’s by shared responsibilities and authorities between the Ministry of National Education and institutions of employers and employees.
6. Cooperate with the private sector's representatives to distribute the use of high technology in education to meet the demand of its labor force.
7. Since libraries have proved to be very important in women's education, form a section for them in every existing library, and take the initiative to form women's own libraries which should include all kinds of information, documentation and works made by or about women.
8. Make nurseries available in locations where activities for women are taking place, and call upon all institutions, organizations and centers which also service women, to adapt flexible working hours in order to increase women's participation.
9. Call upon the Ministry of National Education to develop sex education programs to be taught in the formal education, in the framework of educational activities by gynecologists, pediatrics, psychologists, psychiatrists and sociologists during at least one semester at primary level, and two at secondary level.

Objective: Remove the discriminatory elements from educational materials.

1. Review all educational material and remove gender-based stereotypes.
2. Promote women's image, not only as mothers and spouses within the family, but as individuals with the emphasis on the working woman's identity and men's participation in domestic responsibilities, in all educational material, especially in the textbooks.

Objective: Increase women's literacy rate to 100%

1. Encourage non-governmental organizations to open reading and writing courses with the cooperation of the Ministry of National Education.
2. Remove the literacy requirements to participate in the vocational and informal courses in cooperation with the Ministry of National Education, and instead, provide reading and writing courses for the illiterate, thus giving them the possibility to continue the chosen vocational education course.
3. Ensure cooperation between non-governmental organizations and representatives of establishments from both the private and the public sector to provide literacy courses for illiterate female employees and provide them with a certificate.

Objective: Provide environmental education for women

In order to raise women's awareness on environmental issues, incorporate the subject in all education programs, ensure women's participation in environmental decision-making at all levels, emphasize the importance of women's role as consumers in safeguarding the environment.

 Objective: Provide political education for women

Restructure the already existing leadership education programs provided by non-governmental organizations and universities with a feminist view, or design new programs to encourage women to enter politics.

In 1995 our country ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child. The Social Services and Save the Children Society have the power and authority to implement the Convention. Our country's laws do not discriminate between girls and boys in education, health care or when participating in social and cultural activities. However, traditional values and attitudes are prioritizing the boys in all areas, especially in education.

The most common problem in our country is the young girls' early drop-out from school in the rural regions. In the urban regions, 86.3% of girls aged 6-14, continue their education, and in the rural regions 78.6%. At the primary level, the rate of young girls who dropped out of school was 02.58% in urban areas, and 05.40% in the rural regions. The fundamental reason why young girls are removed from school is their reaching puberty. Furthermore, young girls from families which have migrated to the cities are expected to contribute to the family income and help with domestic chores. Yet another reason is that the girls are often married off at an early age. Working girl children belong to families where 55% of the heads of the household are female, and of those, 94% have primary school education or less. This explains why the children are made to help improve the household income and share the domestic responsibilities. Although the attendance at the primary level is virtually equal to girls and boys, at the secondary level the gap between boys and girls widens.

With reference to the preparatory works in June 1995, a meeting was held by DGSPW for the 4th World Conference on Women titled 'Essential Policies for Women'. Regarding girl children, it was decided to create equal opportunities in education, encourage girls who dropped out early from school to participate in formal vocational education, and direct girls towards non-traditional areas like computer science and tourism. Those are the most essential policies.

Within the context of the essential policies for women regarding the 4th World Conference on Women, the priorities are girl children, the low income urban families, the newly migrated population, and the rural communities which tend to urbanize.

• Ensure equal education opportunities for women and men.
• Give support to families - if required - to prevent girls' early drop-out from school.
• Provide guidance for girls to direct them into all working areas, not just traditional feminine professions.
• Review all programs and educational material at al1 levels to eradicate gender biased perspectives.
• Prevent early marriages by making alterations in the legislation and increase the marrying age to 18 for both men and women.

Objective: Eliminate discrimination against girls in education and training

By Government and non-governmental organizations;

1. Ensure cooperation between the Ministry of National Education and the General Directorate of Youth and Sports and other relevant organizations to develop programs within and outside schools to encourage girls to participate in sport and cultural activities.
2. Ensure cooperation with the Ministry of National Education to simplify the 4th World Conference on Women's report to inform secondary and high school students of its conclusions.
3. Incorporate the conclusions of the 4th. World Conference on Women and the subject of women's human rights into already existing curricula.
4. Take initiatives to reopen the regional boarding schools to increase girls' participation in education.

Objective: Eradicate negative cultural attitudes and practices against the girl child

1. Prevent early marriages and ensure that the marrying age is 18 for both men and women; secure removal of the laws which facilitate early marriages and raise public awareness on this subject.

60% of the population in Turkey, including both girls and boys, is between 0-14 years of age, and 10 million women between 15-59 years of age constitute nearly 25% of the population. Since the majority of the population consists of women, inevitably their problems have a great impact on the country's social life.

Although life expectancy at birth is longer for women in our country, it is compared to the developed countries where both sexes benefit equally from health care services. It is estimated that from 1996, life expectancy at birth is 65.9 years for men and 70.5% for women.

In Turkey, although the fertility rate has decreased in recent years, it is still high and there is still a considerable discrepancy between different regions and between urban and rural parts of the country.

One of the important causes of the high fertility rate is the early marrying age. The average fertility rate per woman was 4.0 children in 1978, 3.0 in 1988, and 2.7 in 1993. Fertility specific to age is still concentrated in the younger age-group. The age-group of 20-24 has the highest fertility rate. In Turkey, 8% of 17- year olds, 15% of 18-year olds, and 23% of 19-year old girls either become mothers or become pregnant with their first child.

The fertility rate differs between regions. The Eastern Anatolia region has the highest fertility rate with 4.4 births per woman, and the Western Anatolia region has the lowest with 2.0 births per woman. Furthermore, the fertility rate differs between rural and urban districts. Women who are living in rural regions have approximately one more child than women living in urban regions.

In addition, the fertility rate differs according to women's education level. Uneducated women give birth to at least one more child than those who graduated from elementary school, and their birth rate is 2.5 more when compared to women who graduated from at least secondary school.

Women, particularly during their reproductive years, when compared to men of the same age, visit the doctor more often. However, in early childhood, boys are taken to the doctor more often than girls. When compared to developed countries, less medical visits occur in Turkey. The level of education is an important factor regarding the number of medical visits made, and women with higher education make up the group with the most visits.

In Turkey nearly 2000 women die every year from pregnancy-related causes either birth or in childbed. According to the 1989 data, maternal mortality was 132 per 100 000 live births. The statistics show that maternal mortality is due to: pregnancy and toxemia (41%), bleeding (I9.9%), infections (5.5%), other complications (25%), and unknown causes (8.6%). These are the causes which can be eradicated by prevention of risky and unwanted pregnancies.

During pregnancy, 62% of women receive assistance from trained health personnel. In more than half of the live births, prenatal care begins before the 5th month of pregnancy. Tetanus vaccination of pregnant women is still quite insufficient. 16% of pregnant women receive one dose; and 26% two or more doses of tetanus vaccination. According to the 1993 Turkish Population Health Research (TPHR), 60% of births took place in health institutions. However, it is estimated that home births occur without the help of trained health personnel.

Two-thirds of the pregnant women and half of the non-pregnant have iron deficiency and are anemic.

According to the Health Ministry data, from October 1985 to the end of November 1996, a total of 600 people were infected with HIV/AIDS. Among those, there were 218 cases of AIDS, and 382 were HIV positive. Since 1985, the infection trend shows a slow but continuous increase. In Turkey, more than 1/3 of HIV infections were transmitted by heterosexual sexual relations.

According to the Population Planning Law Nr.2827 dated 1965 and updated in 1983 education, training and services of family planning is conducted by the Health Ministry.

In Turkey, according to TPHR data of 1993, 63o/o of married couples are using contraceptives. 35% of all the couples are using a modern family planning method, while 28% of them are using the traditional methods.

The use of modern methods is related to the level of education and differs between settlement areas and regions.

The abortion rate decreased slightly from 1990 until today. It is observed that this decrease is related to the number of wanted abortions rather than the spontaneous ones. In 1992, the number of wanted abortions was 18 in every 100 pregnancies. The abortion rate differs between regions.

In spite of the important reduction in recent years, infant and child mortality rates are still not at the desired levels. Child survival is closely linked to the spacing and timing of births, the mother's age and her education level. The infant mortality rate of uneducated women is 1.6 times more than that of mothers who have at least graduated from elementary school.

The infant mortality rate is highest for infants born after closely-spaced pregnancies (where the time between two pregnancies is less than two years). The mortality rate of this group is 3.2 times higher than that for infants born 4 or more years apart.

Women and Health 

• Reduce maternal and infant mortality by one half by the year 2000.
• Reduce maternal and infant mortality by 30% by the end of 1998.
• Provide sexual education, reproductive health and care services for women,
• Collect data and information concerning women's health in Turkey with the cooperation of all public and private institutions.
• Establish special information centers and health units in all health institutions which will address women's health needs.
• Design campaigns in order to raise awareness of women's rights to have control over and decide on the spacing and timing of births.
• Make necessary alterations in the legislation to raise the marrying age to 18 for both men and women to prevent early marriages.

Objective : Increase women's access throughout the life cycle to appropriate, affordable and quality health care, information, and related services

1. Increase the number of and decentralize health care institutions, particularly primary health care, and improve the quality of service delivery.
2. Develop programs to outreach high-risk groups and ensure effective health services for these groups.
3. Reduce disparities between regions and settlement areas by giving priority to health care services where they are most urgent.

1. Establish and promote counseling centers which women can have easy access to.
2. Establish and promote units (like menopause and early detection units) addressing women's specific health problems in all kinds of health institutions.

Objective : Develop preventive programs to improve women's health

1. Raise public awareness to ensure protection of women's health and equal benefit from health services, and in order to reach this goal utilize community based health service approaches and informal education programs.
2. Ensure pregnant women's attendance to health care facilities, provide regular follow-up, give pre-natal information, and ensure healthy conditions during delivery.
3. Provide healthy conditions for termination of unwanted pregnancies.
4. Distribute quality family planning services (e.g. counseling, accessibility, availability, voluntary choice, choice of method, trained personnel) by giving special emphasis on patient rights (e.g. to be informed, accessibility, right to choose, confidentiality, reliability, privacy, dignity, comfort, continuity, right to opinion).
5. Encourage breast-feeding and disseminate information about the necessity and benefits of breast-feeding.
6. Monitor and take measures for the private sector to make them offer quality health care services.

1. Develop and promote counseling services, and give information about family planning methods after birth and abortion.
2. Improve the knowledge and skills of the health personnel, and take measures to prevent their mobility.
3. Ensure that quality health-care is given by institutions and organizations which provide health services for women.
4. Provide the necessary education and counseling services for men to increase the awareness of their responsibility in unwanted pregnancies, and give information about contraceptive methods.

Objective : Undertake gender sensitive initiatives concerning sexually transmitted diseases, HIV/AIDS, sexual health and reproductive health

1. Give priority to both formal and informal education programs that encourage men and women to take responsibility for their own sexual and reproductive behavior and exercise their reproductive rights.
2. Design campaigns to raise awareness about the spread of sexually transmitted diseases and HIV/AIDS and methods of protection.
3. Support and promote the on-going efforts within the framework of the national AIDS policy.
4. Increase the accessibility to and the use of condoms to prevent the spread of sexually transmitted diseases.

Objective : Promote information and research about women's health

1. Promote research on the legal system, social attitudes and practices which harm women's health.
2. Set criteria for the improved quality of the offered services.
3. Promote research on cost efficiency of the plans for the improvement of women's health.
4. Evaluate and disseminate the findings of the research concerning women's health; incorporate them into the planning of national policies, and provide technical and financial support to this kind of research.

Objective : Increase resources and monitor follow-up for women's health

1. Develop innovative approaches to fund health services through promoting community participation and local financing; increase budgetary allocations for community health centers and community-based programs and services that address women’s health needs.
2. Increase the participation of voluntary organizations and the private sector to cooperate to allocate resources for women's health services, distribute the services, apply appropriate technologies and improve the quality of services; provide financial support for the relevant voluntary organizations.

Objective: Eliminate and prevent social attitudes, legal and regulatory practices which harm women's health

Violence against women is a physical, sexual, and psychological reality which is committed and often concealed in private and public spheres by individuals and/or states.

The extent of the violence against women, which is a violation of human rights, is unknown. Before 1980, the women's movement put the debate about violence against women on Turkey's agenda and, since then the problem has received greater attention through debates, conferences, and similar activities.

The Purple Roof Women's Shelter Foundation was established in 1990 and opened the Women's Counseling Center and the Women's Shelter. Purple Roof provides psychological and legal assistance, employment guidance, give required sheltering, vocational training and courses for income generating skills.

Also, the Istanbul Women's Rights Commission and the Turkish Women Jurists Association provides legal assistance in the Istanbul area for women who are victims of violence.

The Directorate General on the Status and Problems of Women (DGSPW) supports research about violence against women and the educational programs for the various public and private sector workers.

The Information and Application Bank (IAB) has been established within the DGSPW to offer guidance and counseling services on prevention of violence against women, legal procedures, entrepreneurship and help in marketing handicrafts. By the end of 1996, 1647 women had applied to the IAB. Of the applicants, 316 sought legal advice about domestic violence, 119 needed psychological counseling, and 52 women asked for sheltering.

The Women's Commission of the Contemporary Lawyers Association provides free lega1 advice and assistance in all the branches of DGSPW, with the cooperation of IAB, and follows all court cases of violence against women free of charge.

The Crisis Intervention Center of Ankara University Medical Faculty also offers treatment for people older than 15 who have had and are having psychosomatic symptoms due to daily life problems. The patients who are being sent to the center generally do not have any complaints about domestic violence. However, for the majority of the women, domestic violence is the underlying cause for the symptoms.

• Develop campaigns and parental education programs to prevent domestic violence and violence in general against women and children.
• Include the subject of violence against women and children in the in-service training of professionals like health workers, teachers, educators, social workers, psychologists, pediatricians and policemen.
• Increase the number of counseling centers and shelters for women subjected to violence and provide free psychological and legal aid.

Objective: Take integrated measures to prevent and eliminate violence against women

1. Ensure information interchange between central and local governments, non-governmental organizations, and relevant national and international organizations and promote cooperation between these bodies.
2. Ensure that the in-service training programs for judicial, legal, medical, social, educational, security, refugee and immigrant personnel includes prevention of violence against women and children, and punishment for the perpetrators of such violence.
3. Recognize the fundamental role of police stations, border stations, hospitals and legal medicine departments which are the first institutions victims of violence call upon, and create special units within them consisting of women officials and gender-sensitive professionals.
4. Increase the number of counseling centers and shelters for women subjected to violence; provide the necessary personnel and technical equipment for them; ensure that central and local governments allocate budgetary funds for the improvement and continuity of the existing counseling centers and shelters.
5. Create secure environments and protect women against violence by taking measures like better illumination of streets and parks and increase the frequency of telephone booths; incorporate these measures into city planning and architectural projects.
6. Ensure that immigrant women and women belonging to minority groups benefit from the existing mechanisms and services; provide protection, aid and education for both refugee and internally displaced women in need of international protection.

1. Develop campaigns and education programs to raise awareness in public thought about prevention of violence against women and women's human rights; support projects addressing these subjects.
2. Cooperate with the relevant organizations in order to develop education programs for parents and children to prevent domestic violence.
3. Raise awareness of the responsibility of the media in eliminating patterns of presentation that generate violence, in particular violence against women and children; stimulate public debate on the topic.
4. Support public opinion formed on court cases of women subjected to violence; follow-up the cases and provide a network of legal assistance.
5. Provide legal counseling services for women and children who are victims of violence to raise awareness about their rights; provide free telephone lines for counseling.

Objective: Protect women from violence

1. Make amendments in the Turkish Penal Code by removing sexual assault crimes like rape and kidnapping of women (2nd book, part 8) from "Crimes Committed against the General Morality and Family Order" and instead include them in the "Crimes Committed against Human Rights and Freedoms".
2. Accept the age limit with regard to the victim in cases of rape as 18.
3. Abolish article 434 in the Turkish Penal Code which stipulates that in case of a woman undergoing rape by more than one person, the marriage of one of the assailants with the victim is to be considered a reason for the suspension of the punishment of all the assailants.
4. Abolish article 477 in the Turkish Penal Code concerning the "right of correction" (Turkish Civil Code 267 and 389) which encourages violence although the purpose is educational.
5. Carry out studies regarding the abolishment of provisions with respect to illegitimate children such as, "killing the new born infant, hiding the new born infant, destroying offspring and abandoning" which stipulate mitigating reasons for crimes and which encourage violence.

6. Accept marital rape as a separate offense and abolish the obligation to prove with regard to the victim.
7. Define incest as a separate offense and take protective institutional measures concerning the victims of this offense.
8. Take protective measures concerning the family member subjected to domestic violence and set up legal prohibitions regarding the offender (e.g., if any of the spouses resorts to violence against the other, prohibit the offender to come within a certain distance of the victim for a certain period proceeding the separation and/or divorce).
9. Ensure penal sanctions against those who carry out and those who enforce virginity tests whatever the reason, except cases required by the Turkish Penal Code.
10. Make legal arrangements to expel the husband who resorts to violence, from the common domicile for a certain period thus ensuring the security of the wife in her home.
11. Create a public opinion for the realization of the legal arrangements on the above mentioned issues.

1. Create a public opinion in favor of legal arrangements on the above mentioned issues which are not stipulated in the Turkish Penal Code.
2. Inform the public about the rights of victims undergoing virginity tests, and the fact that it is an offence except for cases required by the Turkish Penal Code. Create a sensitivity for the questioning of such situations from the viewpoint of professional ethics.

Despite the consensus that women's participation in the labor force has great importance for themselves, for the family, and the national development, their participation rate in the labor force is still low and continuously decreasing. One of the reasons for this decrease is that, although the labor law gives equal rights, the necessary mechanisms for providing vocational and technical training which will make women qualified and help them find employment have not been established. The participation rate which was 34% in October 1990 decreased to 30.1% in 1996. The participation rate of men, during the same period, also decreased from 75.3% to 70.2%. The majority of women who worked full time as unpaid family workers in the agricultural sector have been unable to find employment after migrating to the cities. The woman's role in the family, power relations and her position regarding decision-making are the facts affecting woman's participation in the urban labor force. Even if the education level and skills are equal for men and women, after migrating to the cities, men can more easily find employment, when compared to women. The reasons for these women not having employment in the cities are the family responsibilities, negative attitudes of close relatives, and social norms and values against women working outside the home. These factors decrease women's participation in the labor force both in rural and urban areas. The number of unemployed females over 12 years of age is 16 million, and 11.5 million (72%) of them are housewives.

Another factor which affects women's participation in the labor force is the education level. According to April 1996 data, women's participation rate in urban areas increases with the level of education, and for faculty and corresponding level graduates, the participation rate reaches 87.1%.

Women are employed intensively in the agricultural sector in Turkey. With men’s break from agriculture, their labor participation is decreasing, and because women are filling their places, women's participation rate in rural labor force is increasing. April 1996 data indicates that the rural employment rate for women working within the agricultural sector is 74.7% and for men it is 32.8%. Despite this increase, there is no improvement in the economical conditions for rural women, because 90.6% of them are unpaid family workers. The urban structure reflects negatively on women's employment opportunities. As mentioned before, immigrant women either become housewives or work within the informal sector, in marginal jobs without social security in the cities. The main employment available for urban females are unqualified, unregistered, marginal, and informal jobs.

Another intensive area for women is the service sector. The women's share in this sector is 15.8%, and some of the jobs in this sector are considered being appropriate because they are extensions of women's traditional roles. Due to the absence of policies and adequate support to direct women towards vocational or technical training, a qualified women’s labor force which will fill the requirements of the labor market can not be formed. These factors help the promotion and reproduction of stereotyped understanding of women, and they are directed towards occupations considered appropriate.

In the industrial sector, particularly in the manufacturing industry, women’s employment is still quite limited. In this sector, women are always preferred for labor-intensive jobs.

Women and children workers are preferred by the industrial and service sectors because they are prepared to work for low salaries, can easily be prevented from becoming organized, and work in unhealthy conditions without having any social rights and security, especially in unregistered workplaces.

A review of the sectoral employment data (April 1996) indicates that 74.7% of women have agriculture-related professions, 6.1% have scientific-technical professions, whereas the rate drops to 0.9% in entrepreneurial, managerial, and high level executive positions.

Another big difference can be seen between employed men and women in the structure of employment. While the rate of employer/self-employed women is 7.7%, for men it is 38.2%. The share of unpaid family workers in female employment is 67.5% whilst it is 12.7% in male employment.

Turkey has great imbalance in the development levels among regions. Various projects were started in 1980 at national and international levels in order to eliminate the discrepancies among regions, creating solutions for the rural women's problems and integrating them into the development.

After giving the outlines of female employment in Turkey, working women's problems can be summarized as follows:

Daily and weekly working hours are other obstacles that prevent women from combining family and working life. Flexible working patterns are suggested and are being discussed as a new lease on life for working women. Although, in the short run these suggestions might be positive for women's adjustment of working life to their family, these work patterns must be addressed with great caution since they can also mean a regression from already established rules and gained rights such as salary, social benefits, paid leave, social security, seniority, union membership, and collective agreement rights. If implemented priorities must be given to protect gained rights, voluntary pension schemes, and sabbatical leave, but instead of promoting flexible work patterns, it is preferable to discuss reducing the amount of daily and weekly working hours.

A work pattern which is becoming more common among women is piecework in their homes. This kind of work, which women do at home as self-employed or as paid workers for an employer, penetrates their family life, and the paid workers especially find themselves outside of the protectional environment of the workplace. They are not organized, working for low wages and these kinds of work patterns separate women from social communication and the public sphere. There are no adequate laws regulating and securing the quality and quantity of female labor performed in the homes.

There is also discrimination between men and women working as self-employed or paid workers concerning tax cuts, and especially against married women. Social rights which are gained by laws and collective agreements are limited when the woman is married.

Within the labor force, since female labor is regarded as second class and their income is seen as a small addition to the family budget, the women are the first and easiest to dismiss when pregnant and breast-feeding. Since the laws regulating employment security are inadequate, this has a great impact upon women as laborers. Employment security is the insurance for union rights and liberties. The lack of employment security for women who are already passive in this area results in estrangement from joining the unions and from being organized. According to 1997 statistics, the total number of union members was 2,774,622 of which 372,985 were women. Unemployment insurance is a great support for temporarily unemployed women, and for them the absence of this support is a big loss.

Objective: Eliminate occupational segregation and al1 forms of employment discrimination

1. Ensure that all public institutions have quotas for female employees in all professions; create opportunities for the private sector to implement this objective by joint effort by relevant social bodies; ensure that the Turkish Employment Institute supports women’s counseling and vocational education and prioritizes women in this field.
2. Make provisions for women to utilize their social benefits gained by laws and collective agreements irrespective of her marital status and as a personal right.
3. Develop projects to create appropriate communication channels to eliminate the cultural norms and attitudes which are against female employment, and promote new and positive attitudes to support working women.

Objective: Increase female employment, protect working women, and promote women's economic rights and independence, including access to employment appropriate working conditions and control over economic resources

1. Incorporate equal pay for equal work or work of the equal value principle into the labor laws and wage policies in order to equalize women's labor to men's in quality as well as quantity.
2. Prevent women from being dismissed during pregnancy and maternal leave; in order to empower female employees to use their social security and organizing rights, enact legislation to fully implement the ILO convention Nr. 158 on employment security.
3. Make legal arrangements to allow civil servants to use their rights to organize and unionize in accordance with the ILO conventions Nr. 87 and 151.
4. Address flexible working patterns offered to women which are considered suitable, by taking the necessary measures to protect women's gained rights; establish a legal framework which recognizes the voluntary pension scheme and the right to sabbatical leave.
5. Make necessary legal arrangements concerning unemployment insurance.
6. Ensure cooperation between the Labor and Social Security Ministry and all relevant institutions to distribute social support services such as nurseries, day care centers for children, and rest homes for the elderly to assist working women.
7. Provide nurseries in all public and private workplaces which have at least 100 employees, and nursery rooms in workplaces which have female workers irrespective of the number.
8. Encourage employers to share responsibilities to open nurseries and day care centers in industrial zones where women workers are concentrated.
9. Enforce and enact the Agricultural Labor Law in order to provide legal protection for agricultural women and to create a working environment in accordance with international norms.
10. Reduce child labor; develop a policy in which the relevant social bodies can play an active role in order to provide healthy and secure conditions for child workers and to give psychological support to them; provide realistic solutions for the needs of child workers.

Objective: Strengthen women's economical capacity and commercial networks

1. Change the items in the tax laws which are reducing women's net income.
2. Prepare legislation for women performing piecework and working as wage laborers in their homes, and for this objective adopt the ILO convention Nr. 177.
3. Empower women working outside of the public and private sectors and earning income in their homes by doing various kinds of work, by establishing a communication network to improve their self confidence, to give them bargaining power, and to inform them about their right to organize, employment rights, and social security.

Objective: Promote harmonization of work and family responsibilities for women and men

1. Reduce the daily and weekly working hours to harmonize work and family life.
2. Provide solutions for working women's problems related to child care, and in order to facilitate her return to work, make the necessary amendments in the Labor Law and the Civil Servants Law to give parental leave also for fathers for child care.

Objective: Make women's labor visible

1. Take initiatives to include domestic work of unpaid women laborer in agriculture and in the home in the national calculations.
2. Support research and action oriented projects which will show the dimensions of women's contribution to the economy in the private and public sectors.
3. Disseminate effectively the research findings from "Improving the Female Employment Project" supported by the World Bank.
4. Encourage micro enterprises by establishing cooperation between the Labor and Social Security Ministry, the Smal1 and Medium Industries Development, the Turkish Employment Institute, and various banks to provide information and documents to all relevant individuals and institutions about credit accessibility, marketing opportunities, and legal procedures, etc.

Although Article 10 of the Constitution of the Republic of Turkey states that citizens cannot be discriminated against on the basis of gender, there is no specific article stating that women and men have equal rights. Instead, in practice, Article 10 is interpreted as giving women and men equal rights and is considered to be in accordance with the Constitution’s general equality principle.

In our country, every five years a five-year development plan is prepared for the government's implementation, and in the fifth of the five-year plans (1985-1990) for the first time women's issues, and policies to be followed up and measures to be taken on this subject were included as a separate section.

In the chapter "Legislative and Administrative Arrangements" of the seventh five-year development plan, it is anticipated that the discriminatory items in the Turkish Civil Code, Penal Code, Labor Law and tax laws have to be changed to secure equality between men and women.

In the program of the 55th Government of the Republic of Turkey, which was established in July 1997, it is stated that importance will be given to the efforts which are directed towards eliminating negative conditions in order to maintain women's full participation in economic, social, cultural, and political life.

Turkish women were granted suffrage rights on 5 December 1934. However, due to disadvantaged positions of women in decision-making and power mechanisms, the improvement in the legal arena has not reflected itself in the social/political life. Although there is no difference between men and women using their voting rights, it is not possible to say that women are using their right to be elected as equally as men do.

When reviewing the last 100 years of Turkish society, it becomes obvious that the most meaningful changes have occurred in the social position of women but it is also a reality that women have many problems caused by the economical and social structures which have not yet been solved.

Although women are actively involved in working life and production, they do not get their deserved share. Their relative share can not be turned into capital due to patriarchal values. Women's main obstacle when entering politics is financial, such as being able to afford the "nominee fee", and having a budget to promote themselves. Women cannot escape the pressures of traditional-religious values, and due to lack of public support, family responsibilities like caring for children and the elderly fall upon them. This situation also helps to reinforce the idea that politics is mainly a male occupation.

The acceleration of the women's movement in the 1980's, raised women's political consciousness, encouraged women to participate in politics, and made political parties give greater importance to women.

One of the five parties having seats in the Turkish Grand National Assembly (TGNA) began implementing quotas in the 1980's and in their party program it is stated that "there must be at least 1/4 of the members from both sexes in the province and county assemblies and at the highest level of the party management", and two other parties gave a reduction of 50% of the "nominee fee" for women candidates in the 1995 general election.

In addition, the Constitution of 1982 prohibited parties from establishing branches for women and youth; however, this prohibition was removed by decree Nr. 4121 on 23.7.1995. The efforts to change the laws concerning this subject is on-going.

Even if women in politics can overcome financial difficulties, be aware of their constitutional rights, be highly educated, and have respected professions, there are still obstacles stemming from patriarchal culture, social structure and stereotyped political traditions, preventing women from taking their places in decision-making and power mechanisms.

During the 1935 general election, women for the first time could be elected to parliament. Of the 395 elected parliamentarians 18 were women and this was the highest rate (4.6%) ever recorded. After the 1946 election, women's participation in politics rapidly decreased due to the introduction of the multi-party system and changes in the political ideology.

During the last election on the 24th of December 1995, the number of women elected to parliament was higher than in previous elections. Of the 550 elected to the TGNA, 13 were women (2.4%).

Women's participation in local governments, which can be considered as a first step for women to enter politics, is also limited. In 1984, 0.3% of the 2,202 Provincial Assembly members were women. In 1989 and 1994, the percentage of women was 0.8% for both years of the 2,653 and 30,334 members, respectively.

While there were no women mayors elected in the 1984 election, in 1989 0.2% and in 1994 0.4% of the elected mayors were women.

When the 1984, 1989, and 1994 election results for local government are compared, they show that there was an increase in the ratio, but only for elected mayors and not in general. This is evidence that the above mentioned obstacles prevail.

University graduated women are mainly working in the public sector. But in decision-making positions, the number of women is very low. For example, the results of the 1994 Public Personnel Poll show that in managerial general services, the percentage of female public servants was 32.71%, whereas in health services it was 65.63%, and in education and training services 43.44%.

Until today only one woman governor has been appointed, and currently none of the 79 administrative provinces has a female governor. In Turkey the total of deputy district governors is 806, and only 3 of them are women. In addition, of the 118 deputy district governor candidates, 4 are women.

Despite de facto prevention which occurs in Turkey from time to time, the number of women judges and prosecutors is gradually increasing. The total of Turkey's judges and public prosecutors is 7,635 and 1,368 (18%) of them are women. The Council of State, which is an organ of the superior courts, is headed by a woman, and there are 16 women members of the Council of State. Furthermore, there are 23 women prosecutors and 65 administrative judges in the Council of State. The Court of Appeals has 13 women members and 2 of them are heads of departments, and there are 10 women prosecutors. In the Constitutional Court which has 15 active members, 11 are regular members and 4 substitutes. One of the regular and 2 of the substitute members are women.

In the Union of Turkish Bars, 9,202 of the 32,059 total registered lawyers, are women. The percentage of women lawyers is 29%. In Turkey there are 1,347 notaries, and 209 of them are women (15.5%).

There are 44,086 teaching professionals in the universities, and 33% of them are women. 20.5% of the professors, 29.3% of the associate professors, 26.7% of the assistant professors, 29.1% of the lecturers, 35.4% of the research assistants, and 56.5% of other teaching personnel are women.

In the Turkish Armed Forces, there is a total of 483 women officers and 4,654 women civil administrative personnel. The Armed Forces stopped recruiting female officers in 1960; however, in 1982 this practice was resumed.

Women in Turkey who are working in fields requiring specialization are concentrated especially in education, medicine, and law.

Although there are equal opportunities and equal rights for men and women to represent their country abroad, in practice the percent of women in the same status as men is lower. In 1992, of the total of 7,846 civil servants sent abroad, 6,402 were men, and l,444 (18.4%) were women.

Our country is developing very rapidly in every aspect of life, which includes working life where women's status is improving, and as mentioned above, women are stepping out of traditional patterns. Furthermore, women in decision-making positions, in the public sector are gradually increasing. In addition, the number of women in managerial positions within the private sector and professional organizations is also increasing.

Turkey also has women representatives in some of the international organizations: as Director of the Family and Reproductive Health Department, WHO, as Asia-Pacific Director of the United Nations Drug Control Program (UNDCP), as Deputy President of the Executive Committee of the International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women. as Member of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women, as Co-chair Person of European Council, and as Deputy President of NATO's Committee of Female Corps.

• Enact and enforce a frame equality law by giving more weight to the gender-sensitive perspective to maintain the continuity of women's policies,
• Remove the reservations on the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, by making the necessary legal arrangements,
• Ensure legal preparations to allow political parties to establish women's commissions,
• Ensure implementation of quotas to increase women's participation at all levels of decision-making and administration in political parties,
• Implement a quota system to increase women's participation in local governments,
• Form a unit within the national mechanism to collect information and do research about women in managerial positions in the private and public sectors,
• Review legislation to create equal sharing of family responsibilities and power between men and women.

Objective : Enact laws to strengthen women's participation in power structures and decision-making

1. Make efforts to implement the "Equa1 before the Law" principle which is stated in Article 10 of the Constitution.
2. Convene a general assembly to develop the technical and theoretical dimensions of the "Frame Equality Law".
3. Take initiatives to annul the laws against women's human rights, which are the main causes for the reservations on international conventions, especially on the Convention on the Elimination of All Kinds of Discrimination Against Women.
4. Review and amend the legal arrangements within the domestic legislation according to the international conventions protecting women's human rights.

1. Inform women about their existing legal rights and how to use them, by joint effort of Government and non-governmental organizations.
2. Take initiatives to convince the political party groups to accept the projects in this field and ensure support, especially from female parliamentarians, and mobilize the non-governmental organizations to contribute to these efforts.

Objective : Take measures to ensure women's equal access to and full participation in power structures and decision-making

1. Remove the bureaucratic obstacles in the public sector which prevent women’s promotion to take part in administrative organs and to participate in administration; encourage women to apply for managerial positions in the private sector; review the regulations in both sectors to implement positive discrimination for women, and if necessary, design new regulations.
2. Take legal action to determine the objective measures in promotion and prevent the gender discrimination against women in promotion to high level management (e.g.; law nr. 657 and governmental decree nr. 233, etc.).

Objective : Ensure women's full participation to political life

1. Create appropriate conditions for quota implementation to maintain women’s representation in parliament and local governments at a realistic rate.
2. Aim at removing gender discriminatory practices by political parties during the election of all level managers, and convince them to determine the objective criterion about this subject.
3. Supply information and documents needed by women oriented non-governmental organizations and political parties for quota implementation, to maintain women’s participation at all levels of decision-making and administrative bodies of political parties.
4. Ensure that a certain amount of the Treasury support distributed to political parties is given to women desiring to be active in politics and women candidates, to provide financial support.

1. Provide opportunities to give education and counseling services to encourage women to acquire a political identity, and a gender sensitive perspective in the political arena, and to support woman candidates; mobilize universities and non-governmental organizations to contribute to this process.
2. Take initiatives to accelerate amendments within the Political Parties Law to ensure effectiveness for women and youth branches of political parties.
3. Make efforts to give preference to women's image as an individual and a citizen in order to produce mechanisms in all areas of life, to maintain women's political participation, and provide conditions to realize this objective.

In accordance with the Convention on the Elimination of All Kinds of Discrimination Against Women, and in order to give Turkish women their rightful status in social, economical, cultural and political areas, the Directorate General on the Status and Problems of Women (DGSPW) was established as an institutional mechanism for the advancement of women within the Ministry of Labor and Social Security on 29.10.1990 with law nr. 3670. And on 24.06.1991 it was printed in the Official Gazette nr. 20911. The Directorate General continue its functions as an institution attached to the Prime Ministry.

Aims of the Directorate General are:

• To increase the education level of Turkish women
• To increase women's participation in economic life of agricultural, industrial and service sectors
• To maintain women's health and their social and legal security
• To improve women's status by giving them their equal and merited places in social, economic, cultural, and political fields

Duties of the Directorate General are:

• To integrate women into the development process and society by increasing their participation in social, economic, and political decision-making
• To collect data about studies made nationally and internationally concerning women's status and problems
• To collect national statistics on age and sex which will form a basis to solve women’s problems
• To ensure coordination and cooperation between institutions responsible for women’s status and problems; to collect relevant data from these institutions; to support the voluntary organizations addressing women's issues, and to monitor all local governments' activities related to women.

In Turkey, the national statistics institute, the State Institution of Statistics (SIS)has been collecting and publishing all kinds of data related to human resources on a gender-differentiated basis since its foundation in 1927. Due to changes in context and methods, some of the data does not have continuity in time, although for the last 70 years data has been collected and published on main subjects like population, education, employment, etc.. with gender as the basic variable.

In 1990 SIS started a rearranging process with the already existing data from various fields to reflect women's position and problems. In order to accelerate this process and train technicians to become experts on this subject, SIS established the Social Structure and Women’s Statistics Department in 1993, and the same year it cooperated with the DGSPW in a foreign aided project to create a computerized database on women's statistics and indicators. Furthermore, SIS cooperates with institutions and organizations concerned with women’s issues to produce data by taking into account their demands and provides technical support for exterior statistical work.

After 1990, SIS published two books about women's statistics titled "Women’s Statistics,1927-1990’s" and "Statistics on Women, 1927-1992".

Data related to men's and women's participation in economic life is collected on the basis of institutions, public and private sectors since 1970 and on the basis of households since 1988.

The methodological part of a research which is designed to measure time use of housewives, their service production time, and time for voluntary activities has been completed, and implementation has begun in a pilot area.

Since 1994, the methodological work of collecting data about poverty and income distribution on the basis of gender is continuing.

Hacettepe Institute of Population Studies collects data on subjects such as the fertility rate in Turkey, infant and child mortality, pre-natal and post-natal care, family planning services, child health, etc., which is then being regionally grouped.

The intersectoral committee established in 1994 to improve the vital statistics recording system (recording of birth and death) is continuing the effort. The absence of data on the subject of morbidity will be restored by the project "Health Information System" which is implemented by the Health Ministry with the cooperation of relevant institutions.

Preparatory work has begun to collect data on violence against women.

• Strengthen the national institution in terms of professional capacity and finance reorganize the institution to enable it to distribute its services nation wide.
• Establish women units in state owned institutions and organizations and ensure coordination among them.
• Establish a network for information flow between these units and non-governmental organizations.

Objective: Provide legal status for the Directorate General on the Status and Problems of Women

1. Inform parliamentarians to create a political will to pass the "Draft Law about Establishment of the Directorate General on the Status and Problems of Women".

- Supply documents to non-governmental organizations for their lobbying on this subject.

2. If the law is accepted by the TGNA, develop policies for DGSPW to become widespread nation wide.

- Develop a new organization schedule for this objective.

- Allocate a sufficient budget to realize its objectives.

- Investigate and determine in which cities the provincial organizing of the DGSPW is most needed.

- Determine new staff requirements and sources of work force.

- Provide in-service training for the personnel appointed to the provincial organizations of the DGSPW.

3. Empower the cooperation on women's issues between the DGSPW, public institutions and non-governmental organizations.

Objective : Implement the 297th paragraph of the Platform for Action

1. Form a "Coordination Committee" to disseminate the conclusions of the 4^th World Conference on Women and to ensure its efficiency.

- Form this Committee with the help of public institutions and organizations and especially with women oriented non-governmental organizations.

2. Develop strategies to implement the national undertakings and define work and duties.

Objective: Generate gender-related statistics

1. Ensure completion of computerizing database on women's statistics and indicators by SIS by the end of 1998.
2. Ensure realization of time-use survey in the 1997-1998 period by SIS; improve methods to assess women's unremunerated domestic work and voluntary activities to include them in the national calculations of the GNP.
3. Realize collection of data in 1997/1998 period on "Condition of Women and Children Living in Dwellings Under the Poverty Limit" and "Comparison of Household Incomes between Male and Female Headed Households" by SIS.
4. Ensure publication of "Women's Statistics, 1927-1996" by the end of 1998.
5. Produce new data on mother mortality and adult mortality based on sex, in addition to basic demographic indicators which are planned to be collected in population survey by SIS in 1997.
6. Ensure collection of new data on fertility rate, infant and child mortality, pre and post natal care, family planning services, child health, women's status, etc., in the population survey which is planned for 1997 by Hacettepe Institute of Population Studies.

In today's societies, mass media reproduces social norms and values through news and comments. The patriarchal values dominating mass media reproduce stereotyped mages of women and despite the visible signs of change, it reinforces women's traditional roles. In reality, the new women's thoughts, beliefs and ways of realizing herself are not reflected in this process, with her own discourse.

In Turkey, women's image in the mass media is not differentiated and does not reflect women's point of view. For example, in programs involving violence, women are always shown as pitiful individuals or as victims. In 1993, the research "The Media, Violence and Women" on news involving violence printed in newspapers, showed that 15.2% of news about women subjected to violence, portrayed women as pitiful individuals, and in 7.6% women were degraded by negative comments.

Recent increase of publications on women's emancipation has positively contributed to the improvement and dissemination of feminist discourse. For example MONDAY, which is a monthly women's newspaper where the staff is also entirely female, published its first issue in April 1995, and defines itself as "a popular feminist periodical which supports everything which is positive for women and is against everything negative for women".

"There are Women" is the first documentary film that gives the historical background of the women's movement in Turkey. This film, which was directed by a woman, is about women's struggle to gain their rights from Tanzimat* and onwards. Also, the Turkish Radio and Television Institution (TRT) produced and broadcasted a documentary serial called "When the Doors Open" which considered the Turkish women's movement in parallel with movements elsewhere in the world. Moreover, non-governmental organizations are producing various films and television programs.

Objective: Increase the participation and access for women in decision-making and through the media and new communication technologies

1. Establish communication networks to use new technologies as a tool for interaction of information between relevant institutions, organizations and bodies.
2. Guarantee the freedom of the media and its subsequent protection within the framework of national law and encourage the positive involvement of the media in development and social issues.
3. Enact and enforce the Media Law by consulting relevant parties; secure control mechanisms, especially for the private radio and television channels.
4. Restructure the Radio and Television Supreme Council to promote full and effective participation of women in the Council's advisory, managerial, regulatory and monitoring bodies.

1. Encourage media institutions by special arrangements such as tax reductions to support advertisement campaigns for women candidates in elections.
2. Encourage the use of communication systems, including new technologies, as a means of strengthening participation of women in democratic processes.
3. Encourage the development of educational and training programs for women in order to produce information for the mass media, including experimental efforts.
4. Promote full and equal participation of women in all areas of media especially in the fields of research, education, training, planning, monitoring, advising and management.
5. Encourage the media to increase the number of programs produced by and for women and enrich the content of programs.
6. Promote public educational programs to increase awareness of women's human rights.
7. Encourage media industry to promote research on women and women's issues and disseminate the research findings in private, state and public media.

1. Inform, and by developing educational programs, train women to make greater use of the media and the information and communication technology.
2. Encourage the establishment of a "Media Watch Committee" with the participation of various women's organizations, to monitor and evaluate women's programs both in quality and quantity, thus acting as a pressure group.
3. Support general and local election campaigns for women candidates by encouraging the media to contribute to these campaigns without expectations.
4. Review and update the existing media policies or develop new policies to eliminate all kinds of discrimination against women and prevent degrading and offensive images of girl children and women, in the media; support research in all aspects to define areas needing attention and action, with respect to women and the media.
5. Form a public opinion through non-governmental organizations, to encourage women as consumers to boycott products of companies which exploit women and children in their advertisements.
6. Design a women's agenda and ensure follow-up of this agenda by all relevant institutions and organizations.

Objective: Promote contemporary portrayals of women in the media and establish cooperation between Government, NGOs and media institutions for women

1. Develop professional guidelines and codes of conduct, thus encouraging the media to develop self regulatory mechanisms to promote contemporary portrayals of women.
2. Develop education, information and communication systems to promote non-traditional and contemporary images of women and girl children in the media.
3. Encourage media owners and managers both in the public and private sectors to adopt a gender-sensitive perspective in their programs.
4. Prevent the exhibition of women as sexual objects and commodities in the media, especially in advertisements; instead encourage the media to present women as creative individuals and who participate, share and make decisions.
5. Review existing legislation or develop new ones to eliminate violence, exploitation, degradation regarding women and children in the media.
6. Encourage the media in cooperation with non-governmental organizations to produce and/or disseminate materials concerning women professionals to strengthen and promote the images of working women.
7. Promote the equal sharing of family responsibilities through media campaigns and programs that emphasize gender equality within the family and which encourage women’s participation in social life.