Women in Northern Cyprus

Women in Northern Cyprus

Ziynet Sali, a female singer from Northern Cyprus
Gender Inequality Index
Women in parliament	8% (2013)
Women in labour force	39-40% (2015)

The women in Northern Cyprus are inhabitants of the internationally unrecognised Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, where they have been contributors to the fields of science, law and justice. However, several factors have inhibited women's participation in politics, and women constitute only 8% of the Assembly of the Republic. In 2013, Sibel Siber became the first female prime minister of Northern Cyprus.

Northern Cyprus has no active women's shelters. In 2014, the parliament unanimously voted to establish a department promoting gender equality, which is establishing institutions for women's welfare.

A survey of 600 women in 2010 for the Association for Support for Life from Women (KAYAD) indicated that 51% of women agreed that women had to conform to pre-determined gender roles, 88% agreed that above all else, women should be good mothers and caretakers of the home, 58% believed that women should be home before their husbands and 80% believed that girls should be raised to become "ladies", 20% believed that widowed or divorced women should not live alone. 40% stated that they had difficulties in achieving their goals due to societal pressure, while 38% believed that it was not as important for women to have a significant role in public life in comparison to men. 55% believed that women should be able to work outside the family even if not necessitated by economic conditions.

Constraints affecting women who have entered politics in Northern Cyprus include investing time for home, motherhood, family, and political life. The fact that coffeehouses and meyhane (traditional drinking taverns), social spaces that have been traditionally reserved for men, remain central to Turkish Cypriot politics is a restraining factor for women. Even some regional headquarters of political parties function as coffeehouses.

As of 2010, there were only 7 female Northern Cypriots who held high-level positions in the Parliament of Northern Cyprus. The posts that the women occupied included parliamentarian and ministerial jobs, such as the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the appointed Minister of Education. Fatma Ekenoğlu was the Speaker of the House of Representatives. Onur Borman was the Minister of the Ministry of Economy and Finance and was also the Minister of the Ministry of Public Works between 1993 and 1999. Gülsen Bozkurt was the former Minister of the Ministry of Health. Gülin Sayıner was one of the first two elected female members of the Parliament of Northern Cyprus (Republican Assembly) and served from 1987 to 1993.Şerife Ünverdi used to be the Minister of Labor and Social Security. These women were able to reach out to voters of Northern Cyprus because of their medical backgrounds. In 2013, Sibel Siber became the first female prime minister of Northern Cyprus and is running for president from the ruling Republican Turkish Party (CTP) in the 2015 presidential election. In spite of this, women constitute only 8% of the parliament as of 2015. Only 4 out of 47 female candidates were elected in the 2013 parliamentary election.