A WOMAN PRIME-MINISTER IN TURKEY - DID IT MATTER

This paper examines if Tansu Ciller, the first woman prime minister in Turkey, made a difference in how political power was used in that cou ntry. Even though women leaders have signaled change, they have also b een known to perpetuate the status quo. Tansu Ciller has perpetuated t he status quo with her opportunistic quest for power and dismissal of women's issues when she was in office; yet, she has also expanded the framework within which political authority could be culturally coded, because she was a new role model of a woman politician with clout who did not deny her feminity. She also brought a female constituency to t he foreground of electoral discourse prior to the 1995 elections.