LESSON
Lesson Learned: Empowerment of Women Citizens in Turkey
Serious challenges were encountered in providing training to working class women - the ultimate beneficiaries - whose circumstances were very different from those of the middle-class, educated trainees. The Training of Trainers course did not endow its graduates with the skills necessary to deal with a wide range of subjects, with beneficiaries requiring practical information regarding their rights and on how to act to address problems of day-to-day injustice - in inheritance, property ownership and divorce-related disputes.
Project Name
Project Partner
Association for Supporting and Training of Women Candidates
Project Description
The project aimed to raise women’s awareness of their rights as citizens, while also increasing the participation and representation of women in political life. To this end, the project aimed to increase the capacity of selected women’s NGOs in all seven regions of the country. The grantee developed a training-of-trainers’ (ToT) manual and a training guide; organized and delivered a ToT course in 14 centres, two in each region of the country; and encouraged the 350 graduates of the ToT program to each deliver training courses themselves, utilizing the manual and training guide.
Deep gender disparities continued to exist in Turkish social and economic life, and many women were quite unaware of their rights as citizens. The project was directly relevant to this problem, as it sought to enhance the capacity of women activists, who were engaged with improving the lives of other women, by enhancing their knowledge of the concepts of gender equality, of women’s rights as citizens, and of practical measures which might be taken to enable women to defend themselves against injustice.
Evaluation Date
February 2012
Theme
Country