Gimme, gimme, gimme… a man as Turkey’s family minister

An ambitious woman who aims to reach ministerial level knows that she has at least one cabinet post open to her: The Ministry of Family and Social Policies. Before 2011, it was known as the Ministry Responsible for Women. This post, which always goes to a woman, has enjoyed a high turnover rate compared to the rest of the cabinet (seven women have been ministers since 2005 - with a tenure of around two years on average). These ministers have often been the only woman in the cabinet.

Please prime minister, could you not just give the post to a man next time? 

Appoint a man who has had no training in gender issues; a man who in the years before he took over the post simply skipped over women abuse stories because they were too depressing; a man who would not read Oya Baydar, Elif Şafak, Alice Munroe, Doris Lessing, or even Hannah Arendt because they wrote "women's stuff"; a man who thinks (and says) that Turkish women have everything they want, and what they don't have they get by nagging anyway; a man who thinks history is really his story, with no contribution from women, and that the future would/should be the same; a man with a mustache and a checkered jacket; a man who thinks flirting is no better than prostitution, that decent women don't laugh, don't wear mini-skirts, and don't get raped; a man who thinks good wives don't get beaten. 

If you appoint such a man then both you and we women can end the pretense that your government cares about women's problems, issues and opinions. 

We would then understand why the present policy toward women is marked by reluctance to take action on the real problems of women. 

We could then blame the minister for recent attempts to "prevent" divorce rather than try to prevent child...