``This is an unacceptable state of affairs,'' says Nuran Talu, board member of the Society for Promotion of Women Candidates (KA-DER), wearily protesting the appointment of an all-male Government. Turkey's women were promised full equality by the Republic's founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk more than 70 years ago. But despite the fact that they were given the vote in 1934, women today account for only two per cent of the 550 deputies in Turkey's parliament.

Not one of the country's 76 provincial governors is a woman, and only 0.4 per cent of Turkish city mayors are female.

Feminist hopes were briefly raised by the meteoric rise to power in 1993 of Tansu Ciller, the country's first and hitherto only female Prime Minister.

But Ecevit'sGovernment now marks a new low for women's representation in politics, the previous government having at least included two female ministers.

The decision came only weeks after the country's largest secular party, Mesut Yilmaz' Motherland Party, reduced the number of women in its leadership from five to one at a party congress.

Fed up with the situation, KA-DER has launched a campaign to propel 55 women into Parliament in the general elections scheduled for April 18, hoping to raise the female representation to 10 per cent.

The campaign plan includes a public relations blitz to persuade potential female candidates to come forward, how-to booklets and sponsorship for interested women, and pressure on political parties' to include the women in their lists.

And posters, stickers and t-shirts proclaiming `I support women candidates' are to raise public awareness during the election campaign.

Not every Turk will be happy to sport the slogan, though.

Results of a poll published earlier this month showedthat 28 per cent of Turkish voters see no need for more women in politics, and 21 per cent even said they would not vote for a woman.

While most followers of middle-of-the-road parties see no reason not to vote for a woman, many supporters of Islamist, far-right and Kurdish groups would not dream of it.

A breakdown by regions showed that, while 80 per cent of voters in the Istanbul region favor stronger representation of women in Parliament, almost 50 per cent of those polled in the conservative southeast of the country are actually opposed to this.

The poll illustrates that feminism in Turkey remains a minority issue even among women, championed almost exclusively by those belonging to the westernised elite in major towns and on the Aegean coast. Chances are that it will be a long time yet until women can muster a sufficient majority in Parliament to change the house rule forbidding females to enter the building wearing pants.