Europeanization and De‐Europeanization of Turkey's Gender Equality Policy: The Case of the Istanbul Convention

Abstract

Despite taking significant steps to comply with the Copenhagen criteria after receiving the candidate-country status in 1999, Turkey gradually moved away from European norms, values, and policy demands in various policy areas. This study explores (de)-Europeanization of Turkey's gender equality policy in terms of both legislative changes and the shifts observed in domestic actors' discourses over the past decade, focusing particularly on the debates surrounding the Istanbul Convention. It argues that the fading credibility of the EU conditionality coupled with domestic political dynamics led to the weakening of the EU as a reference point in domestic debates, where policies ensuring gender equality were reversed by pro-family conservative discourses and policies. The study points to domestic factors, including the country's authoritarian turn, and international factors such as the stalling EU-Turkey relations coupled with the backlash against gender equality in EU member states as the key dimensions of de-Europeanization of gender equality policy.

Capturing Women's Standpoint in EU–Turkey Studies: The Evolution of Gendered Publication and Citation Patterns

“…The rising visibility of women's authorship after 2014 and its impact on higher citation of women's work create optimism that knowledge on the EU–Turkey relationship will gradually become less distorted by male‐dominated ideology. In fact, some significant work on gender has been published in the context of EU–Turkey affairs following the completion of data collection (e.g., Bodur Ün and Arıkan, 2022; Kancı et al, 2023; Süleymanoğlu‐Kürüm and Cin, 2021). However, cautious optimism is warranted given the rise of anti‐gender politics in Turkey, culminating in Ankara's withdrawal from the Istanbul Convention in 2021.…”

Politicizing Gender and Democracy in the Context of the Istanbul Convention. By Andrea Krizsán and Conny Roggeband. Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Pivot, 2021. 248 pp. $74.99 (cloth), ISBN: 9783030790691.

“…The Istanbul Convention on violence against women and domestic violence has become a major topic of academic discussion, with several books and journal articles published on the subject (e.g., Acar and Popa 2016; De Vido 2016; McQuigg 2017; Niemi, Peroni, and Stoyanova 2020; Ün and Arıkan 2022). Andrea Krizsán and Conny Roggeband’s book stands out because it approaches the backlash against the Istanbul Convention as a threat to democracy through a comparative study of four countries in the Central and Eastern European region (CEE): Croatia, Poland, Bulgaria, and Hungary.…”