Conditional cash transfers in Turkey: A case to reflect on the AKP’s approach to gender and social policy

Abstract

This paper looks at the gender aspect of social policy provision in Turkey during the Justice and Development Party (Adalet ve Kalkinma Partisi-AKP) government period through an emphasis on the ways in which women are positioned within the anti-poverty programmes. It focuses on conditional cash transfers (CCTs), as the leading and most emphasized poverty alleviation programme of the AKP government. The paper subjects the CCTs in general and the Turkish CCT programme in particular to a gender analysis. It demonstrates how CCTs are representative of the AKP’s social conservative and neo-liberal approach to social policy especially with regard to the roles that are assigned to women. It argues that the double-sidedness in AKP’s policies in terms of gender equality is observed in the case of the CCTs. Although at the discursive level, there is an emphasis on empowerment of women by this programme, the ways in which the programme is structured leads to the reinforcement of women’s domestic roles.