Abstract
The processes of democratization or democratic reversal have serious implications for gender equality regimes. Although the gender and transition literature has extensively examined the relation between democratization and gender, it only recently began to question how the changing dynamics of democratic reversal influence gender politics and policies. While women’s participation and representation in the formal arena of politics has been the primary object of theoretical discussions, the research rediscovers the power of the informal arena. To find tentative answers to the newly developing research agenda, this article employs the case of Turkey. To this end, the article examines the gendered strategies of four groups of organized women (feminist, Kurdish, Islamist, and Kemalist women’s organizations) engaged in strengthening women’s rights and gender equality. It first questions how, and to what extent, organized women en<em>gendered </em>democratization process and then sheds lights on the shift in their strategies to respond to the increasingly authoritarian and conservative Islamist political agenda of the ruling Justice and Development Party. Drawing on empirical findings, the article aims to inform the theoretical debates on the analytical relation between democratic reversals and gender rights regimes.
Highlights
On 5 June 2016, at the opening of the new building of the Kadın ve Demokrasi Derneği (KADEM) [Women and Democracy Association], Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan asserted that “a woman who rejects motherhood, who refrains from being around the house— successful in her work life—is deficient, and is incomplete” (The Guardian, 2016)
How do organized women deal with the enforced conservative gender policies that push women to accept traditionally designed gender roles? What strategies do they develop to resist the Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi (AKP)’s repressive politics? I focus on the strategies of the aforementioned four groups of women’s civil society organizations (CSOs) before and after 2011 to highlight the shift in AKP’s gender politics that accompanied its authoritarian turn
The other two CSOs are co-opted by the AKP, and they have already become instrumentalized for government policies to protect and elevate family values, traditions, and morality
Summary
On 5 June 2016, at the opening of the new building of the Kadın ve Demokrasi Derneği (KADEM) [Women and Democracy Association], Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan asserted that “a woman who rejects motherhood, who refrains from being around the house— successful in her work life—is deficient, and is incomplete” (The Guardian, 2016). He further recommended that women should have at least three children, which he frequently mentions in his public speeches. The findings on Turkey may provide valuable insights into the newly emerging field within the gender and politics scholarship dealing with backsliding in gender equality in the context of dedemocratization and democratic reversal
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