Türkiye’s Gender Equality Policies: A Case of Europeanization or (De)-Europeanization?

Gender equality policies have been at the basis of the European Union since the Treaty of Rome. It is obvious that the EU gives its attention to gender equality policies and under the Europeanization of countries, gender equality policies have also gone under the process of Europeanization. The thesis analyzes the Europeanization and (de)-Europeanization processes of gender equality policies in Türkiye under the AKP government and the contribution of these processes to the survival of the governing party. Thus, the evolution processes of gender equality policies since AKP’s coming to power and the domestic and external drivers of the change in gender equality policies and their interaction with each other are studied. It employs a qualitative methodology with semi-structured interviews. There are three hypotheses to be investigated. The first one is (de)-Europeanization of gender equality policies employed by AKP in order to please conservative groups and therefore it triggers a process of de-Europeanization. The second hypothesis is EU’s soft law approach reinforces conservative governments’ lack of commitment toward gender equality. And the last one is the AKP contributes to the (de)-Europeanization justifying the non-compliance with some EU gender equality standards, based on their religion [Islam] “has defined a position for women: motherhood” that also helps to ostracise women by portraying them as delicate, weak, and powerless and limiting their role to motherhood. It is expected to show the changes that the country has undergone related to gender equality.