Understanding Democratic Reversal from a Gender Perspective: The Curious Case of Turkey

The gendering of transitions to and consolidation of democracy is mostly dome in two ways. In analyzing the relation between women and democratization, the gender and transition literature usually focuses on women’s participation in the transition of an authoritarian regime towards a democratic one. When analyzing the consolidation of a newly democratized regime, the literature usually shifts its focus on the participation of women in the formal political arena and how women politicians influence the political agenda. However, democratic consolidation is not an irreversible condition, because democracies can become weaker or stronger (Diamond 1997), and this has implications for gender dynamics, in particular for women’s participation and representation. New questions for the gender and transition literature are: To what extent do democratic reversals influence gender dynamics? How do women in formal and informal arena react to democratic reversals? What are the strategies of organized women in negotiating with the state in processes of democratic reversals or crisis? To find tentative answers, this paper employs the case of Turkey. Although Turkey underwent a promising democratic consolidation process in the initial years of the Justice and Development Party (Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi, AKP), the recent political developments in the country rather point to a democratic reversal, or an authoritarian backlash. To understand how the process of democratic reversal (de-democratization) under AKP rule is gendered, the paper examines the role of organized women who engage in strengthening women’s rights and gender equality. Drawing upon the information gathered from in-depth interviews, document analysis and academic surveys on violence against women, gender (in)equality and discrimination against women, the paper sheds light on the efforts and struggles of different groups of organized women in Turkey (feminist, Kurdish, Islamist and Kemalist women’s organizations).