This paper examines dynamics of gender equality policy adoption by having a particular focus on comparison of authoritarian versus nonauthoritarian states. There can be a number of factors which affect government’s response to women’s problems such as domestic violence, equal treatment in employment or women’s property rights. It has been demonstrated by some scholarly work that regime type could be one of those factors. Many scholars argue that democracies in general are more woman-friendly than authoritarian regimes while others demonstrate no significant impact of the level of democracy. The main aim of this study is to assess these arguments by having a large-N cross national research design in mind and to question whether being an authoritarian regime hinders government’s responsiveness for women’s issues. In doing this, this study first analyzes trends of gender equality policy adoption in between authoritarian and non-authoritarian states and then focuses on different trends of gender equality policy adoption in between authoritarian regimes. To this end, this study ask questions such as ‘Are there some general patterns between authoritarian and non-authoritarian countries about the adoption of the gender equality policies?, ‘what are the determinants of gender equality policies around the world and do they match the context of authoritarian regimes?’, and ‘why some authoritarian countries are more likely to adopt gender equality policies than others?’
