Hostname: page-component-669899f699-cf6xr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-04-24T23:19:51.190Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Gender Climate in Authoritarian Politics: A Comparative Study of Russia and Turkey

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 January 2019

Gokten Doğangün
Gokten Doğangün*
Affiliation:
Middle East Technical University
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

In Russia and Turkey, the pro-authoritarian regimes have largely relied on nationalistic narratives appealing to cultural authenticity, tradition, and religion for legitimacy and cultural resonance at the mass level. Within this narrative, as it is argued, traditional notions of family and femininity are endorsed so as to represent national power against the West and to invigorate social unity and morality in Russian and Turkish societies. The revival of traditional gender norms and patterns that characterize the prevailing gender climates in Russia and Turkey is visible in the restructuring of gender equality mechanisms, the organization of reproduction in accordance with pronatalist policies, women's employment patterns, and state policy on combating domestic violence. This analysis relies on empirical data obtained through in-depth interviews with academics, representatives of international organizations and nongovernmental organizations, feminist activists, experts from women's shelters, and public officials based in Russia and Turkey. It is supplemented with a review of relevant examples from political discourse employed by political leaders, legal regulations, and public policies on these four areas. The article concludes that the revival of traditional gender categories and stereotypes aggravates the inferior position of women and unleashes discriminatory attitudes toward them at home, in society, and in the labor market.

Keywords

GenderstateauthoritarianismRussiaTurkey
Type
Research Article
Information
Politics & Gender , Volume 16 , Special Issue 1: Special Symposium on Women's Parties , March 2020 , pp. 258 - 284
Copyright
Copyright © The Women and Politics Research Section of the American Political Science Association 2019

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

Footnotes

I owe my special thanks to Ayşe Ayata and Zelal Özdemir for their valuable comments on the earlier drafts of the article.

References

REFERENCES

Acar, Feride, and Altunok, Gülbanu. 2013. “The ‘Politics of Intimate’ at the Intersection of Neo-liberalism and Neo-conservatism in Turkey.” Women's Studies International Forum 41: 14–23.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Aile ve Sosyal Politikalar Bakanlığı Kadının Statüsü Genel Müdürlüğü [Ministry of Family and Social Policies, Directorate General on the Status and Problems of Women] (ASPB). 2012. Türkiye'de Kadının Durumu [The situation of women in Turkey]. Ankara: ASBP.Google Scholar
Aldıkaçtı-Marshall, Gül. 2013. Shaping Gender Policy in Turkey: Grassroots Women Activists, the European Union and the Turkish State. Albany: State University of New York Press.Google Scholar
Anderson, John. 2007. “Putin and the Russian Orthodox Church: Asymmetric Symphonia?” Journal of International Affairs 61 (1): 185–95.Google Scholar
Ashwin, Sarah, and Lytkina, Tatyana. 2004. “Men in Crisis in Russia: The Role of Domestic Marginalization.” Gender & Society 18 (2): 189–206.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bogner, Alexander, and Menz, Wolfgang. 2009. “The Theory-Generating Expert Interview: Epistemological Interest, Forms of Knowledge, Interaction.” In Interviewing Experts, eds. Bogner, Alexander, Littig, Beate, and Menz, Wolfgang. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 43–80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Buci-Glucksmann, Christine. 1984. “Hegemony and Consent: A Political Strategy.” In Approaches to Gramsci, ed. Sassoon, Anne Showstack. London: Writers and Readers, 116–26.Google Scholar
Buckley, Mary. 1989. Women and Ideology in the Soviet Union. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.Google Scholar
Buğra, Ayse. 2012. “The Changing Welfare Regime of Turkey: Neoliberalism, Cultural Conservatism and Social Solidarity Redefined.” In Gender and Society in Turkey: The Impact of Neoliberal Policies, Political Islam and EU Accession, eds. Dedeoğlu, Saniye and Elveren, Adem Yavuz. London: I. B. Tauris, 15–30.Google Scholar
Cameron, David R., and Orenstein, Mitchell A.. 2012. “Post-Soviet Authoritarianism: The Influence of Russia in Its ‘Near Abroad.’” Post-Soviet Affairs 28 (1): 37–41.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cannady, Sean, and Kubicek, Paul. 2014. “Nationalism and Legitimation for Authoritarianism: A Comparison of Nicholas 1 and Vladimir Putin.” Journal of Eurasian Studies 5 (1): 1–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chandler, Andrea. 2013. Democracy, Gender and Social Policy in Russia: A Wayward Society. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Connell, R. W. 1987. Gender and Power: Society, the Person, and Sexual Politics. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Connell, R. W. 1990. “The State, Gender, and Sexual Politics: Theory and Appraisal.” Theory and Society 19 (5): 507–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Coşar, Simten. 2012. “The AKP's Hold on Power: Neoliberalism Meets the Turkish-Islamic Synthesis.” In Silent Violence: Neoliberalism, Islamist Politics and the AKP Years in Turkey, eds. Coşar, Simten and Yücesan-Özdemir, Gamze. Ottawa: Red Quill Books, 67–92.Google Scholar
Coşar, Simten, and Yeğenoğlu, Metin. 2011. “New Grounds for Patriarchy in Turkey? Gender Policy in the Age of AKP.” South European Society and Politics 16 (4): 555–73.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Demirtaş, Birgül. 2012. “Turkish Foreign Policy under the AKP Governments: An Interplay of Imperial Legacy, Neoliberal Interests and Pragmatism.” In Silent Violence: Neoliberalism, Islamist Politics and the AKP Years in Turkey, eds. Coşar, Simten and Yücesan-Özdemir, Gamze. Ottawa: Red Quill Books, 213–50.Google Scholar
Durakbaşa, Ayşe. 1997. “Kemalism as Identity Politics in Turkey.” In Deconstructing Images of “The Turkish Woman,” ed. Arat, Zehra F.. New York: St. Martin's Press, 139–55.Google Scholar
Engel, Barbara A. 2004. Women in Russia 1700–2000. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Esen, Berk, and Gumuscu, Sebnem. 2016. “Rising Competitive Authoritarianism in Turkey.” Third World Quarterly 37 (9): 1581–1606. https://doi.org/10.1080/01436597.2015.1135732.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Evans, Alfred B. 2008. “President Putin's Legacy and Russia's Identity.” Europe-Asia Studies 60 (6): 899–912.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gal, Susan, and Kligman, Gail. 2000. The Politics of Gender after Socialism. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gel'man, Vladimir. 2014. “The Rise and Decline of Electoral Authoritarianism in Russia.” Demokratizatsiya 22 (4): 503–22.Google Scholar
Johnson, Janet Elise. 2017. “Gender Equality Policy: Criminalizing and Decriminalizing Domestic Violence.” Russian Analytical Digest, no. 200, March 28. http://www.css.ethz.ch/content/dam/ethz/special-interest/gess/cis/center-for-securities-studies/pdfs/RAD200.pdf (accessed November 5, 2018).Google Scholar
Kandiyoti, Deniz. 1991. “Introduction.” In Women, Islam and the State, ed. Kandiyoti, Deniz. London: Macmillan, 1–21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kay, Rebecca. 2000. Russian Women and Their Organizations: Gender, Discrimination and Grassroots Women's Organizations, 1991–96. London: Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kılıç, Azer. 2008. “The Gender Dimension of Social Policy Reform in Turkey: Towards Equal Citizenship?” Social Policy and Administration 42 (5): 487–503.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marsh, Rosalind. 1998. “Women in Contemporary Russia and the Former Soviet Union.” In Women, Ethnicity and Nationalism: The Politics of Transition, eds. Wilford, Rick and Miller, Robert L.. New York: Routledge, 87–119.Google Scholar
Meuser, Michael, and Nagel, Ulrike. 2009. “The Expert Interview and Changes in Knowledge Production.” In Interviewing Experts, eds. Bogner, Alexander, Littig, Beate, and Menz, Wolfgang. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 17–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Müller, Jan-Werner. 2016. What Is Populism? Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Najmabadi, Afsaneh. 2006. “Gender and Secularism of Modernity: How Can a Muslim Woman Be French?” Feminist Studies 32 (2): 239–255.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
National Center for the Prevention of Violence (ANNA). 2010. “Violence against Women in the Russian Federation: Alternative Report to the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women, 46th Session.” http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/cedaw/docs/ngos/ANNANCPV_RussianFederation46.pdf (accessed November 5, 2018).Google Scholar
Nechemias, Carol. 2016. “The Putin Era and Gender Equality: A Patriarchal Renaissance?” Presented at the 16th Annual International Aleksanteri Conference, “Life and Death in Russia,” University of Helsinki and Finnish Centre of Excellence in Russian Studies.Google Scholar
Öniş, Ziya. 2013. “Sharing Power: Turkey's Democratization Challenge in the Age of the AKP Hegemony.” Insight Turkey 15 (2): 85–102.Google Scholar
Öniş, Ziya, and Keyman, Fuat. 2003. “Turkey at the Polls: New Path Emerges.” Journal of Democracy 14 (2): 95–107.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Özbay, Ferhunde. 1990. “The Development of Studies on Women in Turkey.” In Women, Family and Social Change in Turkey, ed. Özbay, Ferhunde. Bangkok: UNESCO, 1–12.Google Scholar
Pateman, Carole. 1988. The Sexual Contract. Cambridge: Polity.Google Scholar
Putin, Vladimir. 2012. “Russia: The Ethnicity Issue.” Nezavisimaya Gazeta, January 23. http://archive.premier.gov.ru/eng/events/news/17831/ (accessed November 5, 2018).Google Scholar
Randall, Vicky, and Waylen, Georgina, eds. 2012. Gender, Politics and the State. New York: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Riabova, Tatiana, and Riabov, Oleg. 2014. “The Remasculinization of Russia? Gender, Nationalism and the Legitimation of Power under Vladimir Putin.” Problems of Post-Communism 61 (2): 23–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rivkin-Fish, Michelle. 2010. “Pronatalism, Gender Politics, and the Renewal of Family in Russia: Toward a Feminist Anthropology of ‘Maternity Capital.’” Slavic Review 69 (3): 701–24.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Robinson, Neil. 2017. “Russian Neo-patrimonialism and Putin's ‘Cultural Turn.’” Europe-Asia Studies. 69 (2): 348–66.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rotkirch, Anna, Temkina, Anna, and Zdravomyslova, Elena. 2007. “Who Helps the Degraded Housewives? Comments on Vladimir President Putin's Demographic Speech.” European Journal of Women's Studies 14 (4): 349–57.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sakwa, Richard. 2010. “The Dual State in Russia.” Post-Soviet Affairs 26 (3): 185–206.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sirman, Nukhet. 1989. “Feminism in Turkey: A Short History.” New Perspectives on Turkey 3 (1): 1–34.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Soyarık-Şentürk, Nalan. 2012. “The AKP and the Gender Issue: Shuttling between Neoliberalism and Patriarchy.” In Silent Violence: Neoliberalism, Islamist Politics and the AKP Years in Turkey, eds. Coşar, Simten and Yücesan-Özdemir, Gamze. Ottawa: Red Quill Books, 153–78.Google Scholar
Sperling, Valerie. 2015. Sex, Politics and Putin: Political Legitimacy in Russia. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Taş, Hakkı. 2015. “Turkey—From Tutelary to Delegative Democracy.” Third World Quarterly 36 (4): 776–91. https://doi.org/10.1080/01436597.2015.1024450.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Temkina, Anna, and Zdravomyslova, Elena. 2014. “Gender's Crooked Path: Feminism Confronts Russian Patriarchy.” Current Sociology 62 (2): 1–18.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tepe, Sultan. 2005. “Turkey's AKP: A Model ‘Muslim-Democratic’ Party?” Journal of Democracy 16 (3): 69–82. https://doi.org/10.1353/jod.2005.0053.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Teplova, Tatyana. 2007. “Welfare State Transformation, Childcare, and Women's Work in Russia.” Social Politics 14 (3): 284–322.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Toksöz, Gülay. 2012. “The State of Female Labor in the Impasse of the Neo-liberal Market and Patriarchal Family.” In Gender and Society in Turkey: The Impact of Neoliberal Policies, Political Islam and EU Accession, eds. Dedeoğlu, Saniye and Yavuz, E. Adem. London: I. B. Tauris, 47–64.Google Scholar
Trenin, Dmitri. 2007. “Russia Redefines Itself and Its Relations with the West.” Washington Quarterly 30 (2): 95–105.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). 2010. “National Human Development Report in the Russian Federation 2010: Millennium Development Goals in Russia: Looking into the Future.” http://www.undp.ru/nhdr2010/National_Human_Development_Report_in_the_RF_2010_ENG.pdf (accessed November 5, 2018).Google Scholar
Utrata, Jennifer. 2015. Single Mothers and Family Change in the New Russia. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Vasilyeva, Nataliya. 2016. “Church, State Seeing Eye to Eye in Putin's Orthodox Russia.” Associated Press, December 16. https://www.apnews.com/3d62ef0a45eb4ca8a51082d44201c80a (accessed November 5, 2018).Google Scholar
Yazıcı, Berna. 2012. “The Return to the Family: Welfare, State, and Politics of the Family in Turkey.” Anthropological Quarterly 85 (1): 103–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yeğenoğlu, Metin, and Coşar, Simten. 2012. “The AKP and the Gender Issue: Shuttling between Neoliberalism and Patriarchy.” In Silent Violence: Neoliberalism, Islamist Politics and the AKP Years in Turkey, eds. Coşar, Simten and Yücesan-Özdemir, Gamze. Ottawa: Red Quill Books, 179–209.Google Scholar
Yuval-Davis, Nira, and Anthias, Floya. 1994. “Introduction.” In Woman, Nation, State, eds. Yuval-Davis, Nira and Anthias, Floya. London: Macmillan, 1–15.Google Scholar
Zihnioğlu, Yaprak. 2003. Kadınsız Inkilap [Revolution without woman]. Istanbul: Metis Yayınları.Google Scholar