The Gender Gap Report Issue 3: Türkiye's Partisan Capture of Gender Policy

The Gender Gap Report Part III: Türkiye’s Partisan Capture of Gender Policy

In Türkiye, debates around gender policy no longer map primarily onto gender itself but onto partisan identity. In July 2021, Türkiye withdrew from the Istanbul Convention—a landmark treaty on preventing violence against women that it had been the first to ratify. Three years later, the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung’s 2024 Youth Study shows how that decision crystallized a deeper trend: among young Turks, views on gender policy are shaped far more by politics and religion than by gender, geography, or age.

The data reveals striking patterns. While women express somewhat higher support than men for violence-prevention measures such as tougher punishments, the real fault lines emerge along political and religious divides. Among government supporters, withdrawal from the Istanbul Convention finds far greater backing than among opposition voters, producing gaps of more than 20 percentage points. Religious participation further amplifies this divide, but always within the boundaries set by political identity.

These findings suggest that Turkish youth are not simply negotiating gender norms but inheriting polarized ideological packages. Attitudes toward the Istanbul Convention align with broader views about gender roles—such as whether women already have sufficient rights or whether men make better leaders. Traditional demographic categories like age or urban–rural residence, by contrast, exert only marginal influence.

This third installment of the Gender Gap Report—authored by Semir Dzebo and based on survey data from 1,233 young people in Türkiye—illustrates how polarization can consume policy domains once seen as consensus. What should be technical debates about preventing violence against women have become loyalty tests for competing political camps.

Understanding this partisan capture is essential not just for gender policy, but for Turkish democracy itself. The challenge lies in creating political and civic spaces where young people can debate means without abandoning shared ends—protecting human dignity and preventing violence.