Construction of a Gender Equality Regime? The Case of European Union Assistance in Turkey

Abstract

The European Union (EU) puts considerable emphasis on supporting civil society organisations both as drivers of Europeanisation and as a means to promote gender equality. The latter has been an important component of EU financial assistance to civil society in its enlargement policy. While the approaches, effectiveness, and outcomes of civil society assistance are well documented, we lack a comprehensive analysis of EU aid and content of gender policies in candidate countries. To fill this gap, this chapter explores how gender equality is approached and framed by the EU in the enlargement context through the analysis of EU policy documents on civil society in Turkey. Drawing on critical frame analysis, this chapter identifies three main gender equality frames in policy texts: gender equality as economic empowerment, gender equality as human rights, and gender equality as democracy promotion. These findings highlight the fact that the EU follows “integrationist approaches” to gender mainstreaming and adopts a particular rationale of Europeanisation that focusses on an instrumental understanding of gender equality. This, in turn, has important implications for Europeanisation outcomes where short-term policy gains may lead to a backlash in gender equality. © 2021, The Author(s).