The European standard of gender equality in Turkey: harmonization, cross-fertilization or reputational reforms?

Abstract

The present essay aims at investigating the content of the European Standard of Gender Equality (ESGE) in order to examine whether and how it permeated the Turkish legal system, in consideration of the long-lasting process of accession to the European Union (EU) the country is affording and of its membership in the Council of Europe (CoE) since 1949. Building on the theory of cross-fertilization, indeed, concluding remarks discuss whether the reception of the ESGE in Turkey was a real harmonization of the legal system, the result of a cross-fertilization implicating forms of adaptation to domestic habits or a feigned introduction of reforms in order to achieve a reputational effect, without a sincere evolution of the norms.