A Crisis of Masculine Power: The Emergence and Trajectory of the Anti-Gender Movement in Turkey

This chapter explains the emergence and trajectory of anti-gender politics in Turkey leading to the withdrawal from the İstanbul Convention in March 2021. I start with an overview of the transformations of gender politics in the Justice and Development Party’s (AKP) 20 years of rule by proposing an explanation in three episodes. The chapter focuses on the third, and most current episode, in which we have been witnessing the conflictual co-occurrence of anti-gender movements and a deepening crisis of patriarchal authoritarianism. I argue that the emergence of the movements focused on withdrawing from the Istanbul Convention from around 2019 should be seen as a symptom of this crisis, revealing how a crisis of masculinity and growing male resentment have played a critical role in the emergence of the anti-gender movements. I mostly draw on the concept of ‘masculinist restoration’ proposed by Deniz Kandiyoti to suggest that it takes us beyond the concept of backlash and requires us to consider both the undermining of patriarchal structures and the problem of authoritarian governance as reaction formation boosted by the crisis of (neo)liberal democracy. I conclude with some thoughts regarding the implications of the Turkish case for wider transnational anti-gender politics.