ABSTRACT
This chapter analyses the developments of women's struggle for gender equality in Turkey after the 1990's in the framework of Europeanisation process. It focuses on exploring the relationship between the second wave feminism and democracy in the concept of the Europeanisation process in Turkey. Much of the literature on Europeanisation surveyed above draws heavily on historical institutionalism. Relationship between feminism including gender equality and democracy developing through social justice, equality and freedom themes dates back to ancient Greece. Westernisation which has different political, social and cultural ramifications exhibits differences in the basic principle of Turkish modernisation. The post-1980 women's movement is seen to have emerged on the basis of reaction to violence against women, particularly domestic violence. In 1979, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), which Turkey ratified in 1985. European Women Lobby (EWL) is also the most comprehensive and influential among the networks of women's organisations.
