Gender Policies and Family Transformation: A Europe–Türkiye Comparison

Abstract

This study examines perceptions of how gender policies affect the family, drawing on a Europe–Türkiye comparison. It rests on a long-term, unstructured field study conducted between 2012 and 2025: the 2012–2018 period was devoted to understanding and observation, and the 2018–2025 period to systematic field interviews. The European component covered 300 people across twenty-five cities in ten countries in two separate rounds (2019 and 2024–2025); the Turkish component covered 1,500 people in four cities (Ankara, Erzurum, Istanbul, and Kocaeli); in addition, interviews with 500 citizens living in Europe who visited Türkiye informed the European fieldwork. The findings show that, although the family is valued in both societies, it is increasingly seen as fragile. The most striking result is a divergence in the perceived source of threat: in Türkiye roughly half of participants (50%) identified “legislation” as the greatest threat, whereas in Europe “sexism” (30%) and “infidelity” (25%) stood out. The erosion of trust and fidelity, the rise of dual-life and partner-swapping tendencies (from roughly 1.7% to 2.1% in Europe), and the rapid emergence in Türkiye of trends already mature in Europe together point to a convergence. The study argues that family change stems from a combination of legal, economic, cultural, digital, and demographic factors, and that family policy should therefore be designed in a multidimensional, data-driven, and non-polarizing manner. The findings are perceptual and make no causal claim; yet the comparative design renders visible how a global transformation opens different channels in different social settings.

Keywords: gender policies, the family, family stability, the Istanbul Convention and Law No. 6284, Europe–Türkiye comparison, unstructured field research.

Received Date: June 19, 2026

Accepted Date: July 10, 2026

Published Date: August 01, 2026

Available Online at: https://www.ijsrisjournal.com/index.php/ojsfiles/article/view/793