A Conservative Neoliberal Approach of Conciliating Work and Family Life

Conciliating work and family life has been a popular approach viewed as an ideal solution to eradicate inequalities resulted from gender issue in western countries for 30-40 years. Showing different features in different societies by their unique societal environment, this approach is a relatively new phenomenon in Turkey. It was not until the year 2010 these kinds of policies for conciliating work and family life had been known in Turkey. Now there are some regulations to balance work and family life. Framed by the Program for Protecting Family and Dynamic Population Structure, conciliating work and family approach has been included in pro-natalist policies. This paper evaluates the policies aimed at conciliating work and family life by examining regulations, official texts and other documents and questions whether these policies can balance work and family life or not. To what extent do these policies achieve gender equality? From a political economy point of view we can argue that this approach fosters patriarchal division of labour in the households and also leads to flexible working