How can we evaluate Islamist governments’ records on women? The existing frameworks either conceptualize Islamism as an inevitable extension of Islam and focus on the lack of equal status of women in Islam or emphasize the possibility of different interpretation of Islamic texts. Despite their disagreements, both approaches focus exclusively on Islam as the primary conceptual framework to understand Islamism and women. This focus on Islam, however, wrongly assumes that Islam is the main determining factor behind gender relations. By taking a political economy perspective, instead, this research starts from the premise that improving women’s economic and social conditions is a prerequisite for improving women’s lives. Thus, the study specifically examines the social policy of Islamist governments with the intention of understanding how these policies have affected women’s conditions. This paper uses Turkey’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) as a case study and examines its record specifically on women’s employment and healthcare during the period of 2002-2012. The study is based on field research conducted in Ankara, Turkey, and utilizes documents, archives and interviews. Although the focuses of the paper will be on Turkey, the paper is part of a larger study on Islamist governments and women. Broader implications of the Turkish case for Egypt and Tunisia will also be discussed.