Feminist institutional responses to anti-gender politics in parliamentary contexts

ABSTRACT

In the context of the prevalence of anti-gender politics in Europe, political institutions such as parliaments have become arenas of political struggles around gender and gender equality. While feminist scholarship has studied anti-gender politics, less attention has been paid to feminist responses to such opposition. The contribution of this article is to conceptualize feminist responses to anti-gender politics within political institutions, which we name feminist institutional responses. This conceptualization entails proposing a set of analytical categories for capturing forms of feminist institutional responses – namely, knowledge, coalition building, rule making, and everyday pragmatic engagement. We analyze 50 plenary debates on gender equality and two plenary debates on the State of the Union, as well as 135 interviews with members of the European Parliament and political staff during two terms that witnessed a rise in anti-gender politics, 2014–2019 and 2019–2024. The conceptualization of feminist institutional responses to anti-gender politics in parliaments is important for identifying how institutional actors are countering the destructive potential of anti-gender politics and safeguarding parliaments as democratic sites for the advancement of gender equality policies.

KEYWORDS:

• Anti-gender politics
• feminist institutional responses
• feminist politics
• European Parliament
• EU gender equality policies

Acknowledgments

We wish to thank colleagues Petra Ahrens, Valentine Berthet, Anna Elomäki, Barbara Gaweda, and Cherry Miller from the research project EUGenDem funded by the European Research Council (ERC) for data gathering in the EP and for feedback on earlier versions of this article. Emanuela Lombardo thanks the Scuola Normale Superiore in Florence and Cosmos group coordinated by Donatella della Porta that hosted her sabbatical in 2023. We also wish to thank the CCINDLE (GA: 101061256) research team members for inspiring debates.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 Intergroups are composed of MEPs from at least three different political groups and are aimed at facilitating informal exchanges of views on specific issues.

Additional information

Funding

Johanna Kantola acknowledges the ERC funding under the EU’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program [grant number 771676]. Emanuela Lombardo acknowledges Spain’s Ministry of Universities for funding her research visit through the Mobility for Requalification of Academic Staff scheme (Ref. MV24/21 29675).

Notes on contributors

Johanna Kantola

Johanna Kantola is Professor of European Societies and Their Politics in the Centre for European Studies at the University of Helsinki, Finland. Her research centers on gender, power, and politics. She is the director of the ERC Consolidator Grant (2018–2023) Gender, Party Politics, and Democracy in Europe: A Study of European Parliament’s Party Groups (EUGenDem). She is also the director of the Academy of Finland (2016–2020) and University of Helsinki Research Funds (2015–2017) project Gender and Power in Reconfigured Corporatist Finland (GePoCo). Her books include Gender and Political Analysis (with Emanuela Lombardo, Palgrave, 2017), Gender and the European Union (Palgrave, 2010), and Feminists Theorize the State (Palgrave, 2006). She has also co-edited The Oxford Handbook on Gender and Politics (with Georgina Waylen, Karen Celis, and Laurel Weldon, Oxford University Press, 2013), and Gender and the Economic Crisis in Europe: Politics, Institutions and Intersectionality (with Emanuela Lombardo, Palgrave 2017). She is the co-editor of Palgrave’s Gender and Politics book series with Sarah Childs.

Emanuela Lombardo

Emanuela Lombardo is Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science and Administration and a member of the Institute of Feminist Research at Madrid Complutense University (UCM), Spain. Her lines of research are gender equality policies in the European Union and Spain, and feminism and democracy. She directs the Gender and Politics research group (GEYPO Ref. 970799) with María Bustelo, and is Principal Investigator (PI) of the UCM team and co-PI with Johanna Kantola of the work package on feminist institutional responses in the Horizon Europe CCINDLE project on democracy and feminism (Ref: 101061256, 2022–2026). Her latest monograph is Gender and Political Analysis (with Johanna Kantola, Palgrave, 2017) and the latest journal Special Issue that she has edited is “De-Democratization and Opposition to Gender Equality Politics in Europe” (Social Politics, with Johanna Kantola and Ruth Rubio, 2021). Recent articles have been published in Policy & Politics, Politics & Gender, the European Journal of Political Research, Social Politics, and Women’s Studies International Forum.