From neglect to threat: feminist responses to right wing populism in the European Union

ABSTRACT

This article explores the response of a European Union (EU) feminist civil society organization (CSO) the European Women’s Lobby (EWL) to right wing populist opposition (RWP) to gender equality in Europe. RWP forces rely on gender politics to advance their projects co-opting ideas used by feminists at the same time vilifying feminist idea and actors. Feminist oppositions to RWP are as such complicated by how RWP forces co-opt constructions of gender justice and the proximity between RWP and feminist critiques of economic governance, austerity and EU integration. The EWL work to counter RWP frameworks but are tied to EU imperatives, weakened by austerity and a neglect of gender equality at EU level. Social movement concepts of framing theory are applied to the EWL response to reveal counter framing directed to EU elites, underlining how illiberal threats to gender equality are emblematic of a deeper crisis facing European democracies and as such deserving of a robust and well-resourced defence. Frame saving aims to re-politicise gender equality as an EU ideal and feminism as a project for the common good. RWP opposition to gender equality creates a discursive opportunity for the EWL to claim relevance as a vanguard of progressive anti-populist values in Europe.

KEYWORDS:

• Gender equality
• right wing populism
• feminism
• European Union

Notes

1 https://womenlobby.org/From-commitments-to-actions-the-EWL-s-call-to-the-new-European-Commission.

2 This involves frame alignment processes that are: diagnostic, prognostic, and motivational framing.

3 Approximately 40 documents were coded these include policy statements, annual reports, task force reports, press releases and policy submissions. 26 documents were then chosen from this sample and recoded and classified as containing a more significant level of reference.

4 The EWL site contains links to more than 2000 documents these include press releases, reports, statements and blog posts. The time frame here narrowed the document trawl yet for documents to qualify they must have given at least several paragraphs or specific topical focus on the issue of populist and right wing threats.

5 https://womenlobby.org/spip.php?page=recherche&lang=en&recherche=human±rights+.

6 https://womenlobby.org/-Together-for-a-Europe-Free-From-Prostitution-.

7 https://womenlobby.org/spip.php?page=recherche&lang=en&recherche=victim+and+oppression+.

8 https://womenlobby.org/Women-in-Business-7447?lang=en.

9 https://womenlobby.org/-Women-in-Politics-507-?lang=en.

10 https://womenlobby.org/Five-emergency-motions-adopted-by-EWL-s-General-Assembly-in-2019.

11 https://www.womenlobby.org/The-2019-Women-of-Europe-Awards-the-WINNERS.

12 https://www.womenlobby.org/IMG/pdf/2020.02.05_-_ewl_position_on_ec_strategy.pdf.

13 https://womenlobby.org/From-commitments-to-actions-the-EWL-s-call-to-the-new-European-Commission.