Anti-genderism and the crisis of neoliberal democracy.

Weronika Grzebalska

According to EIGE’s Gender Equality Index report, women in Europe are currently only halfway towards to the goal of reaching equality with men, and their overall situation has not improved during the last decade. The picture is even grimmer in Visegrad countries which are lagging significantly behind older member states in terms of women’s position, ranking around 10% below the EU average of 52.9%. But as recent conservative mobilisations across Europe alarm us, the progress that has been made in the field of gender equality has not only been rather stagnant and uneven, but also much shakier and easier to reverse than we had imagined.

In countries such as Croatia, Germany, Italy, France, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Slovakia and Slovenia, the post-war consensus on human rights is currently being threatened as issues such as gender mainstreaming, sexual education, LGBTQ+ rights and reproductive rights have come under coordinated attacks carried out by the Church, religious and lay conservative NGOs, right wing politicians, and even grassroots mobilisations.