Backlash to Pushback: the politics of anti-gender mobilisations and institutional resistance

Abstract

Significant progress in embedding norms of feminist governance has been made at domestic, regional and international institutions. Anti-feminist backlash rejects such progress, and pushback goes further, to object and replace these norms with new regressive objectives. This panel covers the growing challenge of anti-gender mobilisations for institutions. The papers share a common interest in the discourses driving regression, and rollbacks of both political will and institutional commitment to feminist governance principles. The papers consider domestic, regional and international perspectives to explore the nature and extent of contemporary contestation, within the context of growing strategic relationships between anti-gender mobilisations and populist actors.

Title	Details
The role of the ECHR and the Council of Europe in anti-gender policies	View Paper Details
Feminist Governance and the Challenge of Anti-Rights Discourse	View Paper Details
Undoing Equality? Retractions of Gender Quota Laws in an Era of Anti-Gender Backlash	View Paper Details
Swedish Gender Equality Policies Revisited: Resilient Legacy or Rising Contestation?	View Paper Details
When Feminist Ideas Lose Power: Coalition Magnets and Policy Change in German Gender Governance (1998-2025)	View Paper Details