Gendered Mobilization in an Expanding Europe

Transnational organizing has become a pivotal part of feminist movement repertoires. Feminist advocates are increasingly sophisticated at moving between different venues and building expansive networks that extend from the local to the global. The complexity of such movements poses a significant methodological challenge to scholars, particularly since we are also expanding our purview beyond narrowly understood issues of gender to incorporate the intersecting dimensions of class, race, and sexuality. In this paper we address the need for theoretical and methodological innovation in studying feminist movement repertoires, and we submit that focusing on gender mobilization in an expanding Europe has much to offer in this regard. In global perspective, “European feminisms” are often denigrated as transporting Western, white, economically, privileged, and imperialist norms. While there are many valid reasons for such criticisms, they tend to downplay recent transformations and challenges that make Europe an interesting case for scaled, cross-national, and intersectionally operating feminist movements. Building on evidence that “European feminisms” no longer refer only to the “West”, that EU multilevel governance impacts movement repertoires, and that shifting demographics caused by migration flows as well as an ongoing economic crisis shape alliances of transnational organizing, this paper suggests new theoretical and methodological approaches for studying gendered mobilization.