Resistance to Backsliding in Gender Equality Policies. A Comparative Research Agenda

Existing research on gender equality has a progress bias (see, among others, McBride & Mazur, 2010; Htun & Weldon, 2012; Stetson & Mazur, 1995; Waylen, 2014) and focuses on the conditions under which gender equality policies are successfully placed on the agenda, or when they are successfully adopted. However, in the current global context, understanding reversals and finding mechanisms for coping with them becomes just as important as understanding progress. Theorizing gender equality progress rests on a variety of assumptions of participation, voice and recognition. Patterns of backsliding in gender equality commitments and reversal of progress that emerge in countries such as Hungary, Poland, Croatia or Turkey challenge exactly these assumptions. This raises a number of concerns: When and under what conditions can gender equality policies and laws be reversed? What modes of resilience are used by gender equality advocates to prevent or resist such reversals? Using qualitative empirical data on reversals and modes of resilience used in countries on CEE and Latin America we propose a new research agenda for understanding gender equality progress and protection of previously gained status quo under the new tendencies of de-democratization. In our paper we particularly discuss state closure towards gender equality advocates as well as weakening normative consensus on direction of gender equality progress and transformation.