Understanding the Relation between Right-Wing Populism and Gender: Lessons from Poland and Sweden

In many European countries, far-right and populist actors often include anti-feminist and anti-gender equality policies and discourses in their agenda. In Poland, the Law and Justice party liquidated the reimbursement program for low-income couples seeking IVF treatment and the standards for perinatal care, while supporting a bill, which would result in a total ban on abortions in the country. Even in Sweden, where gender equality is a part of national identity, the far-right party Sweden Democrats, which presents itself as a women friendly party, included in its program a proposal to lower the legal limit for abortions from the current 18 weeks to 12 week of pregnancy, whereas Robert Stenkvist the spokesperson of SD, went on record claiming that politicians should tighten control over academia, because some areas of research, such as gender studies, are overtly politicized and unscientific. The above examples show that far-right and populist parties often join in opposition to sexual and reproductive rights in Europe and beyond. In the presentation I will analyze the affinity between the (anti)gender agenda and the broader trend of right wing populism. I argue that since anxieties about “gender” has become a flexible signifier for all that is wrong with the contemporary world: changes in gender relations, low fertility rates, social inequality and the arrogance of the elites, opposition to gender and sexual equality lends some ideological coherence to otherwise disparate right-wing groups and networks. Even more importantly, it lends these groups and parties an affective force rooted in a sense of victimization and moral superiority, linking gender conservatism with a critique of neoliberalism and globalization. This combination has a great mobilizing power, helping the right-wing populists to capture the imagination and hearts of large portions of local populations.