Gender in a Pillarized Society: A relational approach to contemporary illiberal and populist politics in Poland

Since the 2015 presidential and parliamentary elections, Poland has received increasing scholarly attention as a case of populists in power that arguably introduced an illiberal turn to the previous poster child of democratic transition. The list of steps that the PiS-led populist right-wing government has undertaken to undermine liberal democracy is long and has led to serious challenges for many women and the LGBTQ community. Backlash against Polish women’s rights and LGBTQ activists is by no means new (O’Dwyer, 2018; Graff, 2003) and has often predated claims and policy gains of feminist and LGBTQ activists. Over the last years, we have equally seen increased and evolving mobilisation of civil society in Poland responding to PiS’s populist politics (Korolczuk, 2016). Feminist mobilisation such as the Black Protest consequently constitute “a struggle for a democratic Poland” (Graff, 2019). Gender constitutes a core battlefield of Polish populist politics and it is affected in a various ways. Firstly, gender is used by the right-wing government and its media and civil society allies to construct the “pure Polish people”, justifying marginalisation and backlash against LGBTQ and women’s rights. Secondly, the rise of illiberal politics in Poland undermining the rule of law and the protection of minorities changed the environment in which civil society actors operate- both those that champion progressive change and withstand backlash as well as those that seek to promote a more conservative and repressive society. Thirdly, gendered policy issues such as reproductive rights but also municipal funding for civil society, best exemplified in the establishment of so-called “LGBT-free zones”, stem from a complex network of various actors from the political and the civil society sphere that adhere to various gendered ideologies and narratives of the “will of the people” and Polishness itself. These developments exemplify and amplify the phenomenon of polarization and pillarization of Polish society (Ekiert, 2019). This phenomenon can become dangerous for a liberal democracy when it leads to polarisation and the formation of a strong illiberal pillar between political and civil society actors (ibid.). This paper explores the role of gender issues in this ongoing polarisation and the various positions civil society actors mobilised around gender take vis-à-vis political actors. Drawing on survey data and interviews collected among civil society actors in the city of Krakow that are mobilised around gender issues, this paper maps out the social network between civil and political actors and traces strategies and hurdles of civic actors in the field of gender. It contrasts the proximity of values and actual cooperation on the ground within civil society and assesses the potential of movements to effectively push back illiberalism in Poland, examining how pillarisation and polarisation play out in the relations between civic and political actors. The paper seeks to link these insights to the broader and necessary debate on the centrality of gender in the contemporary scholarly effort to understand the preservance of right-wing populism and the rise of illiberalism in CEE and beyond (Korolczuk/Graff, 2021).