(De)democratization and gender equality. Pitfalls and potentials for inclusive democracy in post-communist Central and Eastern Europe

Recent literature on (de)democratization conspicuously lacks attention to gender equality aspects of current political trends, despite the centrality of debates around gender in most de-democratizing contexts. This can be attributed to two issues: first, most of this literature uses an institutionalist definition of democracy neglecting the role of popular struggle and ownership of democracy, second, even this institutionalist definition of democracy pays minimal attention to the role of civil society in democratic processes, an aspect that is particularly important for inclusion of marginalized and underrepresented groups and minorities, including women and sexual minorities, i.e. an egalitarian notion of democracy. This paper aims to tackle both of these limitations by bringing together critical democratization literature with gender and politics literature on democracy. It builds on a definition of democracy that extends beyond institutional and formal procedural elements to popular struggle for and popular ownership of democracy (Tilly 1995, Dimitrova 2018, Hanley, Cianetti and Dawson 2018). This means that understanding gender aspects of de(democratization) means moving beyond a critical analysis of institutional processes, to also include a critical analysis of civic struggles for democracy. We depart from the idea that inclusiveness of processes of contentious democratization is a necessary condition contribute for the egalitarian quality of democracy, i.e. the more women and gender equality ideas are included in the democratization process and pro-democracy struggles, the better quality the resulting democracy will be (Baldez 2003, Tripp 2013, Viterna and Fallon 2008). This paper situates its theoretical discussion in the context of democratization and struggle for democracy in Central and Eastern European post-communist states, reopening the discussion on analyzing through a gendered lens processes of democratization since the 1990s until the most recent times marked by threats to gender equality and democracy.