Rewriting democracy in an age of attacks on gender equality

This paper looks at the unintended consequences of pushback against gender equality. It analyzes how representation of gender equality changes in pro-democracy protest spaces in 4 countries of East and Central Europe that have witnessed considerable pushback against gender equality during the last decade. We raise the following questions: does the current wave of pro-democracy protests in the region open a path to more inclusive democracy? And do pro-democracy protests in contexts of anti-gender campaigns become more inclusionary spaces of political representation; and if yes, under what conditions? The paper builds on the qualitative analysis of an original dataset of 53 significant protests in four countries that witnessed outstanding attacks on gender equality: Bulgaria, Croatia, Hungary, and Poland. Against a background of different paths of inclusionary organizing, the paper compares how gender equality and its relation to democracy are represented in pro-democracy protest spaces in the context of increasing hostility to gender equality. It looks for how egalitarian, including gender-equal ideas of democracy come to the forefront. At the same time, we isolate two factors that determine variation between the protest spaces of these countries. First, their political opportunity structures, including the level of opposition to gender equality and its entanglement with autocratization processes. Second, the different capacity of feminist organizing and patterns of cooperation with mainstream organizations. While politicization of gender equality brings more inclusion in most cases, how sustainable such change is will depend on these factors.