Strategies of Agenda Denial: Opposition to Gender Equality Policies in Italy

While agenda-setting literature largely focuses on how issues gain the attention of decision-makers, the strategies used to keep certain issues off the governmental agenda have been underexplored. This paper addresses this gap by examining strategies of agenda denial in the context of gender equality policies. It analyzes how opponents of such policies employ both low-cost and medium-cost strategies to prevent gender equality issues from advancing on the policy agenda. Low-cost strategies, such as avoidance, and medium-cost strategies, including attacks on the issue or applicant groups, and efforts to dissipate conflict through placation, are central to this analysis. Opponents in our study are far-right and anti-gender actors, who have increasingly positioned themselves at the forefront of the backlash against gender equality, forming alliances across political and civil society sectors to push back or halt progress on gender equality policies. By dissecting their narratives, we examine how they strategically mobilize “reason” (e.g., data and scientific evidence) or “emotion” (e.g. fear and distrust) to sustain their opposition arguments. We hypothesize that the choice of strategy shifts depending on the proximity of the political executive to their ideological positions: when the executive is more aligned with their views, they may employ subtler tactics like avoidance or placation, while a more distant executive triggers direct attacks on the policies and proponents. Focusing on Italy, where far-right actors and anti-gender movements are increasingly intertwined and have gained significant influence, this study uses qualitative content analysis of parliamentary debates on laws against homotransphobia and the introduction of sexual education, as well as organizational documents from anti-gender and far-right movement actors. The paper contributes to the literature by linking gender studies with agenda denial theories, offering a fresh perspective on anti-gender politics from a public policy perspective.