Lesson 1.1: What is ‘Anti-Gender’ Politics? Origins, Uses & Controversies
We start with explaining the origins, definitions, and political uses of the term ‘anti-gender’ politics, including scholarly debates and critiques.
4. Variances Across Europe
How do scholarly approaches vary across Europe?
Although anti-gender mobilisation is transnational, scholarship reflects distinct regional contexts:
| Western Europe (France, Germany): Scholarship frequently examines how anti-gender and anti-trans politics are articulated through debates on secularism, liberalism, national identity, and freedom of speech. In France, research highlights how references to ‘gender ideology’ intersect with anxieties about Islam, republican universalism, and critiques of so-called ‘Anglo-American’ identity politics, while also encompassing broader anti-trans and anti-feminist mobilisation. In Germany, scholarly work analyses how discourses such as Genderwahn and appeals to institutional ‘neutrality’ frame gender equality, trans rights, and inclusive language as threats to social cohesion, democratic order, or academic standards. These framings coexist with wider anti-gender equality and anti-trans activism that cannot be reduced to questions of secularism alone.. |
| Central and Eastern Europe (Poland, Hungary): Here, scholarship often foregrounds post-socialist transformations, sovereignty narratives, and tensions around European integration. Gender is analysed as a symbolic marker of ‘imposed Westernisation’, mobilised against perceived external elites, liberal norms, and EU institutions. However, scholars also emphasise that these mobilisations draw on longer histories of antifeminism, nationalism, and moral conservatism, rather than representing a simple reaction to recent policy changes.. |
| Southern Europe (Italy, Spain): Research in this context frequently examines how anti-gender mobilisation intersects with religious institutions, family norms, and moral discourses, particularly during periods of political or economic crisis. In Greece, scholars analyse the role of the Orthodox Church and conservative actors in framing feminism, gender education, and LGBTIQ+ rights as threats to family, nation, and moral order, often in conjunction with far-right mobilisation. In Spain, scholarship highlights contestation over feminist policy gains, education, and gender-based violence legislation, especially in the context of far-right resurgence. Religious influence is treated as one factor among others, rather than a defining feature of the region as a whole.. |
Across all these contexts, scholars agree that anti-gender politics is not a unified ideology, but a strategic practice that adapts to local histories, political opportunities, and anxieties.
Who is affected - and why?
Research consistently shows that anti-gender campaigns do not affect everyone equally. They target groups and institutions that symbolise alternative ways of organising gender, sexuality, family, or citizenship:
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• LGBTQIA+ people • Trans communities • Feminists and gender-equality advocates • Migrant and racialised groups • Teachers, educators, and academic researchers • Gender-equality institutions and human rights bodies • |
And why? Because they challenge – symbolically and materially – the social hierarchies anti-gender movements seek to defend. They represent:
| • alternative family and kinship structures; • critiques of patriarchal, nationalist, or racialised norms • calls for social and legal recognition of gender diversity • knowledge that disrupts conservative or authoritarian narratives • |
Anti-gender attacks therefore do not only target individuals. They aim to reshape societal norms about family, nation, citizenship, and belonging, redefining whose lives and knowledge are valued.
Let's have a little break and watch
Prof. Judith Butler explaining the concept of 'gender'.
Alternative link: https://youtu.be/UD9IOllUR4k?si=QqXPwNDuTObWoc0T [accessed: 01/03/2026]