Final Reflections & And More...

‘Anti-gender’ campaigns do not affect everyone equally. They compound existing hierarchies of race, class, citizenship, and ability. A trans migrant woman, a Black feminist scholar, or a disabled queer activist experience not a single attack but an overlapping structure of vulnerability. Intersectionality helps us see how anti-gender politics seeks to divide communities –pitting cis women against trans people or using selective LGBTQ+ inclusion to promote Islamophobia and racism (homonationalism).

‘Anti-gender’ politics is not a single ideology but a coalition of convenience –a dynamic network that thrives by linking fears about gender and sexuality to nationalism, racism, and control. These campaigns attack not only rights but also knowledge and imagination, seeking to determine whose realities count as legitimate. Resisting them demands clarity: clarity about who the actors are, how they operate, and why intersectional solidarity – across feminist, queer, migrant, and anti-racist struggles – remains their greatest threat.

Exercise 1. Worksheet: Mapping ‘Anti-Gender’ Actors in Your Own Context In the worksheet for this session, you will map ‘anti-gender’ actors in your own national or local context. Use this exercise to explore the specific alliances and discourses at play where you live or work. This activity will help you reflect on the arguments these actors use, the communities they target, the risks they generate, and the agendas they pursue. By completing this exercise, you will have a chance to think critically about how power circulates, who benefits from ‘anti-gender’ rhetoric, and where potential points of resistance or solidarity might emerge. Download pdf

Exercise 2. Pre-Session or Post-session Listening Assignment Listen to Episode 4: ‘Destroying Gender’ from The Right Kind of Family podcast either before or after this session. While listening, reflect on how the episode highlights the role of VOX and the Political Network for Values in Spain’s ‘anti-gender’ discourse. You can access the episode here: https://www.europod.eu/episode/destroying-gender/

Exercise 3. Reflective Journaling  Reflect on the following questions. You can write down the answers if you feel so inclined: Which actors appear in the podcast episode, and how do they frame ‘gender ideology’? What narratives and alliances did you notice? How similar or different are these dynamics in your national context? How does the podcast’s example of Spain compare to what you’ve observed in other contexts?

 

Session 1: Bibliography 

Core academic works

Butler, Judith. Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. Routledge, 1990.
(For background on how “gender” became politicised and misrepresented.)

Fassin, Éric. Populisme: Le grand ressentiment. Paris: Textuel, 2017.
(Situates anti-gender rhetoric within French republicanism, laïcité, and populist resentment.)

Graff, Agnieszka, and Elżbieta Korolczuk. Anti-Gender Politics in the Populist Moment. New York: Oxford University Press, 2022.
(Seminal comparative analysis of anti-gender as a populist and authoritarian project.)

Graff, Agnieszka, and Elżbieta Korolczuk. “Towards an Illiberal Consensus: Anti-Gender Campaigns in Europe.” Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 43, no. 4 (2018): 797–821.
(Explains how anti-gender discourses unify illiberal, nationalist, and religious agendas.)

Grzebalska, Weronika; Kováts, Eszter; and Pető, Andrea. “Gender as Symbolic Glue.” Political Critique / FEPS Report, 2017.
(Introduces the influential concept of “symbolic glue.”)

Hark, Sabine, and Paula-Irene Villa. “Anti-Genderism: Sexuality and Gender as Scenes of Current Political Conflicts.” In [Anti-]Genderism: Sexuality and Gender as Scenes of Current Political Conflicts, 45–68. Bielefeld: Transcript Verlag, 2015.
(Analyses German “Genderwahn” debates and knowledge suppression.)

Kuhar, Roman, and David Paternotte (eds.). Anti-Gender Campaigns in Europe: Mobilizing against Equality.London: Rowman & Littlefield International, 2017.
(The foundational comparative volume mapping anti-gender movements across Europe.)

Roggeband, Connie; Krizsán, Andrea; and van der Vleuten, Anna. “Intersectional Dimensions of Anti-Gender Campaigns: Race, Class, and Nationalism.” European Journal of Women’s Studies 32, no. 2 (2025): 145–162.
(Explores how anti-gender discourses reproduce racialised and class hierarchies.)

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Empirical and Regional Studies (RESIST and Switzerland Focus)

RESIST Project Team. National and Transnational Reports on the Formation of Anti-Gender Politics. 2024. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10778419
(Transnational synthesis across nine European case studies.)

Filep, Ekaterina, and Gaé Colussi. Effects of, and Resistances to “Anti-Gender” Mobilisations Across Europe: A Report on Switzerland. RESIST Project Report. University of Fribourg & University of Lausanne, 2024.

Filep, Ekaterina. “Mapping Anti-Gender Discourse in Swiss and Hungarian Media and Politics.” Presentation, RESIST Project, September 2, 2024.

Rohner, Susanne, and Carine Weiss. “Advocacy Strategies to Counteract Anti-SRHR and Anti-Gender Movements in Switzerland.” MMS Bulletin, no. 166 (2023). Medicus Mundi Schweiz.

Schutzbach, Franziska. “From Antifeminism to ‘Antigenderism’ – A Time-Diagnostic View Using the Example of Switzerland.” In [Anti-]Genderism, edited by Maihofer, Hark & Villa, 45–68. Bielefeld: Transcript, 2015.

Strasser, Sabine. “Gender Nativism in the Illiberal State: The Burqa Ban in Switzerland.” nccr – on the move Blog, 2022. https://nccr-onthemove.ch/blog/gendernativism-in-the-illiberal-state-the-burqa-ban-in-switzerland/

Tebaldi, Catherine. “Gender Gaga vs Normal German: Language, Gender and Education in Switzerland.” Society for Linguistic Anthropology Blog, May 30, 2024. https://linguisticanthropology.org/blog/2024/05/30/gender-gaga-vs-normal-german-language-gender-and-education-in-switzerland/

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Policy, Media, and Supplementary Reports

European Parliament, Reuters, and IAMCR Reports (2021–2024).
(Document the policy and media dimensions of anti-gender mobilisations in EU states.)

Medicus Mundi Schweiz. Advocacy Strategies to Counteract Anti-Gender Movements. MMS Bulletin 166 (2023).

Maihofer, Andrea (ed.). Gender und Gesellschaft im Wandel. Bielefeld: Transcript, 2018.
(For background on gender-theoretical debates relevant to Swiss contexts.)

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Recommended Supplementary Readings

Ahmed, Sara. Living a Feminist Life. Duke University Press, 2017.
(Helps frame resistance to anti-gender politics as lived feminist practice.)

Butler, Judith. “Judith Butler Explains Gender.” YouTube video, Big Think, 2011. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZ9sq8A6WIY
(Excellent audiovisual supplement for Topic 1, clarifying key concepts.)

European Parliament. Anti-Gender Campaigns in the EU – Policy Brief. Brussels, 2023.
(Concise overview linking policy trends and human rights implications.)