Towards Intersectional Democratic Futures? Feminist Institutional and Activist Responses to Anti-Gender Movements at the EU-Level

This paper aims to explore the current challenges and hostilities faced by democracy, feminist politics, and intersectional movements in Europe. It provides empirical insights into feminist activist and institutional responses to anti-gender movements within the context of the European Union (EU) and examines their possibilities and limitations in advancing intersectional democratic futures. Our critical starting point is that anti-gender politics sets a new context that not only underlines the old shortcomings and inequalities related to democracy and feminism but also introduces new ones. Democracy and feminism are highly contested concepts in contemporary European politics and scholarly debates. On one hand, democracy is undermined in the EU by democratically backsliding member states and diverse tendencies towards “illiberal democracy”, often fueled by anti-gender actors attacking against the rights of women, LGBTIQ+ people, and racialized minorities. On the other hand, feminist politics is characterized by internal fractures and conflicts. Considering these recent discussions, we analyze the diverging and converging constructions of “democracy”, “feminism” and “intersectionality” that feminist civil society and institutional actors have and assess their implications for responses to anti-gender politics within the EU public sphere. Our preliminary findings suggest that while there exist shared goals among feminist actors, their differing positions and access to resources lead to various strategies regarding democracy and feminism, affecting intersectional solidarity and collective responses to anti-gender threats. The study is based on a qualitative analysis of 30 semi-structured interviews conducted between 2023 and 2024. The interviews are divided into two groups: (1) activists from civil society organizations engaged in EU-level advocacy for gender equality, LGBTIQ+ rights, and anti-racism (N=16), and (2) feminist institutional actors from the 9th term of the European Parliament, including Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) and parliamentary staff (N=14).