Hostname: page-component-745bb68f8f-v2bm5 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-02-09T06:21:58.090Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

And If the Opponents of Gender Ideology Are Right? Gender Politics, Europeanization, and the Democratic Deficit

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 October 2019

Marta Rawłuszko Open the ORCID record for Marta Rawłuszko [Opens in a new window]
Marta Rawłuszko*
Affiliation:
University of Warsaw
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article explores the dynamics of antigender mobilization in Poland and shows how gender equality projects are interconnected with the rise of opponents of “gender ideology.” It highlights material and discursive links between the local implementation of gender mainstreaming and the antigenderist backlash. The article points out that particular gender equality policies in non-Western settings result from Europeanization and thus are marked by a significant democratic deficit—that is, they are promoted without engaging a wider audience and elude parliamentary control. The study shows that if gender equality projects, such as gender mainstreaming, are fostered by external international commitments and obscure bureaucratic measures, they may unintentionally provide the impetus for antigender mobilization. Indeed, gender wars are fueled not only by controversies over gender and LGBT equality but also by growing concerns about citizens’ control over the state and its policies. The article is data based, and by employing framing analysis, it provides an explanation of the recent political success of antigenderist campaigns, which take place in a world of reconfigured states and diminishing democracies.

Keywords

Gender ideologygender mainstreamingEuropeanizationdemocratic deficitantigender movements
Type
Research Article
Information
Politics & Gender , Volume 17 , Issue 2 , June 2021 , pp. 301 - 323
Copyright
Copyright © The Women, Gender, and Politics Research Section of the American Political Science Association 2019

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

This article was prepared within the framework of research project no. 2016/21/N/HS6/02877 financed by the National Science Centre in Poland.

References

REFERENCES

Avdeyeva, Olga. 2010. “States’ Compliance with International Requirements: Gender Equality in EU Enlargement Countries.” Political Research Quarterly 63 (1): 203–17.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Banaszak, Lee Ann, Beckwith, Karen, and Rucht, Dieter, eds. 2003. Women's Movements Facing the Reconfigured State. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Bauman, Zygmunt, and Bordoni, Carlo. 2014. State of Crisis. Cambridge: Polity Press.Google Scholar
Benford, Robert D., and Snow, David A.. 2000. “Framing Processes and Social Movements: An Overview and Assessment.” Annual Review of Sociology 26: 611–39.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beveridge, Fiona, and Nott, Sue. 2002. “Mainstreaming: A Case for Optimism and Cynicism.” Feminist Legal Studies 10 (3): 299–311.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bőrzel, Tanja A., and Risse, Thomas. 2003. “Conceptualizing the Domestic Impact of Europe.” In The Politics of Europeanization, eds. Featherstone, Kevin and Radaelli, Claudio M.. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 57–80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bretherton, Charlotte. 2001. “Gender Mainstreaming and EU Enlargement: Swimming against the Tide?” Journal of European Public Policy 8 (1): 60–81.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Buzogány, Aron. 2012. “Swimming against the Tide: Contested Norms and Antidiscrimination Advocacy in Central and Eastern Europe.” In The Europeanization of Gender Equality Policies: A Discursive-Sociological Approach, eds. Lombardo, Emanuela and Forest, Maxime. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 145–67.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chiva, Cristina. 2009. “The Limits of Europeanisation: EU Accession and Gender Equality in Bulgaria and Romania.” Perspectives on European Politics and Society 10 (2): 195–209.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Commission of the European Communities. 1996. “Incorporating Equal Opportunities for Women and Men into All Community Policies and Activities.” COM(96) 67, February 21. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=COM:1996:0067:FIN:EN:PDF (accessed October 17, 2019).Google Scholar
Corredor, Elizabeth S. 2019. “Unpacking ‘Gender Ideology’ and the Global Right's Antigender Countermovement.” Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 44 (3): 613–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Daly, Mary. 2005. “Gender Mainstreaming in Theory and Practice.” Social Politics 12 (3): 433–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Duda, Maciej. 2016. Dogmat płci: Polska wojna z gender [Gender dogma: The Polish war with gender]. Gdańsk: Wydawnictwo Naukowe Katedra.Google Scholar
Dzierzgowska, Anna, Piotrowska, Joanna, and Rutkowska, Ewa. 2011. “Równościowe przedszkole” [Equality kindergarten]. Fundacja Edukacji Przedszkoln.Google Scholar
Entman, Robert M. 1993. “Framing: Toward Clarification of a Fractured Paradigm.” Journal of Communication 43 (4): 51–58.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Episkopat Polski [Bishops’ Conference of Poland]. 2013. “List Pasterski Episkopatu Polski do duszpasterskiego wykorzystania w Niedzielę Świętej Rodziny 2013 roku” [Pastoral letter of the Bishops’ Conference of Poland to be used by priests on Holy Family Sunday of 2013]. https://episkopat.pl/list-pasterski-na-niedziele-swietej-rodziny-2013-roku/ (accessed September 9, 2018).Google Scholar
European Union. 2006. “Regulation (EC) 1081/2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council.” July 5. https://ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/sources/docoffic/official/regulation/pdf/2007/fse/ce_1081(2006)_en.pdf (accessed October 17, 2019).Google Scholar
Fundacja Edukacji Przedszkolnej [Foundation for Preschool Education]. 2013. “List do wójta gminy Męcinka Zbigniewa Przychodzenia z dn. 10.10.2013” [Letter to Zbigniew Przychodzeń, leader of the community of Męcinka on 10.10.2013]. BWS/TSz/246/2013.Google Scholar
Fuszara, Małgorzata, et al. 2008. Współpraca czy konflikt? Państwa, Unia i kobiety [Cooperation or conflict? State, union and women]. Warsaw: Wydawnictwa Akademickie i Profesjonalne.Google Scholar
Gamson, William A., and Modigliani, Andre. 1989. “Media Discourse and Public Opinion on Nuclear Power: A Constructionist Approach.” American Journal of Sociology 95 (1): 1–37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grabbe, Heather. 2003. “Europeanization Goes East: Power and Uncertainty in the EU Accession Process.” In The Politics of Europeanization, eds. Featherstone, Kevin and Radaelli, Claudio M.. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 303–27.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grabbe, Heather. 2006. The EU's Transformative Power. Europeanization through Conditionality in Central and Eastern Europe. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Grabowska, Magdalena. 2012. “Bringing the Second World In: Conservative Revolution(s), Socialist Legacies, and Transnational Silences in the Trajectories of Polish Feminism.” Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 37 (2): 385–411.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grabowska, Magdalena. 2015. “Cultural War or Business as Usual? Recent Instances and the Historic Origins of the Backlash against Women's Rights and Sexual Rights in Poland.” In Anti-gender Movements on the Rise? Strategising for Gender Equality in Central and Eastern Europe. Berlin: Heinrich Böll Stiftung, 54–64.Google Scholar
Grzebalska, Weronika, and Soos, Petronella-Eszter. 2016. “Conservatives vs. the ‘Culture of Death’: How Progressives Handled the War on ‘Gender’?” FEPS Young Academics Network, Renner Institut, March 1.Google Scholar
Stiftung, Heinrich Böll. 2015. Anti-gender Movements on the Rise? Strategising for Gender Equality in Central and Eastern Europe. Berlin: Heinrich Böll Stiftung.Google Scholar
Hochschild, Arlie R. 2016. Strangers in Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right. New York: New Press.Google Scholar
Jacquot, Sophie. 2017. “A Policy in Crisis: The Dismantling of the EU Gender Equality Policy.” In Gender and the Economic Crisis in Europe. Politics, Institutions and Intersectionality, eds. Kantola, Johanna and Lombardo, Emanuela. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 27–48.Google Scholar
Jasiecki, Krzysztof. 2008. “The Europeanization of Polish Democracy.” Polish Sociological Review 164: 359–82.Google Scholar
Juhász, Borbála, et al. 2018. “Backlash in Gender Equality and Women's and Girls’ Rights in the EU.” Policy Department for Citizens’ Rights and Constitutional Affairs, Directorate General for Internal Policies of the Union, European Parliament, June. http://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/STUD/2018/604955/IPOL_STU(2018)604955_EN.pdf (accessed September 6, 2019).Google Scholar
Kawlewska, Katarzyna. 2014. “’Równościowe przedszkole’ wysadza dzieci z ich biologicznej płci i dyskryminuje rodziców—twierdzą profesorowie PAN” [“Equality kindergarten” blows children's biological sex up and discriminates against parents—professors of the Polish Academy of Science say]. wPolityce.pl, January 17. https://wpolityce.pl/polityka/183359-rownosciowe-przedszkole-wysadza-dzieci-z-ich-biologicznej-plci-i-dyskryminuje-rodzicow-twierdza-profesorowie-pan (accessed September 9, 2018).Google Scholar
King, Desmond, and Le Galès, Patrick, eds. 2017. Reconfiguring European States in Crisis. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Korolczuk, Elżbieta. 2015. “’The War on Gender’ from a Transnational Perspective—Lessons for Feminist Strategising.” In. Anti-gender Movements on the Rise? Strategising for Gender Equality in Central and Eastern Europe. Berlin: Heinrich Böll Stiftung, 43–53.Google Scholar
Korolczuk, Elżbieta, and Graff, Agnieszka. 2018. “Gender as ‘Ebola from Brussels’: The Anti-colonial Frame and the Rise of Illiberal Populism.” Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 43 (4): 798–821.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kośmiński, Paweł. 2014. “Nowicka pisze do NIK, by sprawdził, jak Kościół dostawał i wydawał pieniądze na gender” [Nowicka writing to the Supreme Audit Office (NIK) so that it checks how the church gets and spends money on gender]. Wyborcza.pl, January 8. http://wyborcza.pl/1,76842,15242025,Nowicka_pisze_do_NIK__by_sprawdzil__jak_Kosciol_dostawal.html (accessed September 9, 2018).Google Scholar
Köttig, Michaela, Bitzan, Renate, and Pető, Andrea, eds. 2017. Gender and Far Right Politics in Europe. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kováts, Eszter, ed. 2016. Solidarity in Struggle: Feminist Perspectives on Neoliberalism in East-Central Europe. Budapest: Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung.Google Scholar
Kováts, Eszter, and Põim, Maari. 2015. Gender as Symbolic Glue: The Position and Role of Conservative and Far Right Parties in the Anti-gender Mobilizations in Europe. Brussels: Foundation for European Progressive Studies. https://library.fes.de/pdf-files/bueros/budapest/11382.pdf (accessed September 8, 2019).Google Scholar
Krastev, Ivan. 2010. “Deepening Dissatisfaction.” Journal of Democracy 21 (1): 113–19.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Krizsan, Andrea, and Roggeband, Conny. 2018. “Towards a Conceptual Framework for Struggles over Democracy in Backsliding States: Gender Equality Policy in Central and Eastern Europe.” Politics and Governance 6 (3): 90–100.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kuhar, Roman, and Paternotte, David, eds. 2017. Anti-gender Campaigns in Europe: Mobilizing against Equality. New York: Rowman & Littlefield International.Google Scholar
Meier, Petra. 2018. “The Dilution of the Ultimate Goal? Lessons from Gender Mainstreaming.” In Mainstreaming Integration Governance, eds. Scholten, Peter and Breugel, Ilona van. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 171–89.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Meier, Petra, and Celis, Karen. 2011. “Sowing the Seeds of Its Own Failure: Implementing the Concept of Gender Mainstreaming.” Social Politics 18 (4): 469–89.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ministry of National Education. 2014. “Pismo do Ireny Lipowicz Rzecznika Praw Obywatelskich” [Letter to Irena Lipowicz, the commissioner for human rights]. DJE.WNP.5002.21.2014.Google Scholar
Pető, Andrea. 2017. “Hungary's Illiberal Polypore State.” European Politics and Society 21 (Winter): 18–21.Google Scholar
Pollack, Mark A., and Hafner-Burton, Emilie. 2000. “Mainstreaming Gender in the European Union.” Journal of European Public Policy 7 (3): 432–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Popa, Raluca Maria, and Krizsan, Andrea. 2016. “Gender, Politics, and the State in Central and Eastern Europe.” In The Wiley Blackwell Encyclopedia of Gender and Sexuality Studies, ed. Naples, Nancy A., et al. Malden, MA: Wiley.Google Scholar
PTPA and Fundacja Feminoteka. 2014. “Wystąpienie PTPA i Fundacji Feminoteka ws. samorządowych uchwał potępiających ‘gender’” [Official statement of the PTPA and Feminoteka Foundation concerning local governments’ resolutions condemning gender]. http://www.ptpa.org.pl/aktualnosci/archiwum/rok-2014/wystapienie-ptpa-i-fundacji-feminoteka-ws-samorzadowych-uchwal-potepiajacych-gender/ (accessed September 9, 2018).Google Scholar
Radaelli, Claudio M. 2003. “The Europeanization of Public Policy.” In The Politics of Europeanization, eds. Featherstone, Kevin and Radaelli, Claudio M.. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 27–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rada Powiatu w Jaworze [Local Government Council of Jawor]. 2015. “Stanowisko Rady Powiatu w Jaworze w obronie dzieci przed ideologią ‘gender’” [The position of Jawor local government council in defense of children against “gender” ideology]. Public Information Bulletin.Google Scholar
Rawłuszko, Marta. 2016. “Zmiana na rzecz równości płci. Feministki we współpracy z państwem. Studium przypadku” [Change for gender equality: Feminists in cooperation with the state. Case study]. PhD diss., University of Warsaw.Google Scholar
Rawłuszko, Marta. 2019. “Gender Mainstreaming Revisited: Lessons from Poland.” European Journal of Women's Studies 26 (1): 1–15.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Regulska, Joanna, and Grabowska, Magdalena. 2008. “Will It Make a Difference? EU Enlargement and Women's Public Discourse in Poland.” In Gender Politics and the Expanding European Union: Mobilization, Inclusion, Exclusion, eds. Roth, Silke. New York: Berghahn Books, 137–54.Google Scholar
Roggeband, Connie. 2018. “The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly: Making Sense of Opposition to Feminisms from a Social-Movement Perspective.” In Varieties of Opposition to Gender Equality in Europe, ed. Verloo, Mieke. New York: Routledge, 19–37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sadurski, Wojciech. 2006. “Introduction: The Law and Institutions of New Member States in Year One.” In Après Enlargement: Legal and Political Responses in Central and Eastern Europe, eds. Sadurski, Wojciech, Ziller, Jacques, and Żurek, Karolina. Florence: European University Institute, 3–18.Google Scholar
Sedelmeier, Urlich. 2010. “The EU and Democratization in Central and Southeastern Europe since 1989.” In Central and Southeastern European Politics since 1989, ed. Ramet, Sabrina P.. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 519–35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Strzemecki, Grzegorz. 2014. Gender-Ideologia państwowa Rzeczypospolitej [Gender-state ideology of the Republic of Poland]. Warsaw.Google Scholar
Szwed, Anna, and Zielińska, Katarzyna. 2016. “A War on Gender? The Roman Catholic Church's Discourse on Gender in Poland.” In Religion, Politics, and Values in Poland: Continuity and Change Since 1989, eds. Ramet, Sabrina and Borowik, Irena. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 113–36.Google Scholar
Urząd Gminy Męcinka [Męcinka Municipal Office]. 2013. “List do księdza proboszcza dr Marka Kluwaka z dn. 22.10.2013” [Letter to Marek Kluwak, the rector, from 22.10.2013]. OR.4424.II.1.2013.Google Scholar
Van Gorp, Baldwin. 2005. “Where Is the Frame? Victims and Intruders in the Belgian Press Coverage of the Asylum Issue.” European Journal of Communication 20 (4): 484–507.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Van Gorp, Baldwin. 2010. “Strategies to Take Subjectivity Out of Framing Analysis.” In Doing News Framing Analysis: Empirical and Theoretical Perspectives, eds. D'Angelo, Paul and Kuypers, Jim A.. New York: Routledge, 84–109.Google Scholar
Verloo, Mieke, ed. 2018. Varieties of Opposition to Gender Equality in Europe. New York: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Walby, Sylvia. 2007. “Complexity Theory, Systems Theory, and Multiple Intersecting Social Inequalities.” Philosophy of the social sciences 37 (4): 449–70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Walinowicz, Karolina. 2019. Państwo pod lupą GREVIO—międzynarodowy monitoring z wykonania Konwencji Stambulskiej [The state under the GREVIO inspection—International monitoring of Istanbul Convention implementation]. Warsaw: Instytut na rzecz Kultury Prawnej Ordo Iuris.Google Scholar
Warat, Marta. 2016. “For the Sake of Family and Religion: Nationalist-Religious Discourse on the Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence.” Studia Humanistyczne AGH 15 (3): 105–21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zielińska, Katarzyna. 2015. “Gender Democracy in Poland: An Empty Shell?” In States of Democracy: Gender and Politics in the European Union, ed. Galligan, Yvonne. New York: Routledge, 119–36.Google Scholar