Women’s rights and gender equality’s backlash in Europe : a multidimensional analysis within the spectrum of gender fatigue phenomenon

Abstract

Women’s Rights and gender equality have always been in the spotlight of socio-political developments. However, in this time and age, the significance of these two concepts acquired a different meaning due to the current state of the socio-political and economic circumstances dominating in the European Union’s context. The rise of right-wing populism and the passivity of the progressive political currents lead to a gradual legal weakening of Women’s Rights and a backlash on gender equality. The pushback of Women’s Rights derived among others as a struggle and social consequence of the spread of right-wing populist ideas and is considered to be a phenomenon linked to the presence of collective mobilizations against the so-called «gender ideology». How is this Women’s rights and gender equality’s backlash shaped in the context of a continuously changing European political landscape? How do political actors use Women’s rights and gender equality concept as political means in order to improve their political performance and how can the instrumentalization of the concept of gender be identified? What is the significance of the notion of gender? Which are the dichotomies created when it comes to the implementation of a gender equality policy and who are the actors in charge to form such policy? And finally, which is the antidote to counteract the poisonous spread of gender inequality’s disease? This type of questions will be examined in the present research, in an effort to gain an insight into the complex situation of Women’s rights and gender equality’s backlash within the spectrum of gender fatigue phenomenon.