Contemporary attacks on democracy and gender equality in public opinion and institutional agendas in Europe

Attacks on gender equality and democracy have intensified in recent years in Europe and the U.S. This anti-gender backlash has shaped democratic politics. Debates over gender equality, LGBTQ+ rights, reproductive autonomy, and educational curricula have increasingly become focal points of political contestation, often mobilized by actors seeking to challenge liberal democratic norms and institutions. While these dynamics share common features—such as the framing of “gender ideology” as a threat to national identity or social order—their manifestations vary considerably across countries and socio-political contexts. Understanding how anti-gender backlash interacts with democratic processes, citizens’ beliefs, and institutional venues is essential for democratic resilience and inclusive democracies. While research has grown on anti-gender backlash, particularly on its online expressions and anti-gender movements, it remains fragmented and there has been less focus on how anti-gender equality backlash manifests in public opinion and institutional agendas (electoral competition, legislative agendas, implementation, judicial politics), particularly in comparative perspective and using a political science lens. We also know little whether the backlash-driving mechanisms are issue/country specific or form broader patterns, under what conditions and in what venues the anti-gender actors are successful and what makes them fail, and when and why some anti-gender equality attacks are also attacks on democracy. The difference between anti-gender backlash and (ultra-)conservative politics “as usual” also remains undertheorized.This research topic aims to gather research on anti-gender-backlash and its relation to democracy in public opinion and formal institutional agendas and venues in Europe. Research questions include (but are not limited to): What’s old and what’s new in the current moment of anti-gender backlash in European democracies? Under which conditions does an anti-gender backlash become an attack on democracy? When does it succeed/fail and why? Are the mechanisms/coalitions behind issue-specific backlash the same/different across institutional venues and countries? How and why are they different? How does anti-gender backlash manifest in public opinion and political behavior? If and how does public opinion shape backlash at the institutional level?This Research Topic welcomes various types of theoretical and empirical scholarly articles on this integrative topic and Europe that move the debate beyond online spaces and the descriptive study of anti-gender equality frames, strategies, and actors. This includes theoretical articles, empirical studies, case studies, meta-analyses, and comparative work.Examples of topics can include:- Theoretical articles on backlash as a manifestation of conservative democratic politics vs. attacks on democracy- Theorizing on what’s old and what’s new in the current anti-gender backlash moment in liberal European democracies. Under what conditions does it become an attack on democracy? When does it succeed and why?- Issue-specific and cross-country variation in attacks on gender equality and democracy, their drivers, and consequences- Differences/similarities between Eastern and Western Europe/across institutional venues and agendas- Anti-gender backlash and political attitudes and behavior, group differences, and factors shaping them- Interaction between public opinion and institutional arenas (i.e., responsibility vs responsiveness) Topic editors: Zoe Lefkofridi, Vera Beloshitzkaya, Louise Luxton Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/82419/contemporary-attacks-on-democracy-and-gender-equality-in-public-opinion-and-institutional-agendas-in-europe