Mind the Backlash: Gender Discrimination and Sexism in Contemporary Societies

Abstract

Decades of campaigns and policy efforts have brought significant progress in women's economic and political status and pushed gender equality up the global policy agenda. The goal of gender equality, however, still remains largely out of reach, as illustrated by the recent wave of women's protests against sexual harassment, assault and gender violence (e.g. #MeToo movement). Some European countries (e.g. Poland, Hungary and Lithuania) have even seen their performance on gender equality backslide in recent years, and in parallel to calls for increased equality, a wave of mobilisation against gender equality has appeared in the public discourse. Conservative, authoritarian and populist voices in many democracies are now contesting the equal participation of men and women in society under the auspices of a "war on gender ideology." This backlash against women's empowerment carries considerable implications for anti-discrimination laws, policies protecting women against domestic violence, reproductive health and the establishment of gender quotas. Given the "backlash" against gender observed in various countries around the globe, we argue that now is a critical time to revisit and broaden our knowledge about gender discrimination, gender equality and sexism. Our proposed Research Topic will provide a gender perspective to illustrate and understand the recent illiberal turn in politics in a variety of contexts. Taking a comparative approach, we aim at improving our understanding of how sexism, discrimination and gender equality operate at the societal level, and how they shape broader social and political views. At the individual level, we will study the current, seemingly opposing forces—for and against gender equality— by analysing the antecedents, predispositions, experiences and motivations explaining and underpinning these attitudes towards different ways of gender equality (sexism and discrimination).