Revisiting old and opening new spaces for feminist organizing in Austria

Abstract

ABSTRACT Before the onset of COVID-19, the political mood in Europe shifted to the right. This is indicated, for example, by efforts to close the borders to migrants, an undermining of legislative and executive democratic structures as well as restrictions on free speech. Such anti-democratic developments have also impacted gender equality – at the level of policy and in daily life. Our paper aims to examine the policies on gender equality of the center-right Austrian government from 2017 to 2019 and their influence on feminist organizing. Applying a participatory, action-based research approach in the context of a neoliberal conservative nation state, the data shows a clear backtrack from a pluralist perspective of gender equality policies and regression towards heteronormativity, complemented by a focus on the gender binary that discounts the social construction of gender. These trends clearly influence feminist organizing.