How We Are Doing It

From late 2022 to the end of 2023, we mapped how ‘anti-gender’ politics are produced and expressed in contemporary Europe. We analysed hundreds of parliamentary debates and thousands of media articles in four case studies focusing on the UK, Poland, Switzerland, and Hungary between 2016 and 2022. We also used controversy mapping techniques to examine intensive outbursts of ‘anti-gender’ politics in these countries. Our findings reveal how anti-gender politics is a dynamic political landscape characterised by increasingly hardened ideological positions, political opportunism and a restless search for new targets of discrimination. 

In 2024 we worked to create new understandings of the effects of ‘anti-gender’ politics on everyday lives and forms of resistance, using data gathered via interviews, focus groups and a survey across nine case studies: Belarus, people living in exile in Europe, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Poland, Spain (Catalonia & Basque Country) and Switzerland.

As part of Stage 3 we will host workshops in  the case study countries, bringing together 40 queer feminist collectives and organisations to generate collaborative research about existing strategies to counter ‘anti-gender’ politics and form the basis of a coordinated strategy for a transnational, intersectional, queer feminist network.

In Stage 4 we will re-evaluate the existing theories and academic models against the lived experiences and practices that we have identified at the previous three stages. Together with our partners, we will generate concepts and tools that respond to anti-democratic threats.

In order to enable RESIST to make a difference, Stage 5 will see the project share the findings, toolkits and resources to support those who seek to create more democratic societies.  Thus we will work with our partners to offer a robust knowledge base and useful and relevant tools  for community organisations and groups, policymakers and local authorities, and those who seek to create real world change within and beyond contemporary European societies.