Anti-Gender Campaigns in Europe - by Roman Kuhar & David Paternotte (Paperback)

About the Book

This edited collection offers a transnational and comparative approach to understanding anti-gender mobilizations in Europe.

Book Synopsis

This edited collection offers a transnational and comparative approach to understanding anti-gender mobilizations in Europe.

Review Quotes

'Gender Ideology' fracases now erupting in Europe and Latin America constitute key sites in which to examine how the 'said return of the religious', sexual politics and the crisis of democracy are deeply imbricated today. Anti-Gender Campaigns in Europe is a superb cartography of these imbrications in twelve Western and Eastern European countries. It finely charts contextual differences without losing sight of the significant transnational implications of these politics, particularly in what concerns the role of the Catholic Church.

An essential reading to better understand the widespread reactionary backlash in today's Europe. This book is a much-needed wake-up call. While anti-gay marriage movements have long been regarded as anecdotical, the authors show how deep their cultural and religious roots are. This meticulous account is an important step towards reinventing minority rights across European borders.

In this well-documented comparative study, the authors offer country by country analyses and evidence of international collaborations in campaigns against gender equality. They provide striking new insight into the way the epithet "gender ideology" has become a powerful instrument on the European political scene, wielded by coalitions of right-wing Catholics, Protestant evangelicals, and populists to protect "traditional" sex roles and to challenge the institutions of democracy.

The co-edited collection makes a valuable contribution to understand the ways the Christian right in Europe operates, and how the Catholic Church ideologically pushed an anti-gender discourse in different countries.

What fuels the success of authoritarian populism around the globe and how does the extreme right manage to hijack public debate? We know that 'sex sells', but we also need to learn how 'gender' turns the tables in this context, and Anti-Gender Campaigns in Europe is an excellent place to start. ... Kuhar and Patternotte's anthology provides an encouraging methodological example as to how sociological research into pressing political issues can be conducted. In their sober, account-taking style, the essays provide maximum enlightenment.

About the Author

Roman Kuhar is Associate Professor at the University of Ljubljana.
David Paternotte is Lecturer at the Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium.