Opportunity beckons
The anti-gender movement at the European Parliament
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 7990769 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Martijn Mos (0000-0001-8006-2970, Leiden University, corresponding author), Lucrecia Rubio Grundell (0000-0003-3181-5213, Centro Superior de Investigaciones Científicas) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Volume | 27 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 560-583 |
| Publication date | 2025-05-27 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | International Feminist Journal of Politics (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1461-6742 • E-ISSN: 1468-4470 |
| Publisher | Taylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/14616742.2025.2505125 |
| OpenAlex | W4411327595 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 35 |
The European Parliament (EP) is commonly viewed as the most progressive institution of the European Union (EU), given its historic promotion of gender equality and lesbian, gay, bisexual, and trans (LGBT+) rights. As such, it ostensibly represents an adverse venue for the anti-gender movement. This article argues, however, that the EP is more hospitable to anti-gender organizations than the extant scholarship recognizes. Drawing on the concept of political opportunity structures (POSs), it distinguishes between three types of opportunities that the EP offers anti-gender organizations: policy influence, mobilization, and organizational legitimation. Most accounts of POSs focus on the ability of non-state actors to influence public policy. Yet, it is here that anti-gender organizations – important victories notwithstanding – have been least successful. Instead, they have taken greater advantage of the other two opportunities. Through an analysis of the advocacy of anti-gender organizations at the EU level, the article demonstrates that they have used the EP to mobilize institutional and non-institutional allies, consolidating their transnational networks and discrediting their adversaries, as well as to boost their authority by presenting themselves as experts and the legitimate representatives of social interests. In this sense, the EP assists the advocacy of the anti-gender movement
Aesthetics · Art · Movement (music · Parliament · Political science · Politics · Sociology · European Union Policy and Governance · Gender Politics and Representation · Gender Studies · Law · Social Policy and Reform Studies
The Rights Turn in Conservative Christian Politics
The Opening Up of International Organizations
Constraints and opportunities in adopting, adapting, and inventing
NGO Goal-Setting/Attainment and Perceptions of Benefits Derived within the Framework of the Unecosoc Consultative Status Program
Conceptual origins, current problems, future direction
The fight of the Religious Right in Europe
Populist strategy in the European parliament
Norm under fire
The midwife case and conscientious objection
(Re)defining women’s interests? Political struggles over women’s collective representation in the context of the European Parliament
Transnational Advocacy Networks and Policy Cycles in the European Union
Advocating for the Right
Reframing the language of human rights? Political group contestations on women’s and LGBTQI rights in European Parliament debates
The New Competition in Multilateral Norm-Setting
Feminist NGOs and the European Union
Social movements and the changing structure of political opportunity in the European union 1
Adjusting venues and voices
The Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality in the European Parliament
Strategies of right populists in opposing gender equality in a polarized European Parliament
Who lobbies the European Union? National interest groups in a multilevel polity
United in Crisis
The birth, life, and death of policy instruments
State Feminism since the 1980s
Of Gay Rights and Christmas Ornaments
Transnational Politics
Anti-Gender Politics in the Populist Moment
Political Opportunity Structures and Political Protest
The origins of legitimation strategies in international organizations
Protest and Political Opportunities
Movements, Countermovements, and the Structure of Political Opportunity
| Unique citing works | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1 |
| Citation span | 2026 - 2026 (1) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 1 |