After decades of steady progress in terms of gender and sexual rights, several parts of Europe are facing new waves of resistance. These oppose the so-called ‘gender ideology’, and unveil a crucial role of the Roman Catholic Church. While marriage equality clearly operated as the catalyst of this new coalition, their political agenda cannot be reduced to their opposition to same-sex marriage, but extends to opposing reproductive rights and abortion, sex education in public schools, sexual liberalism more broadly, and indeed the very notion of gender itself.

This panel, which is part of a project comparing 15 countries in Europe, is a first attempt to better understand anti-gender mobilizations in Europe. It focuses on national manifestations of a transnationally circulating discourse on ‘gender ideology’, with a special interest for mobilizations where they exist. It examines more specifically discourses, mobilization strategies and actors in Austria, Belgium, France, Germany and Slovenia.