On February 14th, 2025, Saskia Brechenmacher, a Senior Fellow at the Democracy, Conflict, and Governance Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, gave a talk titled “Democratic Erosion and Women’s Political Power: Perspectives from Europe.” Organized by Diversity & Social Justice Education and the EU Center, the talk focused on waning democratic practices and rising anti-gender mobilization in Europe. Brechenmacher argued that Europe is plagued by democratic erosion and increasing illiberalism within democratic regimes such as in Hungary and Poland. She then explored the intersection between this wave of democratic erosion and anti-feminist and traditionalist rhetoric. She explained how these illiberal movements have targeted both gender equality and LGBTQ+ rights. Drawing on case studies from Poland and Hungary, Brechenmacher demonstrated how both illiberal regimes have employed rhetoric expressly against “gender ideology” and for the “natural family,” restricted reproductive rights, and targeted women’s rights institutions and policies.
These anti-gender ideologies, Brechenmacher argued, have been an effective mobilization strategy, especially given that it relies on using an us v. them mentality as a useful umbrella for critique. Such anti-gender mobilization has enabled far-right parties to attract voters they otherwise might not have. Right wing populist parties have built their platforms on anti-elite sentiment, nativism, nationalism, and traditionalism. This traditionalism, she argued, is specifically anti-feminist and espouses the heteronormative standard of the “natural family.” To explain why countries such as Hungary and Poland would go to such lengths to espouse this traditionalism, she pointed to the possible geopolitical incentives. With growing centers of power in Russia, China, and the Middle East, countries such as Hungary and Poland may find it more pragmatic and useful to align with these countries and instead drift from the West/EU’s championing of liberal gender values. Brechenmacher ended her lecture by emphasizing the need for changes in behavior at the elite level. Elites, she argued, need to be more committed to upholding democratic principles, especially given the lack of power citizens have in between elections.
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