The new Integrated Report on Pushback Strategies from Gender Five Plus maps how Europe’s feminist movement, institutions, and key actors are resisting the growing anti-gender and anti-feminist backlash — and how women’s organisations are transforming resistance into empowerment.
Across Europe, women activists, advocates, and feminist movements are again on the frontlines of the fight for equality. And while rights and protections, once taken for granted, are now being questioned, feminist actors are responding with coordinated, determined, and increasingly effective action.
Across parliaments, social media, homes, and public spaces, misogyny — negative attitudes and hatred directed at women — is resurfacing, louder and more coordinated than ever. Anti-feminist and anti-gender narratives are spreading rapidly, undermining decades of progress and posing one of the most serious threats to women’s rights in a generation.
A Worrying Rollback
All this reflects a coordinated push to delegitimise feminist voices and reverse hard-won rights. Its impact is visible everywhere: shrinking civic space, chronic underfunding of women’s rights organisations, and growing hostility.
Violence against women remains endemic — from domestic abuse and rape to the scale and violence of online harassment. Doxxing, hate speech, and targeted disinformation campaigns attempt to silence feminist journalists, politicians, and activists.
Sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) are under renewed threat in several EU Member States. Women’s political representation still lags behind, and gender gaps in pay, pensions, and decision-making persist. Intersectional discrimination continues to deepen inequalities for migrant women, racialised women, and women with disabilities.
Across Europe, no country — no matter how advanced its laws or institutions — is immune to the backlash.
We need feminism today more than ever — loud, visible, and unafraid.
A Coordinated Attack on Equality
Since 2013, anti-gender and anti-feminist movements have evolved into well-funded, well-organised transnational networks linking faith-based groups, conservative think tanks, political parties, bloggers, and advocacy NGOs. The myth of “gender ideology,” used as a catch-all target, has become a central mobilisation tool for these groups.
These campaigns are intertwined with populist narratives and anxieties about identity, culture, and national heritage — including claims to defend “European civilisation.” With populist parties gaining ground across Europe, opposition to feminism is transforming local resistance into a pan-European backlash.
As the European Parliament warned in 2018, this backlash is not marginal. It is coordinated, persistent, and increasingly normalised.
Mapping Resistance: G5+ Integrated Report on Pushback Strategies
Anti-gender narratives exploit democratic freedoms, but feminist movements, institutions, and rights defenders are using those same democratic spaces to protect equality and strengthen democratic values.
To understand how resistance is forming and succeeding, Gender Five Plus (G5+), as part of a European Horizon project, has mapped the strategies governments, political parties, civil society organisations, and activists are using to counter the backlash.
The result is the Integrated Report on Pushback Strategies, which identifies:
- patterns in how anti-gender actors operate
- the strategies that work to counter them
- innovative practices led by feminists, disability-rights advocates, LGBTQI+ groups, and broader civil society
The report highlights the resilience of equality movements across Europe and provides practical guidance for policymakers and advocates.
👉👉👉 Read the full report here. 👈👈👈
From Backlash to Empowerment: How Feminist Actors Are Winning
Women’s organisations are not merely defending ground — they are advancing it. Across Europe, their strategies demonstrate creativity, resilience, and impact. Among the most effective:
- Reclaiming Public Narratives
Women’s organisations expose disinformation and reshape narratives by producing accessible information, running myth-busting campaigns, and using social media strategies that reach young audiences. Many build rapid response teams to counter online hate and promote feminist facts and solutions.
- Legal Mobilisation and Strategic Litigation
Feminist NGOs support survivors in court cases, challenge discriminatory legislation, and use EU law to push governments toward compliance. Strategic cases on violence, harassment, and SRHR have forced legislative change in multiple countries.
- Community Anchoring
Local women’s centres, migrant women’s groups, and disability-led feminist organisations create safe spaces, build trust, and strengthen community resilience. These organisations successfully counter anti-gender ideas by working directly with families, schools, and community leaders.
- Cross-Movement Alliances
Coalitions with LGBTQI+ groups, disability rights movements, trade unions, youth groups, and anti-racist organisations amplify influence. These alliances turn fragmented resistance into powerful, intersectional advocacy.
- Direct Engagement with Parliaments and Parties
Women’s organisations train MPs, provide briefings, help draft amendments, and pressure parties to adopt gender-equality platforms. In several countries, this has directly prevented regressive legislation from passing.
- Training the Frontline
From police to judges, from social workers to educators, feminist organisations provide gender-sensitive training that improves protection, strengthens accountability, and ensures survivors receive the support they need.
- Building Europe-wide Solidarity Networks
Through the European Women’s Lobby and other platforms, national organisations share strategies, coordinate campaigns, and advocate jointly at EU level. This transnational cooperation makes backlash harder to sustain and easier to confront.
- Making Women’s Voices Visible
Storytelling campaigns, survivor testimonies, and public actions reclaim space and shift societal norms. Visibility is power — and women’s organisations use it to reshape public debate.
In short: women’s organisations are not victims of backlash — they are agents of democratic renewal.
The Path Forward
The report’s key conclusion is clear: no single actor can counter the backlash alone.
Real progress requires collaborative, context-specific strategies rooted in solidarity between institutions, civil society, and communities.
At both EU and national levels, pushback strategies depend on two pillars:
robust legal frameworks and strong networks — with feminist activism as the driving force.
Among its recommendations:
- Enforce EU gender equality laws
- Increase research on anti-rights movements
- Invest in education that empowers girls and engages boys
- Strengthen intersectional, gender-sensitive policymaking
- Secure consistent funding for feminist, LGBTQI+, and disability-led organisations
The takeaway is simple: the backlash is real — but so is our collective capacity to resist and transform it.
The fight for equality and democracy is ongoing, and women — in all their diversity — are leading the way toward a more just, inclusive, and democratic Europe.