(iPoster) Celebrating in the Battlefield: The Politics of Framing Equality on Women’s Day

• In Event: Poster Session: Women and Politics

Abstract

While gender equality has gained significant traction across the globe, it has also been increasingly politicised. Anti-gender opposition has dramatically expanded. At the same time, critiques have been raised among pro-equality actors about the lack of inclusivity in the vision of equality that too often remains centred on white cis women. As a result, the definition of gender equality itself has become highly contentious in the public sphere. At the one end of the spectrum, there are actors who advocate for a fully inclusive and intersectional definition of equality. At the other end, there are actors who contend that equality has gone too far or in the wrong direction.

This paper investigates how equality is strategically defined by both pro- and anti- equality actors, at a snapshot in time; the highly symbolic moment of International Women’s Day. We analyse how equality is framed, whose equality it is, and what the ways forward are that are promoted by these actors. International Women’s Day is a celebration of the achievements toward equality and emphasizes challenges that remained to be tackled. This is a day when divergent perspectives about equality are strategically showcased. Pro- and anti-equality actors seize the occasion to promote their vision of equality and compete against alternative visions. We contend that to do so they strategically select and bundle policy issues from a wide range of equality issues. With limited space and resources, they make choices about the issues that they deem worth of attention across public arenas, such as the parliament and social media.

Drawing on latent class analysis of parliamentary questions and tweets posted on X on international women’s days between 2019 and 2023 across 10 European countries (Austria, France, Switzerland, Italy, Spain, Germany, the Netherlands, Poland, Hungary, and the United Kingdom) we map the political battlefield around gender equality. We shed light on the extent to which parliamentary and civil society agendas overlap to offer a taxology of issue positions and constellation of actors. We show that, beyond virtue signalling, mobilization around International Women’s Day is complex and politicized.

Authors

• Isabelle Engeli, University of Exeter

• Liza Mugge, University of Amsterdam