Gendered identities in portuguese anti-austerity mobilisation

Abstract

The austerity policies implemented following the financial crisis of 2008 in Portugal led to high contention in the public sphere. New, mostly young, and urban social movements took central stage in organising it, often articulated with traditional actors (labour unions or left-wing political parties). These movements presented a very unified image and message to the public, the media, and the institutions whose policies they opposed, based on a shared interpretation of social justice. These coalitions included feminist and LGBTQIA+ organisations, with a story of past activism which is said to have been pushed aside so they could cooperate in the priority anti-austerity arena. This paper questions whether these identities were indeed side-lined, relying on content analysis of materials made available online by those organisations to argue that feminist and LGBTQIA+ protesters framed their mobilisation through a gendered interpretation of the events and consequences of austerity, closely related to their previous values, beliefs, and incentives to participate in social activism.