Gendering Violence in the Age of Anti-Genderism

Abstract

This article examines the collective action frames of violence against women put forth by women’s organizations in the gender equality community in Slovakia during the current period of heightened conservative activism against gender and sexual equality. This study finds that women’s organizations in Slovakia overwhelmingly deploy a Gender Equality frame with distinctly feminist-oriented content to resist violence against women during the current period of anti-gender activism and accompanying state hostility toward feminist goals. This differs from previous studies that find women’s organizations in Central Eastern Europe historically deploy gender-neutral frames, providing evidence to the theory that anti-genderism can contribute to more radical activism as a response. Frames are contextualized through a discussion of the anti-gender movement in the country utilizing the concept of discursive opportunity structure.