Gender equality is a fundamental value of European democracies, and with all their flaws, gender equality laws and policies have been part of European politics for decades. Yet, while resistance against it is nothing new, an oppositional and threatening climate is growing. Formal and informal political actors actively opposing gender equality, LGBTQI+ and racialised groups’ rights have grown in power across Europe. Their dangerous attacks send a strong message of the supposed inferiority or even inhumanity of non-hegemonic people, thus positioning them outside of the demos, limiting their participation rights, and the quality of democracy.
CCINDLE is set up to better understand anti-gender campaigns and how these are relate to de-democratisation in Europe, and aims to strengthen feminist movement and feminist institutional responses to these. CCINDLE does empirical research across 7 European countries (Belgium, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom) and at EU level, keeps track of the nature of and shifts in anti-gender campaigns, and – crucially - of the nature and impact of feminist movement and feminist institutional responses.
CCINDLE co-creates knowledge with key actors that are already responding to anti-gender, racist and LGBTQI+-phobic campaigns. Through initiatives such as Feminist Democracy Labs, CCINDLE teams up with pro-democracy epistemic communities, with feminist donors, media and associations, to make democracy across Europe more resilient and inclusive, using co-created knowledge.
Envisioning and imagining feminist futures, CCINDLE's research is building on theories and practices of intersectional justice and inclusion. We aim to understand and improve how contemporary feminist and democracy theories deal with these challenges. Our impact actions will identify specific tools and practical approaches to strengthening democracy, gender equality and intersectional justice. We do our work with a goal of sound ethical behaviour, collaborative teamwork and ample outreach, using good management tools.