Politicizing Gender and Democracy in the Context of the Istanbul Convention

This book examines opposition to the Council of Europe’s Istanbul Convention and its consequences for the politics of violence against women in four countries of Central and Eastern Europe. Krizsán and Roggeband discuss why and how successful anti-gender mobilizations managed to obstruct ratification of the Convention or push for withdrawal from it. They show how resistance to the Convention significantly redraws debates on violence against women and has consequences for policies, women’s rights advocacy, and gender-equal democracy.

1. Chapter :1 Contestation around the Istanbul Convention and the questions it raises.- Chapter 2: The politics of violence against women: theoretical considerations.- Chapter 3: Opposing the Istanbul Convention: actors, strategies and frames.- Chapter 4: Resistance, resilience and resignation: women’s rights advocates and their allies.- Chapter 5: The reconfiguration of the policy field: how opponents appropriate VAW policies.- Chapter 6: Implications of the attacks for feminism, the state and democracy.  

Andrea Krizsán is Professor at the Central European University, Austria.

Conny Roggeband is Associate Professor of political science at the University of Amsterdam, Netherlands.