Poison in the Juice: “Gender Ideology” and the Istanbul Convention in Slovakia
Poison in the Juice: “Gender Ideology” and the Istanbul Convention in Slovakia

Summary/Abstract: The anti-gender mobilization seems particularly salient in Central and Eastern Europe. So called “gender ideology” unites contestation against various issues such as LGBT rights, reproductive rights, sex and gender education, gender mainstreaming or the very term “gender”. Less attention has been paid to the mobilization against the Istanbul Convention that has been targeted in some of the countries. Hence, this article presents a Slovak case study of the anti-gender mobilization that has led to the official refusal of the ratification of the convention. Through the method of explaining outcome process tracing it follows the process of anti-gender mobilization in the specific political context, its actors, actions and discourses. I argue that the success of this particular anti-gender mobilization has been facilitated by previously mainstreamed discourse into policies and politics and fostered by specific political circumstances whereby anti-gender mobilization and populist political representation acted in and opportunistic symbiosis. Political crisis did not only create space for this symbiosis, but at the same time amplified discontent with existent political and economic order and redirected it towards “gender ideology”.

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