Book Review: Mieke Verloo, Varieties of Opposition to Gender Equality in Europe
| Date | 01 May 2020 |
| Author | Marian Sawer |
| Published date | 01 May 2020 |
| DOI | 10.1177/1478929918824005 |
| Subject Matter | Commissioned Book Reviews |
review-article2019
Commissioned Book Review
Political Studies Review
2020, Vol. 18(2) NP1 –NP2
Commissioned Book Review
journals.sagepub.com/home/psrev
Varieties of Opposition to Gender legacies of anti-communism are combined with
Equality in Europe edited by Mieke Verloo. conservative Catholic discourse around protec-
Abingdon: Routledge, 2018. 237 pp., £23.09 tion of the family and family values.
(p/b), ISBN 97811386449613
Opposition to ‘gender theory’ has also been
mobilised by the Catholic Church in different
parts of the world, on the basis that the concept
Opposition to gender equality comes from of sexual identity as a spectrum violates the
multiple sources and takes different forms – natural complementarity of the sexes. However,
including bureaucratic resistance, neoliberal this is not the only source of opposition to the
marketisation, radical right-wing populism and expression of sexual diversity. As Niels
different forms of organised religion. There are Spierings shows in his chapter, based on
also new forms such as the cyber violence European Social Survey data, strong opposi-
directed against gender equality advocates. tion to homosexuality is most likely to be found
Mieke Verloo’s timely collection covers all of among Muslims followed by Orthodox
these varieties of resistance as manifested in Christians rather than Catholics. The role of the
different parts of Europe, East and West, and in Macedonian Orthodox Church in achieving
bodies such as the European Commission and restriction of access to abortion in an already
the European Court of Justice.
fragile democracy is tracked in a different
Because Europe has relatively strong institu-
chapter of the book, while in Russia the combi-
tionalisation of gender equality projects, this nation of Orthodoxy and Populism contributes
analysis of the sources and modes of opposition to the framing of...
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