How are Anti-Gender Movements Changing Gender Studies as a Profession

Abstract

Thank God for the Catholic Church!’, Fassin quotes an imagined gender studies expert, as the anti-gender movement is gaining momentum in France. My response reflects on an issue that remains unaddressed in this volume: what are the consequences of the increasing public exposure of gender studies as a profession due to the surge of anti-gender movements? Recently gender studies scholars can indeed not complain about the lack of wider social interest in their work – just the opposite is true. In Poland, ‘gender’ was chosen as the word of the year in 2013. The mailboxes of gender studies faculty members have been filled with emails with queries about their research and invitations to public debates in different media. Can the profession of academic feminism meet the expectations of what Fassin calls the ‘double exposure’, as anti-gender movements, demonstrations, and discourse brought not only national but also international recognition to gender studies scholars? And in what sense is this different from ‘mainstreaming’ gender, which has been the aim of gender studies professionals?