Gender Equality in Times of Backlash

The global pandemic revealed that progress towards gender equality is neither linear nor guarranted; currently, anti-democratic and illiberal actors and movements around the world currently seek to reverse significants achievements of the last decades. In times of backlash against gender equality, the goal of this lecture is twofold: firstly, to present the project “Push*Back*Lash” (funded by Horizon Europe) and its main findings. Secondly, to zoom into citizens’ attitudes towards gender equality and discusss their relationship to democracy and their connection to elite discourses.

Bio: Zoe Lefkofridi is University Professor of Politics & Gender, Diversity & Equality at the Department of Political Science, University of Salzburg. She is the first holder of the Professorship of Gender Studies in the Austrian federal province of Salzburg and the founding director of the newly established ATHENA- Salzburg Center for Intersectional Research. Zoe researches and teaches on democracy, diversity and equality in political participation and representation in the European Union (EU); her work appears in leading journals in the field, (e.g., Politics and Gender, Party Politics). Currently, she is the coordinator of the PUSH*BACK*LASH (Horizon Europe) consortium and the leader of the WP4 on Representation of ACTEU (Horizon Europe). For her special contributions to research and teaching on gender in the context of democracy, diversity and equality as well as her pioneering work for women at the University of Salzburg Zoe was awarded the 2023 Käthe Leichter Preis of the Austrian Chamber of Labor and the 2023 Greek International Women Award (GIWA) in the category "Law and Political Science".