Gender mainstreaming and public opinion: misuse, polarization and anti-gender equality views

Public opinion is getting always more polarized around gender equality matters with risks ranging from impoverish GM potentialities to the spread of anti-gender equality views. For this purpose, three main issues are addressed. First, the misuse of the GM terminology is addressed. If its proper use ensures that needs, experiences, and impacts on all genders are considered, promoting inclusive and equitable outcomes, its misuse, that can occur when GM is treated as a box-checking exercise rather than a transformative process, or it is limited to a binary understanding of gender, or when gender perspective is added just as an afterthought, easily leads to superficial or tokenistic actions that fail to address deeper structural inequalities. This can result in mistrust in gender equality policies and public opinion can diverge on its support. An analysis of Europeans’ gender equality values, using data from Eurobarometer, will offer insights on polarized views on these topics. Building on existing literature on radical anti-gender equality informal groups (including the tradwives phenomenon and the impact of manfluencers), the attention will focus on the spread of public opinion against gender equality among individuals and groups. Finally, the chapter will discuss the potential implication for gender equality and GM processes of such developments.