Diversity Day 2025: Dangerous crises

What is the greatest threat to feminism?

Dr Gefjon Off: Simone de Beauvoir once said: ‘All it takes is a political, economic or religious crisis to call women's rights into question again.’ Competition in the workplace increases in difficult times. Traditionally, men still dominate many industries, especially in leadership positions. Women and all other people who are not cis men suffer most from economic crises. The most vulnerable groups include non-binary people and trans people.

Conversely, does this mean that a strong economy also protects disadvantaged people?

Funds and resources are always available for supposed ‘fringe issues’ when the economy is doing well. This applies not only to feminism, but also to environmental protection, for example. In economic crises, these are the areas most likely to see cuts.

In your research, you look in particular at anti-feminism among right-wing extremist voters. What patterns do you see?

In 2021, I collected interview data in eastern Germany. At that time, many voters of right-wing extremist parties still agreed with some fundamental feminist issues; for example, they were in favour of equal pay and fair opportunities in the workplace. These results can also be explained by history: on the one hand, the anti-feminist AfD is very strong in eastern Germany, but on the other hand, there is a long tradition of relative equality between men and women in the labour market. Issues that break with heteronormativity and receive a lot of media attention, such as queerness, provoke particular resistance: some people feel that the attention is excessive and believe that it distracts from ‘real’ problems.

You also looked at data from Sweden. Do you see any differences compared to eastern Germany?

Equality is a strong social norm in Sweden. However, during the Me Too debate, feminist issues became more politicised, which has led to more conservative attitudes towards feminism being more closely associated with right-wing extremist voting behaviour than before. The bigger an issue becomes in a society, the more resistance there is, the more likely this resistance is to be represented politically, and the more likely these issues are to influence voters' behaviour. We see this phenomenon very clearly in Spain. Over the past ten years, we have observed an exceptionally strong women's movement there, with millions of people taking to the streets. Politically, a lot has happened for women and queer people, but the far right has also mobilised particularly strongly against this.

Spain is a very Catholic society. How does religion influence feminism?

Catholic-motivated anti-feminism often focuses on the traditional, supposedly God-given roles of men and women, abortion and homosexuality. We also see this very traditional, religiously motivated anti-feminism in the USA, for example. Alongside this is nationalist-motivated anti-feminism: the desire to reproduce a white and, in our case, ‘German’ population. The motivations are different, but the attitudes are similar.

In your current research, you focus on the attitudes of young men. What are you observing?

We also see anti-feminist tendencies in their attitudes, but with different motivations. The prejudices tend to stem from a feeling that women's emancipation has gone too far and that promoting women is unfair. They believe that young women have an advantage, for example in schools and universities. In fact, young women in Western societies are more likely to have a university degree than men of the same age.

To ask a provocative question: don't young men have a point then?

Anyone can get good grades; there is no direct competition. Just because girls get good grades does not mean that boys cannot get good grades too. This is different in school than in the labour market, where there are limited jobs. The question is rather why girls get better grades than boys. To me, this seems to be at least partly a question of socialisation. Girls are more likely to be told to ‘sit still’. Boys are often seen as rowdy. The current school system tends to reward stereotypical female behaviour. To counteract this, we could offer more individualised teaching instead.

So in the end, it's still men who have successful careers?

Yes, that's right. But young men don't realise that yet. They compete in schools, universities and on the job market for entry-level positions. Women are stronger at the entry level, at least if you use educational qualifications as a selection criterion. However, when they apply for management positions or have children, they are more likely to be discriminated against again.

Thank you very much for the interview!

Gefjon Off completed her doctorate at the University of Gothenburg in 2023 on the topic of anti-feminism among voters, with a focus on voters of right-wing extremist parties. She is currently conducting research in the field of comparative political behaviour with a gender perspective.