Participation in Official Settings: Between Co-optation and Resistance

Gaining access to the official political arena and participating in policymaking made feminist activists susceptible of co-optation, and concerns have been raised about the instrumentalization and displacement of their goals. The reactivation of the autonomy/dependence debate that assumed a “pure” feminist movement hid that feminism was never about women nor about gender alone and was always co-constructed with other institutions and movements. Collaborating with the state is both dangerous and generative. Aware of the risks and opportunities brought by institutional alliances, for feminist movement activists giving up institutional politics is unaffordable. While the risks of instrumentalization proved palpable, feminist movement actors’ participation in official politics contributed to institutional discursive socialization and to the creation of bridges between state entities and feminist actors. By engaging in the political arena, feminist activists secure opposition to the current hegemonic order that normalizes neoliberalism and provide an alternative to the right-wing and radical-right actors and discourses who, together with the anti-gender mobilizations, gained momentum during recent years.