Gender Rights and Opposition to Populism

The 2020–2025 gender equality strategy presented by the European Commission has set out key actions in order to put an end to gender-based violence and stereotypes, to ensure equal participation and opportunities in the labour market and in policymaking. The European Parliament called for support for women's rights campaigners as well as women's rights organisations in the EU and worldwide, including organisations dealing with LGBTIA + people, by providing them with more substantial and targeted financial support. On this basis, the first part of this contribution aims to shed light on the way in which Italian populist institutional actors deal with gender issues within their government programmes and on whether their representations of gender correspond to the values defined at European level. A second part of the work aims to analyse the tension between institutional populist actors and antagonistic feminist associations, which act in an anti-populist sense. The contribution will examine the practices and political discourses of the movement Non una di Meno in Italy, focusing on how and in which specific areas it takes action as an anti-populist force and on the relationship that can be identified between its objectives and values and those set by the European Commission on gender issues.