This Open Training Unit (OTU) addresses resistance, backlash and anti-gender campaigns in feminist work and organizing. The OTU is proud to feature the important work being done in two of the most cutting-edge, contemporary feminist Horizon Europe Projects, FIERCE and RESIST, which work to understand, address, and collectively strategize against resistance, backlash and anti-gender campaigns from an intersectional feminist perspective.

Many of us working within diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) work are very familiar with resistance and backlash as they are something we navigate both professionally and personally, both in terms of professional consequences of resistance and backlash, which might be budget and resource cuts, policy bans and de-prioritizations at national or organizational levels, or more individual consequences such as burnout or even harassment. But these instances of backlash are not one-off, or individual instances, but rather, the resistance and backlash that DEI experts and researchers face are tied up to a larger, international movement against intersectional feminist thought and rights.

As such, we in INSPIRE find it highly important to highlight the important work that FIERCE and RESIST have been doing regarding resistance, backlash, and anti-gender campaigns in our Open Training Unit Series, as we believe that understanding more about how these things manifest on a transnational scale, what kinds of international developments and consequences there have been in recent years, and what kinds of feminist resistance, collaboration, and intersectional strategies countering anti-gender politics is crucial for feminist organizing. Indeed, we believe that having a deeper knowledge and understanding of these movements are paramount for sustaining and deepening intersectional change across organizations and across national contexts.

Design of the Open Training Unit

This Open Training Unit features a webinar video discussion between INSPIRE WP6 Leaders at the University of Southern Denmark, Liv Baisner Petersen and Molly Occhino, together with two of the central researchers from the FIERCE project,  Lise Rolandsen Agustin (associate professor) and Andreas Beyer Gregersen (post doc) from Aalborg University, and two central researchers from the RESIST project, Roberto Kulpa (associate professor) from Edinburgh Napier University and Marianne Blidon (associate professor) from Pantheon Sorbonne University in Paris. The video features presentations from each of the research teams into the main aims, work and findings of their respective projects, before moving into a panel discussion mediated by SDU.

Additionally, in chapters 1 and 2 of this open training unit you will find more detailed information describing both the FIERCE and RESIST projects, as well as relevant tools and resources for INSPIRE’s audience.

INSPIRE finds it incredibly important to promote and amplify the critical knowledge and resources coming out of these two crucial projects.