ABSTRACT
Based on the empirical chapters, this chapter concludes that opposition to feminist politics and gender+ equality policies materializes along many dimensions: geographically; at what stage of the political process the opposition occurs; variation, in which actors are most prominently engaging in these activities and whether actors are part of formal political power systems or not; what repertoires of action are used; what visions of gender equality are opposed: and which oppositional mechanisms are in focus. The chapter uses this demonstration of the complex variety of opposition to feminist politics and gender+ equality policies in Europe to present a theory-driven analysis of oppositional dynamics and a better understanding of the real chances of success that opposition to the feminist project has in Europe. For this analysis, both social movement theories and social complexity theory prove to be very productive. The chapter argues for the crucial importance of the quality of democracy by analyzing how opposition thrives in the absences of democracy because of the detrimental effects of the positive feedback loops between democracy and equality which are speeding up the decline of democracies. This insight into the temporal dynamics of opposition is one of the crucial contributions of social complexity theory in this book. The contributions of social movement theories are substantial too, but the chapter argues that the power of these theories could be enhanced if they could integrate social complexity theory’s concept of ‘project’ instead of ‘movement’.
