The War on Gender and the Gender of War in Central and Eastern Europe

Investigates how politicians, social movement activists, and government policies invoke the savior complex and who and how can claim agency in successfully managing the competing claims of right and wrong, rights, and disenfranchisement in the inter-imperial spaces of Central and Eastern Europe

Focusing on Russia’s assault on Ukraine as pivotal in politics and economics, this book examines the contentious interactions between gender equality activists and anti-gender movements. Through a comparative and international lens, this book examines how local anti-gender movements paint Western Europe as “gayropa” to increase and consolidate anti-gender support while nationalist politicians, conservative social movements, and government policies invoke the savior complex and deepen the sense of victimhood from past and contemporary colonization. Moving beyond political polarization, this book shows how gender equality movements responded to anti-genderism, how both benefited from transnational networks, and how each realigned internationally due to the ongoing war in Europe.