In Europe, democracy is in decline. That’s the main finding of the latest report from the Civil Liberties Union for Europe, which assessed how well governments respected the rule of law over the previous year across justice, corruption, media freedom, and checks and balances.
Although the extent varies between countries, even countries with historically strong democratic reputations showed signs of erosion, meaning that the trend is not confined to a small number of outliers.
It’s not just democracy that is declining. Progress towards gender equality is now also stalling.
How anti-gender backlash erodes democracies
Within a more fragile democratic context, the anti-gender movement has been gaining ground over the past decade.
A diverse cohort of figures in politics and media are engaging in organised efforts to roll back progress on women’s rights, LGBTQ+ rights, sexual and reproductive rights, and inclusive education. They do this by imposing a harmful worldview about gender roles in family and public life, spreading misinformation, stoking culture wars and division, and entrenching stigmatising discourses that scapegoat marginalised groups for broader societal problems.
For these anti-democratic forces, ‘gender’ has become a convenient boogeyman and smokescreen to divert attention away from their primary target. Attacking and weakening women’s and LGBTQ+ rights under the guise of tradition has proved to be a powerful strategy for eroding democratic institutions and reshaping European politics. It’s a strategy of sowing division to consolidate power.
With the goal of chipping away at the social fabric, these anti-rights groups also undermine action on climate and intentionally harm other marginalised communities with a well-tested playbook.
This movement has strong financial backing. The growth in funding for anti-gender actors across Europe, amounting to US$1.18 billion between 2019 and 2023, according to the latest research by the European Parliamentary Forum for Sexual and Reproductive Rights. This pool of money has given them access to political power, professionalisation, international networking, and influence on social media and mainstream culture.
Democratic backsliding and anti-gender pushback are not happening simultaneously but are interconnected, reinforcing each other in a “vicious cycle.” A decline in democracy provides fertile ground for opportunistic anti-gender actors who in turn further erode democracies, because their policies and ideas are fundamentally at odds with a society based on pluralism, fundamental rights for everyone, and trust in institutions.
Gender equality: a “health check” on our democracies
According to research by the Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace, and Security, women’s status in a country and the country’s democratic health are strongly correlated.
In their sample of 96 democratic countries, the status of women was found to be strongly and significantly associated with all three dimensions of democracy, from election integrity to freedom of association and assembly to checks on executive power.
While research has not been able to determine whether greater gender equality is a cause or consequence of stronger democracies, it is clear that any democracy work that does not see gender equality as a core pillar is not actually democracy work.
Democracy isn’t just about institutions, policies, or elections. It’s about people, and whether they are empowered and safe enough to actively participate in shaping their societies.
Despite everything, movements for women’s rights and gender equality continue to be one of the first lines of defence for democracy.
For example, women-led movements are deeply invested in democracy. Time and again, they have mobilised to defend democratic values and fundamental rights. When more than 400,000 women and allies in Poland took to the streets in 2020 to defend the right to decide about one’s own body and future, they kicked off the largest wave of pro-democracy demonstrations in the country since 1989. The right to abortion became a defining issue of the election and the far-right government was not re-elected.
Democracies work when everyone can participate freely, make meaningful choices that affect their lives, and enjoy freedom and safety.
And yet, women in leadership, business, politics, and activism face coordinated harassment and intimidation campaigns, deepfakes, cyberstalking, doxing, non-consensual image sharing to drive them to leave public life altogether. Women are also less likely to be elected than in the past. In the 2024 EU elections, the share of women MEPs actually declined for the first time, now at 38.5%.
Investments in gender equality are investments in democracy
As Europe faces rising polarisation, shrinking civic space, and coordinated attacks on human rights, defending democracy means also funding those who are advancing gender equality.
We see every day how movements for gender equality make the critical difference in building free, open, and thriving societies. Despite significant coordination and resources of anti-abortion groups across Europe, the movement My Voice, My Choice successfully advocated that EU funds can be used to guarantee access to safe abortion care, particularly for women in vulnerable situations, regardless of where they come from in Europe.
In countries like Bulgaria, Romania, and Croatia, local organisations play a key role in defending EU values, countering disinformation, and supporting vulnerable communities, often with limited resources and against a backdrop of well-organised anti-gender mobilisation. Despite operating in challenging sociopolitical environments, our grantee partners litigated for new adoption rights for same-sex couples, won a major legal victory for trans rights, and strengthened protections against workplace harassment and violence.
They prove that gender equality organisations protect democracy by changing laws, shifting norms, and defending rights that everyone benefits from. Despite their outsized impact, they remain drastically underfunded.
At a time when NGOs across Europe are deliberately weakened, gender equality organisations need abundant, flexible resources to work at their best and most strategic. From defending bodily autonomy to advancing political participation, their work on the ground creates the conditions for healthy, strong democracies.
This demands more from philanthropy. Sustained investment is needed to disrupt the anti-gender infrastructure and defend democratic systems that uphold rights for all. This would enable more pro-equality organisations to equip themselves with the kinds of digital and communications capacities that can cut through the backlash effectively.
It demands more from public donors, too. The two strands of the current EU budget focused on promoting gender equality and fighting gender-based violence consistently receive the smallest budget allocations while attracting the highest number of applications and leading to the lowest success rates for civil society.
Democracy requires continuous care. When grassroots organisations are starved of resources, they are forced to rely on short-term projects that at best can only address the symptoms of democratic decline and inequality, rather than enabling the sustained advocacy required to achieve lasting change.
That’s why the Alliance is stepping up to protect democracies by investing in some of its most vocal, creative, committed, and self-organised champions: gender equality organisations and movements.