6. Implications of the Attacks for Feminism, the State and Democracy

This concluding chapter discusses the implications of debates around the Istanbul Convention for the politics and policies on VAW, but also situates this in broader processes like the war on gender and its consequences for democracy and de-democratization. We contribute to the literature on anti-gender movements both by providing a systematic comparative analysis of anti-gender attacks and their consequences for gender policy in four countries, but also by disentangling the dynamics of these contestations in a gender-equality field, VAW, which is not a prime target of anti-gender contestations. We identify how attacks on gender, a core component of many current de-democratization processes, undermine gender-equal democracy. The contestations in the field of VAW and their policy consequences have become a fundamental component of democratic erosion with specific consequences for women.