From “backlash” to “productive” responses.

The book Anti-Gender Mobilisations in Europe and the Feminist Response: Productive Resistance (Smrdelj & Kuhar, 2025a) asks how feminists adapt their strategies over time in response to a new, hostile environment of anti-feminism. This review essay critically acclaims the volume against the state-of-the-art research. It emphasises that the book advances research by focusing on the analysis of reactions; critically rethinking the concept of “backlash” for analysis; and offering a clear definition and typology of forward-looking, productive reactions to anti-gender actors on a continuum from low to high engagement with anti-gender actors. The essay proposes that future research could further develop four aspects of the book’s contributions to the field: First, methodological approaches to studying how responses to anti-gender mobilisations change over time could be further elaborated to go beyond a linear “backlash” understanding of temporality. Second, to sharpen the distinction between responses to anti-gender mobilisations and feminist mobilisations, it is argued that “productive resistance” could be further spelled out beyond the level of engagement with anti-feminists. Third, the critique of reactive logics could be extended by challenging the corresponding strict two-camp frame (feminists vs. anti-gender), instead building on a co-constitutive lens, and fourth, determining who responds beyond normative assumptions.