Earlier this week the happy news arrived that PRIO was awarded with three new Research Projects funded the Research Council of Norway. Senior Researcher Pinar Tank was awarded funding for her proposal: How populist illiberal regimes shape gender norms in Europe.
On Monday, 16 September, the Democracy and Global Development panel met to select proposals from the March thematic calls for funding. For the UTENRIKS thematic call Senior Researcher Pinar Tank was successful in her research proposal focusing on the impact of populist illiberal regimes on gender norms within Europe. Along with a team of PRIO researchers, she has received funding from the Research Council of Norway for a three year period starting in 2025.
The project will study backlashes in gender equality norms related to the rise of illiberal populist regimes in Europe. Increasingly, religious conservative movements and parties appealing to tradition and an anti-globalisation agenda have sought to place women’s rights under the rubric of the family, rather than individual human rights, often the case in regimes led by illiberal populist leaders. As illiberal values gain a foothold in Europe, how will they impact upon established liberal gender norms? What kind of resistance will they face from local actors in a politically polarised landscape? Can we understand local interpretations as counter norms and what kind of dividing lines can we see developing within Europe? These questions will be examined through the three cases of Turkey, Hungary and Bosnia to understand the connections between populist authoritarian politics and gender norms. More broadly speaking, the project examines how changing geopolitical orders impact upon liberal norm diffusion.
Congratulations to Pinar Tank!
