Antifeminist Discourses in the 19th and 20thCenturies: Forms, Arguments, and PoliticalContext in East-Central Europe

(An Introduction)

Abstrakt

This introductory study to a thematic issue traces the historical trajectories of
antifeminist discourses in East-Central Europe from the late 18th century to the
mid-20th century, focusing on their ideological foundations, rhetorical strategies,
and socio-political contexts.
While antifeminism is often perceived as a recent backlash amplified by digital plat-
forms and far-right populism, this study underscores its long-standing presence as
a reaction to feminist demands for equal citizenship, particularly in response to the
women’s suffrage movement and broader emancipatory efforts. Antifeminist rhet-
oric in this region, shaped by nationalism, conservatism, religious norms, and later
authoritarian ideologies, evolved alongside modern feminist movements.
The study identifies a range of antifeminist expressions—from essentialist argu-
ments grounded in biological determinism to their incorporation into authoritar-
ian regimes that instrumentalized motherhood and femininity in the service of
national or racial ideologies. Drawing on diverse case studies from the Habsburg
monarchy and its successor states, the authors highlight the dynamic interplay
between antifeminist and feminist narratives, the transnational circulation of
anti-emancipatory arguments, and the socio-cultural mechanisms that influenced
public debates on gender roles. They argue that antifeminist discourse functioned
not only as a reactive force, but also as a constitutive element of modernity—shap-
ing national identities and defining the parameters of political participation.
By foregrounding antifeminism as a distinct historical phenomenon, this study
emphasizes the potential of its contextualized analysis to address a significant gap
in gender historiography and to contribute to a more nuanced understanding of
gender, modernization and citizenship in East-Central Europe.