Europeanization, Democratization, and Backsliding: Trajectories and Framings of Gender Equality Institutions in Poland

Abstract This article investigates how democratic backsliding has affected Europeanizing gender equality institutions. It analyzes Polish public discourse on the Plenipotentiary for Equality, a policy agency that aims to promote and antidiscrimination. The traces its framing trajectories through European Union accession, until ultraconservative nationalist backlash in recent years. Post-2015, governments have mainstreamed anti-gender rhetoric as strategy legitimize systemic changes backsliding. I demonstrate discursive institutional linkages between Europeanization, democratization, allow not only progress, but can also lead opportunity moments