Assessment of existing survey data on gender and disability, gender and ethnicity, gender and migration

Work Package 5 (WP5) of the PushBackLash project investigates how intersectionality is mobilized and contested within anti-gender discourses in Europe and beyond. The report analyzes the intersections of gender with disability, race and ethnicity, and socio-economic status; assesses
existing survey data for their capacity to capture intersectional inequalities; and examines the instrumentalization of gender-based violence in national and transnational contexts. Finally, it considers how Romani and disability feminist activists in Hungary and Poland articulate and respond to intersectional inequalities in practice.
The report draws on qualitative case studies (Task 5.1), cross-national survey analysis (Task 5.2), comparative research on femicide in Mexico and Germany (Task 5.3), and in-depth interviews
with Romani and disability feminist activists (Task 5.4). Together, these approaches demonstrate
how anti-gender and anti-minority discourses strategically silence or distort intersectional
inequalities, and how activists develop alternative frameworks for recognition and justice.
Crucially, the report brings these strands together to show that intersectionality is not merely absent
from mainstream discourse and data collection, but often actively appropriated and inverted by
illiberal actors. Task 5.1 highlights how Hungarian and Polish political and media narratives
weaponize family, migration, and abortion debates to discredit gender equality while rendering the
structural inequalities of Romani women and refugees invisible. Task 5.2 demonstrates that even
robust survey programs, such as the European Social Survey, lack consistent tools for capturing
overlapping forms of discrimination, contributing to structural invisibility at the level of data. Task
5.3 extends this picture to transnational contexts, showing that while Mexico recognizes femicide
in law but fails to enforce it, Germany under-recognizes it entirely, leaving patriarchal and
racialized patterns unaddressed. Finally, Task 5.4 shows that despite these systemic erasures,
Romani and disability feminist activists in Hungary and Poland are generating alternative
narratives and solidarities that reframe stigma as political critique and propose new models of
intersectional justice.
By weaving these strands together, WP5 underscores the systematic nature of intersectional
invisibility: what appears as a gap in discourse, data, or law is rarely accidental, but often the
outcome of deliberate strategies that benefit from exclusion. This recognition is vital for
understanding why intersectional inequalities persist despite decades of feminist activism and why
surface-level reforms (e.g., recognition without enforcement, or inclusion without participation)
rarely translate into substantive change.
The overarching takeaway is that sustainable progress on gender equality and minority rights
requires moving beyond siloed approaches. Policies, surveys, and activist strategies must be designed to account for overlapping forms of inequality rather than treating gender, race, class, or
disability in isolation. This deliverable demonstrates not only the risks of ignoring intersectionality
but also the opportunities that emerge when marginalized voices are centered in research, activism,
and policy design