301 European Journal of Gender and Politics • vol 1 • no 3 • 301–06 © European Conference on Politics and Gender and Bristol University Press 2018 Print ISSN 2515 1088 • Online ISSN 2515 1096 https://doi.org/10.1332/251510818X15395099754994 EDITORIAL Contemporary crises in European politics: gender equality+ under threat Petra Ahrens, petra.ahrens@uantwerpen.be University of Antwerp, Belgium, Belgium Karen Celis, karen.celis@vub.be Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium Sarah Childs, s.childs@bbk.ac.uk Birkbeck, University of London, UK Isabelle Engeli, i.engeli@exeter.ac.uk University of Exeter, UK Elizabeth Evans, elizabeth.evans@goldsmiths.ac.uk Goldsmiths, University of London, UK Liza Mügge, l.m.mugge@uva.nl University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands To cite this article: Ahrens, P., Celis, K., Childs, S., Engeli, I., Evans, E. and Mügge, L. (2018) Contemporary crises in European politics: gender equality+ under threat, European Journal of Politics and Gender, 1(3): 301-06, DOI: 10.1332/251510818X15395099754994 The optimism with which we launched the European Journal of Politics and Gender (EJPG) just a few months ago stands starkly juxtaposed with the direct threat against gender studies in Hungary and Bulgaria made at the time of the writing of this editorial in late summer. We had been absolutely confdent in our claim – and we convincingly demonstrated – that politics and gender as a feld was of sufcient size, diversity, quality and geographic reach to merit a new journal. EJPG would publish international research examining the structures, processes, actors and ideologies that produce patterns of political inclusion and exclusion, and hierarchies and inequalities (Ahrens et al, 2018). Such research would inevitably be critical – of traditional academic disciplines, of mainstream public debate and of extant power relations in society. Thus, we are rarely surprised to face disparagement and resistance to our scholarship, both within the academy and outside. That said, the blatant nature of Special Issue: Contemporary Crises in European Politics: Gender Equality+ Under Threat Unauthenticated | Downloaded 06/10/22 10:54 PM UTC