Major political and social shifts are resulting in new forces and alliances that are visibly pushing back, stifling the possibilities of equal women’s rights and gender justice.

Gender justice
is under attack.

How can we counter
backlash together?

What is needed for women’s rights organisations and gender justice defenders to counter backlash and the subtle erosion of gender transformative discourse, policy, and practice?

A five year global research programme to
Share diverse experience and knowledge
Build new knowledge of these complex phenomena
Identify strategies to counter backlash
Engaged research and capacity building across networks and strategic partnerships.
Partner countries
Brazil.Bangladesh.
India.Kenya.Lebanon.
Turkey.Uganda.
Short-term research countries
India.Pakistan.
Serbia.Turkey.

What's Happening?


Gender justice is increasingly contested the world over. Yet, equity across the genders is a critical foundation of human rights and sustainable development.

Backlash wages against the possibilities of transformative gender justice. To counter it, we must understand its diverse manifestations - from the subtle to the spectacular, the hidden to the explicit.

Solidarity, collaboration, and co-creation are the greatest tools in the box to mutually resist and counter coordinated and global attacks on gender and social justice.
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Podcast mini-series: Gender Justice – episode 1

Countering Backlash in association with CREA is working with the ‘Stand Up Collaborate and Listen‘ agency, and their podcast ‘Connecting Citizens to Science’, to explore the intersecting challenges of rising patriarchal backlash, silencing of marginalised voices and resistance in the […]

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Event: Understanding Discourse Capture in Anti-Gender Politics

Countering Backlash researcher Tessa Lewin is speaking at Stellenbosch University about the concept of ‘discourse capture’ as a analytical tool to help us understand the nature of contemporary anti-feminist and anti-queer politics. This is a concept that grew from an […]

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Partner Event: WOUGNET at the Digital Rights and Inclusion Forum 2025

Countering Backlash partner WOUGNET are hosting a session at the Digital Rights and Inclusion Forum 2025, 1 May, on Reclaiming Gender Justice in the Digital Age: Countering Backlash and Advancing Digital Rights and Equity’. The global progress towards gender equality is […]

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