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 six 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.
resource
Journal Paper
Revisting Feminist Advocacy
Awino Okech, Sohela Nazneen

This special issue seeks to critically explore the diverse strategies utilised by feminist advocacy to advance gender justice rights, present the interests of the historically oppressed, and offer feminist and decolonial approaches to the workings and operations of mainstream advocacy, largely led, funded, and deter-mined by the politics of the Global North. […]

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Voice, Research
resource
Journal
Al-Raida Journal: Countering Backlash Vol. 49 No. 1 Special Issue
Myriam Sfeir, Miguel Mendelek

This special issue includes cross-regional perspectives and offers readers a unique comparative advantage in understanding the transnational and interconnected nature of Vol. 49 No 1 Special Issue (2025) anti-feminist movements, as well as some strategies for resisting them. […]

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Patriarchy, Policy, Voice, Research, Lebanon
resource
Working Paper
‘The Constitution is our only Weapon’: Resisting and Countering the Assault on the Citizenship Rights of Muslim Women in India and Uttar Pradesh
Shraddha Chigateri

This research from GenderSphere documents and analyses what assaults on the Muslim community in India over the last several years mean for the citizenship rights of Muslim women. […]

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Policy, Research, India

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