Gender-progressive policies around the world are facing significant backlash. Gender justice activists and women’s rights organisations are having to mobilise quickly to counter these attacks.
The rise of racist, misogynist, populist and neo-nationalist governments, ideas, and political practices in the last decade has only further incited this backlash against gender-progressive policies. This is also leading to an increase in physical, verbal, and digital violence against women, those in the LGBTQI+ community, and human rights defenders.
This backlash is being challenged, documented, and researched by Countering Backlash and SuPWR – both hosted by the Institute for Development Studies – in several countries of Africa, Asia, Europe, and South America. Research of backlash against gender-equality policy gains in the focus countries include Uganda’s 2019 Sexual Offences Bill, Bangladesh’s Domestic Violence Act, and discrimination against transwomen in Peru’s labour market. They also look at Pakistan’s laws (and non-existent laws) about un-paid work for home-based women workers and India’s Shaheen Bagh protests.
This event for International Women’s Day 2023 discussed how organisations, informal collectives and individuals are standing up and fighting to protect and further gender-progressive policies. We were joined by those working in the midst of national and regional struggles in Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Uganda, and Peru.
By watching this event, you will understand the nature and source of obstacles that gender justice actors face, what it looks like in policy areas, and how they are attempting to counter this backlash.
Panel
- Maheen Sultan, Senior Fellow of Practice and Head of Gender and Social Development Cluster, BRAC Institute of Governance and Development (BIGD)
- Pragyna Mahpara, Senior Research Associate, BIGD
- Amon Mwiine, Researcher, Centre for Basic Research
- Zehra Khan, General Secretary, Home Based Women Workers Federation (HBWWF)
- Deepta Chopra, Research Fellow, Institute of Development Studies (IDS)
- Maria Grados Bueno, Post Graduate Researcher, IDS
Chair
- Sohela Nazneen, Research Fellow, IDS