A Political Opportunity: The Build-Up of the Colombian Campaign against ‘Gender Ideology’ in the 2016 Peace Plebiscite

After the 2012-2016 peace process between the Colombian government and the FARC rebels, influential right-wing leaders and anti-gender activists disputed the inclusion of gender equality in the peace agreement. These actors reactivated a national network that portrayed gender as a ‘threat’ to societal morals, and their ideas mobilized people to protest before the plebiscite elections. This article examines how the right-wing network built the campaign against ‘gender ideology’ to contest the peace agreement. Methods include archival creation with materials from anti-gender activists and a Senator, and 24 semi-structured interviews with participants of the peace negotiations and the plebiscite campaigning. Findings revealed that the right-wing network articulated three events as a political opportunity to build the campaign against ‘gender ideology.’