The Gendered Politics of Illiberalism

In this article we review the multi-disciplinary literature on how gender is implicated in illiberal and authoritarian-leaning politics as well as how illiberal political regimes impact gender justice. While a large body of literature is dedicated to the analysis of the so-called “antigender” discourses adopted by illiberal politicians, less is written about how these are translated into policy and institutional change. We identify two key policy areas where illiberal leaders have been particularly active and innovative: in reregulating aspects of reproduction to suit their ethno-nationalist, pronatalist agenda and in reshaping knowledge production around the concept of gender. We argue that policy and institutional change in these two areas is particularly relevant for the process of gendered dedemocratization. While both discourse and policy change are important to understand the gendered nature of illiberal rule, we need more information on how gendered illiberalism actually reshapes society and gender hierarchies.