Gender Justice Activism and Strategic Abeyance in Post-2020 Hong Kong

This article examines the post-2020 transformation of Hong Kong’s gender justice movement amid autocratization. Drawing on 20 in-depth interviews and public materials, it develops a profile-shaped framework of abeyance to demonstrate that political risks and adaptive possibilities are distributed unevenly across civil society. The study argues that, as a lower-profile sector, gender justice activism faces less direct repression, retains institutional space unavailable to higher-profile pro-democracy movement, and absorbs redirected civic energy. It then demonstrates how activists adapt through self-limitation, arena shifts, and reorganizing structures to exploit this tolerable position. This delicate navigation allows them to remain active without being reclassified as threats in the eyes of authorities. The findings offer broader insights into authoritarian governance, contemporary civil society survival, and movement adaptation in non-democratic contexts.