Gender and the Global Struggle Between Democracy and Authoritarianism

On April 22, 2026, Perry World House convened scholars, practitioners, and policy experts for a conference discussing “Gender and the Global Struggle Between Democracy and Authoritarianism.” It examined how gender, bodily autonomy, sexuality, and the politics of the family have become integral to the contest between democracy and autocracy.

The workshop originated from a core insight: gender is not a secondary social issue but rather a key element of democracy itself. Experts noted that debates over women’s rights, LGBTQ rights, reproductive freedom, gender-based violence and discrimination, and family policy are also debates over who belongs within a political community, who the state protects, who gets to participate, as well as whose rights can be sacrificed.

Across different regions of the world, authoritarian and illiberal actors increasingly leverage claims about so called “gender ideology,” traditional family values, children’s safety, demographic decline, parental rights, and national survival to mobilize support and justify restrictions on rights. According to experts, these claims help cement societal hierarchy based on ethnicity, language, race, gender, etc.—that supports the authoritarian project and erode democracy. These narratives translate abstract political conflict into intimate questions of family, identity, morality, and belonging. They make the consolidation of power sound protective. They turn hierarchy into common sense.

The workshop participants concluded that any pro-democracy movement that treats gender as peripheral will put itself at a disadvantage; defending gender equality and LGBTQ rights is integral to the protection of democracy.