“Gender ideology” narratives are increasingly present in public discourse and policy-making spaces,
posing a significant threat to human rights. The malleable concept of “gender ideology” casts
advocates of gender and social justice as illegitimate proponents of a nefarious agenda.
For decades, feminist scholars and advocates have articulated important concepts related to gender
to understand and challenge oppression and discrimination. Those concepts have now become
the target of anti-rights actors who claim that oppressive patriarchal gender roles are “common
sense”, strategically painting all other ideas, cultural norms, and forms of social life as a dangerous,
conspirative ideology.
