Opposition to gender equality has gained new life with the rise of far-right political actors, connected to growing trends of democratic backsliding around the world. Misogynistic authoritarianism threatens to erode both global and national-level improvements in women’s and LGBTQ+ rights. However, these forces also attract substantial support from some groups of women, at the same time that some far-right parties have elected women as their leaders.

Challenging simplistic assumptions about the role of gender in these processes, this virtual special issue brings together articles published in Politics & Gender on gender, the far right, and democratic backsliding. Together, they examine what the rise of the far right, in the context of de-democratization, means for existing concepts and theories of gender and politics. They also signal what these developments mean in more tangible terms for women and the LGBTQ+ community around the world.

Exploring how gender connects to traditional left-right typologies in politics, O’Brien notes significant heterogeneity among right-wing parties in terms of their willingness to recruit women candidates and make policy claims on behalf of women. Campbell and Erzeel find that some rightist parties in Western Europe embrace liberal feminist ideals, but parties of the populist radical right overwhelmingly adopt traditional or antifeminist gender ideologies. Consistent with this finding, Christley highlights gender attitudes as a significant pathway to radical right support in Europe, noting that gender traditionalists are more likely to express support for the radical right.

Turning to the substantive impact on women’s and LGBTQ+ rights, Payne and Santos map how right-wing movements in Latin America seek to prevent women and the LGBTQ+ community from accessing equal rights through discourses centered on ‘moral worth’ and ‘family values.’ Arat suggests, in contrast, that ruling elites in Turkey have used women’s rights strategically to support authoritarian rule and promote a more conservative gender agenda.

Moreau connects global de-democratization, political homophobia, and homonationalism to make sense of the Trump administration’s simultaneous rollback of LGBTQ+ rights, promotion of anti-LGBTQ+ officials, and selective inclusion of certain queer subjects.  Presenting a more critical viewpoint, Rawłuszko argues that, when gender equality projects are linked to international commitments, concerns about citizens’ control of the state and its policies may foster anti-gender mobilization in the global context of state reconfiguration and democratic backsliding.

Addressing how gender might inform leadership dynamics, Linders, Dudink, and Spierings examine how radical right party leaders in the Netherlands position themselves in relation to gender, molding their masculinity and sexuality in various ways to fit in with radical right ideologies. Snipes and Mudde note that, while populist radical right parties are generally seen as particularly masculine and misogynistic, several of these parties have had female leaders. Studying the case of Marine Le Pen, they find that she benefits from competing media frames on gender and radical right populism.

Finally, in three book reviews, Mascat, Lombardo, and Thomson critically discuss a series of recent books on gender and far right policies in Europe and around the globe.

Please enjoy free access to all articles below until the end of November 2022.

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