Gender as Tactic in Autocratic Politics

This project aims to improve our understanding of the logic behind and the reactions to the multifaceted ways in which autocrats instrumentalize gender. Scholars have shown that authoritarian governments use gender strategically in distinct ways.

On the one hand, there is an increased trend of “anti-gender mobilization” in which autocrats speak to specific interests and constituencies by opposing (certain) gender equality issues. On the other hand, autocracies reap specific rewards by actively supporting gender equality policies.

However, a limitation of previous research is that the two strategies have not been analyzed together even though they occur simultaneously.

Instead, work on autocracies’ adoption of gender equality policies and research on gender policy backsliding have largely operated in silos.

This project addresses this shortcoming by integrating the two different approaches to gender into a common framework and analysis, in which we take both causes and consequences of the strategies into account.

By doing so, we ask, first, when or under what circumstances do authoritarian countries support or oppose (certain) gender equality policies? Second, we ask: How do different audiences react to policy advances and setbacks within the area of gender equality?

Addressing these questions in an era of autocratization is pivotal because it helps us better understand the distinct ways in which gender is used in autocrat tactics – and whether these deployments work.