Gendered Authoritarianism Across the Atlantic: Anti-Gender Politics and Democratic Backsliding in Europe and the United States

Across Europe and the United States, gender and sexuality have become central fault lines in contemporary occurrences of democratic backsliding. This paper examines the rise of “anti-gender” politics as a transnational ideological project through which illiberal actors challenge liberal-democratic norms, pluralism, and minority rights. Bringing together political sociology and discourse analysis, it argues that gender is not a peripheral cultural issue but a key infrastructure through which authoritarian tendencies are normalised and legitimised. Calls to protect the “natural order”, motherhood, and the protection of children operate as symbolic resources that reframe political authority in familial and moral terms, legitimising exclusion, recentralising power, and marginalising dissent. Through the metaphor of the nation-as-family, gendered narratives bind together nationalism, religious conservatism, and authoritarian conceptions of democracy, while depicting feminist and LGBTQ+ claims as threats to social cohesion and popular sovereignty. These discourses circulate transnationally via conservative religious networks, think tanks, and digital media ecosystems, enabling their adaptation across distinct political contexts. The paper compares developments across the Atlantic, including the rollback of reproductive rights following Dobbs v. Jackson in the United States; the mobilisation of parental-rights movements such as Moms for Liberty; and European efforts to restrict gender education and LGBTQ+ visibility in countries including Hungary, Poland, and Italy. Particular attention is paid to how appeals to “family values” and civilisational decline are embedded in broader projects of democratic erosion and authoritarian governance. By situating anti-gender politics within wider transformations of legitimacy, authority, and resistance, the paper contributes to political-sociological debates on authoritarianism and democracy. It concludes by briefly considering emerging forms of feminist and democratic contestation, highlighting how struggles over gender reshape both the experience and the meaning of democracy under pressure.