The politics of women’s rights in authoritarian conflict-affected states: backlash, gender-washing, or window of opportunity?

This paper explores how women’s rights norms are mobilized as political tools in authoritarian, conflict-affected contexts, drawing on examples from Sri Lanka and Myanmar. The dynamics and effects of women’s rights reforms in conflict-affected, authoritarian contexts can be diverse and multidirectional. However, previous research tends to be fragmented between research on illiberal anti-gender backlash mostly focused on Europe and the Americas; comparative politics research on gender politics in authoritarian regimes not focused on conflict settings; and feminist peacebuilding research paying insufficient attention to authoritarianism. Bringing together insights from these different fields of feminist research, we develop an analytical framework that aims to capture when and how the mobilization of women’s rights norms bring about gender backlash; the instrumentalization of women’s rights; and when windows of opportunity for gendered change are created. This framework can generate novel insights about how authoritarian governance shapes the conditions for women’s rights in armed conflict contexts. A better understanding of when and how women's rights reforms in such contexts can lead to positive change for women can both advance our theoretical understanding of a common type of conflict and peacebuilding context, and facilitate the design of more realistic and effective policy strategies to support the promotion of women's rights in conflict management and peacebuilding.