Whose hands on our education? Identifying and countering gender-restrictive backlash

Around the world, gender-restrictive actors are organising to suppress gender-equality in schools. ALIGN’s review of the latest evidence reveals that anti-gender backlash in education is taking place from contexts as diverse as Afghanistan, Chile, Indonesia, Kenya, Pakistan, South Africa, Uganda, the US.

This ALIGN Report focuses on the activities of gender-restrictive actors and organisations who seek to promote a narrow vision of gender relations through the education system. The research shows that their influence is expanding efforts to entrench patriarchal social norms and a binary view of gender, and gaining ground across the globe.

Common aims and tactics include: to remove comprehensive sexuality education from schools, restrict girls access to learning, reinforce patriarchal gender stereotypes in textbooks and reject gender-inclusive policies in school environments. These groups are sustained by deep financial networks which drive effective strategies to amplify misinformation, provoke parental protests, and impose traditional family values.

Key messages:

• Gender-restrictive backlash in education is an accelerating trend happening all over the world. 
• Religious and conservative actors are increasingly well-organised, funded and effective in advancing their attacks on gender-equality through three critical pillars of education. These include: access (who gets to learn), curriculum (what students learn), and practices (educational laws and policies).
• The main battlegrounds of this backlash to in education include: restricting girls learning, comprehensive sexuality education, gender stereotypes in textbooks, gender-neutrality and sports participation.