A WOMAN following the news these days can be forgiven for wondering what century she is in. Sexist policies are proliferating globally, and the political discourse in many countries is defined by increasingly regressive messaging about women. This trend should not be dismissed as a niche women’s rights issue. Instead, it must be understood as a warning sign of democratic erosion.

Anti-women narratives are appearing in various garbs: growing calls for state control over reproductive rights; laws with weak or poorly enforced punishments for sexual harassment and violence; policies that stymie women’s ability to work or vote; and the promotion of women’s traditional roles with­­in families, particularly as mothers, refra­med as a strategic response to demographic crises facing some developed countries.

Those following the US election know that even after former US president Donald Trump’s failed assassination attempt, the fight over reproductive rights arguably remains the key electoral issue.

On the other side of the world, China’s Third Plenum last week highlighted the country’s gender inequality challenges, largely through the absence of women in the Community Party’s leadership. The failure to mention the role that women’s economic participation can play in boosting GDP was notable. China under Xi Jinping has suppressed women’s rights, both through crackdowns against feminist movements and softer messaging encouraging women to stay home and procreate.

Anti-women narratives are appearing in various garbs.

The return of women’s issues to the political centre stage is not surprising. Women’s bodies have long been political battlegrounds, their rights an easy frame through which to consider contentious politics. In the context of intense political polarisation, a position on gender matters becomes shorthand for a broader political narrative or value system signalling, which can help populist candidates win the allegiance of disparate constituencies that may disagree on material issues but are united in patriarchy.

Women’s bodies become politicised because women themselves continue to be excluded from the political space, including in supposedly evolved democracies such as the US, where the poorest women and those from marginalised backgrounds face rampant disenfranchisement.

But anti-women political narratives are not only about gender exclusion, they are also a litmus test for democratic resilience. Research conducted by Erica Chenoweth and Zoe Marks in 2022 identified a correlation between increasingly authoritarian regimes (Xi in China, Putin in Russia, Trump in the US) and an uptick in patriarchal oppression.

Chenoweth and Marks argued that as pro-democratic social movements (often with high female participation) arose to push back against authoritarian figures, a “patriarchal backlash” became a key way to prevent mass movements from mobilising. Marks explained that “they seek to minimise women’s equal rights as citizens and frame it as niche ‘opposition’ or identity politics; and they centre masculinity and male breadwinners’ status as the key indicator of the nation”. In sum, where women’s issues are politicised, authoritarianism likely lurks.

More prosaically, the more you hear about women, the less you hear about other issues that matter: cost-of-living crisis, public service delivery, economic growth, social welfare, climate resilience, etc. Politicians talk about women’s bodies because they have little to offer on the substantive issues. This creates a credibility gap that itself breeds more distrust in the democratic system.

Toxic anti-women narratives also breed a vicious cycle that will further wea­k­en democracies, possibly irreparably. Here’s why: women’s participation in the democratic process (thr­ough voting or po-

litical participat­i­­on) is known to strengthen democracies. This is not only because women’s participation is fundamentally inclusive.

It is also because when women vote, they tend to prioritise issues, such as education, healthcare and social welfare. As Hina Shaikh put it in a blog on Pakistan’s 2024 elections for the International Growth Centre, “when more women vote, it can lead to growth in welfare and redistribution expenditures by the government. Women’s participation … is fundamental to the functioning and legitimacy of democracy”. Sadly, anti-women political narratives will ultimately suppress women’s political participation, and so undermine democratic functioning as a whole.

It’s therefore time to move away from emotive political discourse about women’s issues, particularly without their participation in the debate. The emphasis, instead, should remain on women’s emancipation, whether through grassroots activism or political participation. That’s the only way to end up with democratic, inclusive societies in which everyone wins.

The writer is a political and integrity risk analyst.

X: @humayusuf

Published in Dawn, July 22nd, 2024