In recent decades, we have seen significant progress in achieving gender equality and advancing human rights. However, this progress has sparked a coordinated and growing backlash that threatens to undermine the hard-won gains made by women.
Anti-gender movements are mobilizing to restrict the rights of women, LGBTQIA+ communities, and other groups.
This backlash appears in various forms, such as attacks on reproductive rights and attempts to undermine democratic governance and civil liberties. Alarmingly, these movements are gaining traction and a veneer of legitimacy at an increasing rate.
But this is not the full story.
Across the globe, movements for equality are rising with equal determination. Feminist networks, LGBTQIA+ advocates, youth coalitions, progressive policymakers, and grassroots organizers are pushing back, creating alliances, defending rights, and reimagining a more inclusive future. Their work reminds us that progress is not linear but persistent.
Backlash Unfiltered: a podcast pushing forward rights and equality
This is a podcast series by the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD), launched as part of our ongoing commitment to gender justice and inclusive development.
As an autonomous UN research institute since 1963, UNRISD focuses on the social dimensions of development—examining power, politics, and equity through interdisciplinary research and global partnerships.
Our mission is to support transformative change by placing inclusion and justice at the heart of sustainable development.
Through grounded, in-depth conversations with leading scholars, activists, and policymakers, this series explores the rise of anti-gender movements, the historical and geopolitical forces behind them, and how they are reshaping institutions and public discourse, with significant global repercussions on social development.
More importantly, this series is not just about understanding the backlash—it is about resilience, reimagining a more just future, and inspiring new strategies for coalition-building and progressive action.
The podcast releases new episodes monthly. The first 5 episodes reveal how these movements operate, adapt, gain influence, and how advocates are pushing forward for a more just and inclusive future.
Backlash Unfiltered helps us stay alert — not only to what’s at stake, but also to what we still have the power to achieve.
A call to action
The backlash is real, but so is the momentum for equality.
Listen to Backlash Unfiltered. Share it with your community. Use it in classrooms, workshops, and policy discussions. Support those on the front lines. Challenge disinformation. Elevate diverse voices. Reclaim the narrative.
Because in the end, defending human rights is not about holding the line, it’s about redrawing it, together.
Read the full article on the UN Today website.
