ANTI-GENDER REGIMES, FEMINIST POLITICS, AND THE CHALLENGE OF SOCIETAL DEMOCRATIZATION^*

Democracy is an ongoing process that involves society as a whole, not merely politics. Anti-gender politics challenges democratization in all areas of society. Therefore, a gendered theory of society capable of grasping the broader social logics of anti-gender politics is needed to understand the latter's challenges to societal democratization. Gender regime theory, in Sylvia Walby and Mieke Verloo's conceptualization, is proposed as the macrolevel theory of society that enhances our understanding of the gendered social relations that transnational and national anti-gender forces envision in their anti-democratic project of society. The analysis of anti-gender politics in the domains of economy, polity, violence, civil society, cathexis, and episteme, their interactions, and hegemon dynamics allows for an understanding of how anti-gender politics manifests in the different domains and how opportunities created for anti-gender projects in specific domains contribute to the development of “anti-gender regimes” and hinder societal democratization.