Gender equality under attack: How the UK government should respond internationally

April 2026

Briefing: Attacks on gender equality, the rights of women and girls in all their diversity and wider LGBTQI+ communities are accelerating globally. These attacks are not isolated or reactive but driven by coordinated, well-organised, and well-funded anti-gender actors who are frequently the same forces pushing broader regressive policies that promote nationalism, xenophobia and economic inequality.

This briefing sets out an overview of how rollback of gender equality and rights has manifested globally, explores who is coordinating this backlash, and traces how this emergency is intricately linked to broader regressive political agendas. It calls on the UK government to urgently use its influence to protect gender equality and advance the rights of women and girls internationally. We present specific recommendations for the UK to take a coherent approach in multilateral engagement and action across its diplomatic posts abroad. Four principles are proposed to guide the UK’s action: resistance rooted in challenging the structural causes of inequality; action across all international negotiations; alliances that are grounded in an understanding of coloniality; and meaningful consultation with women’s rights organisations and feminist movements.