PERSPECTIVE Haley McEwen(April 2026) Anti-Gender World Building: Reflections from CSW70 Summary Anti-gender movements are well-funded, coordinated networks aiming to weaken civil and human rights, reinforce sex/gender hierarchies, and bring about an alternative international order. CSW70 confirmed that progressive actors possess significant understanding of their opponents’ tactics and resources. This knowl­edge must be translated into coordinated action that is bold enough to match the scale of what we are fac­ing: a world-building project that seeks to construct a global order founded on hierarchy, exclusion, and the institution of anti-democratic norms. Introduction The 70th session of the Commission on the Status of Women(CSW70) took place at a moment of intensifying contestation over gender equality, women’s rights, and LGBTIQ+ inclusion worldwide. It was consistently noted that this year’s gathering was notably smaller than in pre­vious years, a contraction that reflects the broader shrink­ing of civil society space around gender equality and human rights. The collapse of official development assis­tance and funding, the outbreak of active armed conflict following US-Israeli strikes on Iran just days before CSW convened, and the sweeping US travel and immigration ban affecting nationals of nearly 40 countries meant that many advocates, scholars, and civil society representatives could not even reach New York. These overlapping challenges were also points of discus­sion at side events and in the corridors of the UN. 1 There was a significant degree of recognition that actors opposed to gender justice are mounting coordinated campaigns, in multilateral arenas, national legislatures, and across digital and traditional media in ways that go far beyond episodic resistance. During CSW, one of the most significant stories unfolding was the US delegation’s forced proposal of a ↗ draft resolution defining»gender« strictly as binary(male and 1 Observations are based on points raised during the side event, Strategic Responses to Backlash against Gender Justice and Women’s Rights, convened by the Friedrich­Ebert-Stiftung and the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development in partnership with UNAIDS, and the German, Finnish, and UK permanent missions to the United Nations in New York as well as general debates during CSW70. Anti-Gender World Building: Reflections from CSW70 1