The Working Group (WG) proposes to continue addressing the persistence of gender inequalities that, in Latin America and the Caribbean, are determinants of life projects, particularly affecting the well-being of women and people of the LGBTTBIQ community, and more generally, of society as a whole.

Despite the significant body of knowledge accumulated on gender and dissidence, social and feminist movements, the state, and public policy, the advances and setbacks in the areas of rights and equality demand thorough theoretical and political reflection from an intersectional perspective. This reflection should generate knowledge and practices regarding the multiple systems of oppression that intersect and produce subordination and marginalization. Such reflection is even more crucial in the face of the rise of conservative governments whose platforms undermine the exercise of rights, particularly social and economic rights, and in the face of the proliferation of anti-rights and anti-gender groups that act in an organized manner against the expansion of rights for the population. In this sense, the increase in polarization, the concentration of wealth, and the conservative advance represent an attack on the very foundations of equality, as well as on the recognition and respect for individuals, their differences, and the diversity that nourishes gender studies in the region and the world.

In this third application, building on the work of previous editions, the Working Group seeks to continue debating the state of public policies and actions aimed at reducing gender inequalities in order to generate epistemological and political progress in the face of increasing socio-economic inequalities and the conservative onslaught in contexts of deepening neoliberal capitalism. To this end, the Working Group brings together researchers from different countries in the region, with diverse disciplinary backgrounds and empirical trajectories, with the perspective of continuing to promote broad debates on gender inequalities in light of shifts in Latin American politics. This new application proposes, on the one hand, a renewal of the Working Group's coordinating team with the participation of researchers from three member centers in two countries of the region (Argentina and Paraguay), and on the other hand, the incorporation of new members with diverse professional and generational profiles from different countries.

In Latin America and the Caribbean, the achievement of rights has not been progressive or linear, even under progressive governments. In light of the work and reflections of previous editions of the Working Group and the current economic, political, and social situation in the region, several tensions are evident, of which three These will be the focus of the proposal:

-Firstly, one observes a conservative advance This is expressed both in the rise of right-wing governments and in the design and implementation of public policies that repeal and dismantle previously won rights. This conservative advance, coupled with antifeminist rhetoric, poses a threat from the political and institutional sphere, jeopardizing the political practice of equality as the effective exercise of rights in everyday life. 

-secondly, the access to justice The rights of women and people from the LGBTIQ community are persistently hampered by barriers linked to structural knots in gender relations.

- Thirdly, uneven progress is observed in public policy regarding one of the constitutive elements of gender inequality, such as economic inequalities. There, the connections between the feminist and women's movement and the institutional gender agenda become a key area to explore further.

La first tensionWhat we have identified is expressed in the region through the conservative and fundamentalist advance of movements, practices and conceptual shifts embodied by a broad spectrum of anti-rights groups. According to the Report by the Observatory on the Universality of Rights on trends in human rights (AWID, 2017), this anti-rights mobilization is international in scope and is an organized and articulated response to the advance of feminist and progressive mobilizations and the gains achieved in previous decades. These conservative actors also articulate their political projects in dialogue with the advance of neoliberalism in contexts of adjustment policies and the influence of multilateral credit organizations in the region. In this context, there has been an increased presence of counter-movements rooted in religious groups, both in the streets and within the institutions of representative government (executive, legislative and judicial powers). Among religious groups, both groups linked to the Catholic Church have been activated, as well as, novelly, with increasing intensity, evangelical groups belonging to various pastoral ministries (Snow et al, 2006, Hirsch-Hoefler and Mudde, 2013; Dillard, 2013). It is therefore necessary to construct a map of actors and mobilization strategies, as well as to investigate the arguments of these groups in the face of the demands of feminisms and LGBTIQ collectives with special emphasis on sexual and reproductive rights, and abortion.  The advance of the conservative-religious right in Brazil, embodied in the Bolsonaro government (2019), registers multiple homophobic manifestations, in favor of “morality” and the defense of family values ​​with a strong attack on comprehensive sex education as a right. In the Argentine case, there is also an increase in the political practices of anti-rights groups of various religious orientations with political-institutional influence and mobilization in favor of "family", "life" and against sexual and reproductive rights and comprehensive sex education. In the case of Peru, there is also an advance of a conservative religious right wing that seeks to challenge the meaning of the expansion of rights. In the case of Paraguay, there has been a growth in anti-rights and anti-gender actors in the last decade, and their activism and connection with political power has managed to stop the approval of laws on discrimination, women's rights and LGBTIQ, and consolidate the anti-rights and anti-gender positioning of national and local government bodies. Although each case has its own specific expressions, the tensions share significant conceptual and political connections. In Mexico, the growing irruption of neo-Pentecostals in a political endeavor that prided itself on being secular is beginning to stand out (Delgado-Molina 2019). These groups have formed a conservative coalition together with important sectors of the Catholic Church. This can be observed in the activism deployed in favor of legislation against abortion (led by pro-life groups) in 19 of the 32 states of the Republic (Zaremberg and Guzmán 2019). Finally, in the insular Caribbean, specifically in the Dominican Republic, there has been a strengthening of the conservative right in the country in recent months; the most conservative sectors of Dominican business, together with the Catholic and Evangelical Churches, have carried out anti-gender demonstrations and public campaigns.

Within this tension, we propose to address the strategic use of the symbolic polyvalence of rights, whose variation depends on the actors and their historical and political contexts. These contexts have allowed for improved possibilities for women's legitimate political action, but have also been used to limit freedoms and autonomy over their own bodies, as well as to explore the connections and tensions between the rights and interests of women and children. Finally, the proposed review suggests that the achievements of women's rights depend on the contradictory and fragile interplay between liberal principles and aspirations for equality. 

El second point of tension This is linked to the persistence of barriers and obstacles to access to justice for women and LGBTQ+ people in the region. Despite the regulatory advances in some countries, obstacles persist due to multiple factors, including: the absence of feminist perspectives on rights and judicial processes; the androcentrism and homophobia inherent in judicial systems; and the lack of an intersectional perspective that accounts for the multiple systems of oppression that obstruct access to justice. While legal frameworks are central as a legal and policy foundation, it is essential to continue reflecting on the need to engage in processes of collectively constructing new frameworks of meaning and institutional transformation, with particular emphasis on the political and relational dimensions of the capacities through which the State, in dialogue with women's, feminist, and LGBTQ+ movements, can contribute to the development of democratic, inclusive, and pluralistic gender relations.

La third tension The issue we propose to address concerns the region's socioeconomic inequality, the persistence of poverty, and the increasing polarization and concentration of wealth within the framework of increasingly exclusionary growth. In this context, situating one of the fundamental aspects of gender inequality—women's difficulty in accessing economic autonomy—immediately leads us to propose a deeper examination of the gendered division of labor and the unjust social organization of care work, as well as the concentration of power and hierarchical relationships in the public sphere. For women, there is a vicious cycle between monetary poverty and time poverty. For men, regardless of income level, there are almost no differences, since they share a model of masculinity that transcends social classes.

From a rights-based and gender equality perspective, the current sexual division of labor becomes a public policy challenge in order to overcome the barriers to women's economic autonomy. In this context, the distribution of time use is key to understanding and analyzing the impact of gender roles and relations on inequality, thus making visible the intensity of the current sexual division of labor's effect on inequality. It is also necessary to quantify the time allocated to different types of work and other activities, as well as the differential demands and gendered territorializations of the labor market. The sexual division of labor and gender roles become obstacles from an early age for girls to exercise their rights as children and adolescents. The increase in jobs based on digital platforms and applications, the robotization of jobs, and other work based on the development of ICTs—which in some discourses appears as "the promise of the future of work"—must be questioned both as a form of precarious employment and as a way to deepen gender inequalities.

Therefore, we propose to advance in mapping the public policy actions being carried out by the various levels of government in the region. In the conservative context described above (first and second tensions), mapping public policy actions will also involve observing how setbacks in the gender institutions that guide these policies deepen gender biases in the socioeconomic inequalities evident in profoundly exclusionary growth models.

The Working Group's starting point is that gender equality refers to the full and effective exercise of economic, social, political, and cultural rights. This implies a broad approach to public policies and sociopolitical processes linked to the multiple agendas that affect the rights of women and LGBTIQ people. Full equality implies achieving social and economic redistribution, as well as political and symbolic recognition of identities and rights denied and rendered invisible by structural and cultural barriers. Furthermore, the new generation of public policies, known as reparations It reconfigures the field of public action itself by recognizing historical discrimination and exclusion of indigenous peoples, seeking to compensate for the damage caused.

Furthermore, the emphasis on gender equality, in the current context, includes a concern for difference and the corresponding rights to diversity. Equality and difference, two pillars of the gender perspective, are actively engaged in dialogue within a conservative context that clearly attacks both premises simultaneously. Restricting the right to difference implies a reduction in aspirations for equality, and vice versa.

This Working Group proposes to deepen the line of work initiated in previous periods, examining the absence of specific, comprehensive, and intersectional policies, the directionality of state interventions and their contradictions regarding gender messages and actions, and also the resistance of actors with the political will to roll back hard-won rights. The current economic, political, and cultural context, marked by the rise of conservative governments, presents a scenario of political and economic struggle that requires observation and analysis in order to formulate proposals for action and public policy.

In recent decades, civil society in the region has achieved recognition of sexual and reproductive rights (SRHR) as human rights for all people through advocacy strategies within government bodies, the United Nations system, and global and regional human rights organizations. Meanwhile, the opposition seeks to erode the legal framework of human rights with an offensive focused on women, the LGBTQ+ community, and civil society organizations working to promote SRHR. They threaten the secular nature of the state, SRHR, and reforms to legalize abortion, and in this sense, they advocate for significant influence and action on public and social policies.

This Working Group proposes a critical perspective based on empirical research that challenges current concepts surrounding the State, public policies, and the political processes and dialogue between the State and feminist movements, women's organizations, and LGBTQ+ groups. This critical perspective involves acknowledging the power asymmetries in the dynamics of actors and institutions, recognizing that the State is a multifaceted and contradictory (and not monolithic) entity, and that gender equality agendas are fragmented across different social arenas.

The GT will guide its activities based on a series of questions:

· What new heuristic tools are needed to understand the tensions in the different gender equality and diversity and rights agendas established in the region? 

· How are resistance practices configured in response to the demand for gender policies aimed at women's economic autonomy?

· What are the theoretical and practical contents of feminist resistance to the extractivist development model in the region?

· How to investigate the dialogue between the State and feminist and diversity movements, for the debate on public problems related to gender inequalities?

· What strategies are effective against the onslaught of conservative groups who, from positions of growing political influence, attack fundamental rights of the gender and LGBTQ+ agenda?

· What heuristic tools are needed to explore the points of convergence and divergence between feminist knowledge and practices and public policy actions?

· How to investigate the knowledge that makes up the competence of the legal field from the “extra-legal” practices and knowledge derived from the reflections and practices of the feminist and women's collective?

· What are the institutional capacities that should be strengthened to build public policies for equality with an intersectional perspective?

· What would be the new forms of collective action that would foster inclusive actions or alliances between different actors in favor of equal rights?

How does the gender equality agenda become strained when it is integrated with other social inequalities? What roles do the various actors involved in social protection play in these tensions? How do these tensions manifest in different specific scenarios, such as child protection?

To address these questions, the Working Group assumes that the public sector is heterogeneous, as are its gender messages. The Working Group proposes examining the different gender institutions that coexist within the State and exploring the contradictions this entails for rights agendas and public policies on gender and diversity, which aim to ensure substantive or real equality as an outcome.

In turn, the effort to dismantle the oppression of women, which manifests itself in the political, social, economic, and cultural spheres, is a challenge for women's organizations, feminist movements, and social groups advocating for equal rights. The process of women's subordination at its various social intersections demonstrates an enormous capacity for perpetuation, requiring multiple institutional and regulatory measures, discursive tools, and collective actions for its transformation. In this direction, the Working Group proposes to reflect critically on pro-equality social movements, their available capacities, their potential for aggregating interests and representation, and their capacity to construct inclusive discourses that address the multiple manifestations of inequality. It also aims to identify the forms and content through which feminisms confront hegemonic socio-economic policy models and seek to transform power imbalances at the state and public policy levels. 

The GT has been working for two previous periods and seeks to consolidate its profile; the researchers possess a deep network of academic and public policy connections and trajectories of social activism that made the GT a network of synergy of efforts and capitalization of experiences.