The activities of the Working Group (WG) "Families, Genders, and Diversities" and its continuation in the WG "Anti-Patriarchal Struggles, Families, Genders, Diversities, and Citizenship" have been underway since 2013. The arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic and the political events in the region during the implementation of the first work plan reaffirmed the importance of the topics addressed, and especially the focus on families. Legal changes in several countries (the most recent being the Cuban Family Code) and the emergence and consolidation of organizations and movements linked to a critique of the patriarchal system in everyday life also highlighted the importance of the issues that gave rise to the Group. On the other hand, the spread of neoconservative positions critical of a supposed "gender ideology," the adoption of measures restricting the rights of women and LGBTTIQ people by States, and the increase in violence in everyday life (mainly femicide) reveal the resistance from the patriarchy-capitalism-colonialism articulation and its intention to restrict sexual, political, cultural, and economic citizenship in the face of the risk of not having key sources of its reproduction as a system.

The relationship between the public and private sectors faces persistent and emerging tensions and demands surrounding human rights and the rights of women and LGBTQ+ people. This occurs within a context of entrenched authoritarian neoconservative discourse, which has made the fight against so-called "Gender Ideology" its primary crusade. This discourse attempts to reverse the democratizing advances that exist—albeit unevenly—in some spheres, including gender, diversity, generational, and family relations. Of particular importance is the pro-life and pro-family offensive expanding in the region, fueled by anti-gender rhetoric from the alliance between Catholic and Evangelical churches and conservative sectors.

Therefore, addressing the relationship between patriarchy and neoliberalism responds to the need to develop critical thinking from the Global South and from subaltern groups, enabling us to confront a model whose elements mutually reinforce each other and deny diversity at the micro, national, and global levels. In some countries of the region, there are formal, fictitious liberal democracies that can be encompassed by the term illiberal regimes (a phenomenon that has deepened in other international contexts) (Graff and Korolczuk, 2017; Peto and Grzebalska, 2016; Moghadam, 2018). Their governments implement neoliberal policies; many oppose human rights and the rights of women and LGBTTIQ people, repress mobilizations for the recovery and demand of more rights (Di Marco, 2019), and grant impunity to patriarchal violence (Choque, 2021).

On the other hand, in Latin America and the Caribbean, diverse and interconnected feminist identities have been developing, with permeable and interrelated boundaries that challenge the traditional view of the feminist subject. In the region, feminist movements and the broader women's movement, LGBTTIQ movements, some men's groups, and the strong activism of adolescents and young people demand the legalization of abortion and recognition of diversity. Since the emergence of the Ni Una Menos (Not One Less) movement in 2015, they denounce violence against women and feminized bodies, as well as femicides, and mobilize for public policies while also expressing criticism of the existing state.

This is possible due to the emergence of diverse, pluralistic, and democratic collective identities that arise from a multiplicity of territories through horizontal and rhizomatic relationships, from local and global networks and articulations, both face-to-face and in cyberspace. The most distinctive feature of these movements is their situational context; they do not adhere to a canonical feminist conception, nor to the gender mainstreaming of international organizations (Di Marco, 2019). Currently, the persistent feminist struggle for the expansion of sexual, political, economic, and cultural citizenship and the democratization of family relations is having a stronger impact on emancipatory discourses that, until recently, were blind to feminist theories and practices.

Democratization is a concept that can encompass these demands by covering micro-social, national, and global levels. For a long time, its study focused primarily on its political aspects, neglecting the frameworks for producing meanings of subjective appropriation in everyday life, in the private sphere, which are permeated by frequently naturalized power imbalances. The democratization of the private sphere and the politics of the subordinate are part of an approach to the construction of popular subjects. This is central to understanding the emancipatory potential of multiple social relations, including family and generational ones, where gender, sexuality, and power are at play. For example, in recent years the “emergence” -in the terms of Hannah Arendt (1958/2003)- of adolescent girls and young women, who embraced the legalization of abortion and the end of violence and femicides, in multiple forms of activism, contributed to feminist struggles and the rejection of neoliberal policies.

The demands were emerging from different generations, sexualities, territories, social classes, and ethnic groups. They encompass sexual rights, with a non-essentialist discourse on sexuality that does not link it to reproduction (Di Marco, 2012; Pecheny, 2007). These new actors are demonstrating en masse in public spaces, taking to the streets, and engaging in activism through social media. They are debating social reproduction, the concept of work, care work, and the link between gender-based violence and economic violence.

It is necessary to investigate how and in what way these movements expand, or fail to expand, a field of politics that is no longer restricted to the public sphere but encompasses all social relations. Taking to the streets in demonstrations and activism in different spaces have a transformative potential for identities. Contingently, processes of dislocation occurred in discourses about bodies, compulsory heterosexuality, motherhood, caregiving, and families, leading to a radicalization of demands in the struggle against patriarchy and the traditional forces that sustain it—culturally, religiously, politically, and economically. The debate on the legalization of abortion, in the countries where it could be conducted openly, legitimized its practice in public opinion and further strengthened the demand for the separation of church and state.

Finally, the need for state presence and the role of public policies has recently been brought back into debate, especially in the current regional electoral landscape, where there is a sense of confidence following the rise of progressive coalitions to power. It is important to highlight the actions and omissions, protections and lack of protection, that shape the context for family relationships; their potential for well-being and fulfillment, as we expressed in newsletters and other publications of this Working Group within the framework of the previous work plan (Spasiuk, Giraldo, and Di Marco, 2020; Di Marco, Patiño, and Giraldo, 2015).

Feminisms are a field of collective social transformation, constructing common, albeit sometimes opposing and conflicting, predicates that are debated in the public sphere. Theoretically, the "agenda-setting" process is problematized, which implies starting from the premise that it results from the articulation and struggle of interests that unfold in diverse spaces and cannot be conceived outside of political practice. An agenda, then, can be seen as a moment, a turning point in the political agreements that, in our case, feminisms, can dynamically develop. Therefore, this Working Group will analyze the interrelation of illiberal governments and neoliberal economic policies in the region within institutional and political contexts, and their impacts on daily life, gender relations, and family relationships.

It will pay special attention to certain problems, strategies, and public policies from a feminist perspective of citizenship and democratization that address social relations—those susceptible to democratization—not only those mediating between the State and civil society, but also those established within all types of institutions—families, schools, workplaces, and public institutions—and on all levels: political, social, educational, cultural, economic, and technological (Hopenhayn, 1993; Di Marco, 2009). Therefore, it is necessary to approach the level of analysis of the macro-social public sphere and political democratization with new references and concepts that allow us to identify egalitarian social relations and institutions, and above all, the construction of counter-hegemonies resulting from the articulation of anti-patriarchal struggles, understood as expressions of radical democracy and left-wing populism (Mouffe, 2018; Laclau, 2005; Di Marco, Fiol, and Schwarz, 2019). Boaventura de Sousa Santos (2006: 52-53) distinguishes six space-times in which six fundamental forms of power are generated: patriarchy; exploitation; unequal differentiation; commodity fetishism; domination; and the world given by unequal exchange. Furthermore, he states: “If we are trying to make a new political theory, a high-intensity radical democracy, we know that it will only be through democratizing all spaces (…). So, my definition of democracy is: to replace power relations with relations of shared authority” (2011:20).

In this context, new forms of articulation and new identities demonstrate the potential of alternatives that allow us to reflect on the expansion of democratization processes in Latin America and the Caribbean and to analyze anti-patriarchal struggles in the region as strategies of social resistance against conservative and authoritarian political discourses and practices based on the so-called "gender ideology." The aim is to build and disseminate knowledge about families, genders, and diversities from a feminist, intersectional, and transdisciplinary perspective, considering the advances and setbacks of the work carried out in the two iterations of the Working Group on Families, Genders, and Diversities, based on a broad view that is aware of contingent processes.

Hence our purpose of addressing the issue of changes in family relationships from the perspective of democratization (which is gaining increasing strength in feminist discourses and social policies that previously had not considered them in all their complexity and interdependence), which implies the deployment of demands for gender and diversity rights, which confront the fundamental principles of the liberal state, which are based on the assumption of neutrality; understood as the denial of the existence of social inequalities of various types, now redefined by what has been previously stated based on the pandemic and other events that occur in this context in the region (legal reforms, calls for constitutional reforms as in Chile, the Family Code in Cuba, among others that are being developed with advances and setbacks).

Therefore, the tension between political liberalism, feminism, and justice underscores the importance of developing a critical theory of equality that, from a feminist perspective, analyzes the construction and reproduction of sexual difference, as well as the systems of domination and oppression that define access to citizenship. It is precisely within the context of struggles and strategies developed with other movements and political identities at national and transnational levels that the articulation between anti-patriarchal and anti-neoliberal movements aimed at expanding citizenship and sexual, political, and economic rights becomes strategically important. Another of our concerns is investigating the subjective and collective impact of right-wing discourses that restrict and limit feminist demands and exacerbate the patriarchal model. This occurs within a context of emerging policies implemented to comply with changes in marriage legislation and the recognition of diverse identities in several countries of the region. These policies acknowledge the existence of different forms of relationships and rights, contributing to denaturalizing the dominant order and highlighting the fact that there is no single valid model of family relationships. Despite the formal empowerment of these individuals and their rights, it is worth asking how and to what extent this recognition is effectively implemented in practice, and how it contributes to expanding processes of social democratization. What is the role of the state in these democratization processes? What actions and omissions arise from public policies in our Southern Cone countries when viewed comparatively? It is necessary to generate well-founded knowledge about the ruptures and continuities that exist in our local contexts and in the region.

One dimension to consider is care policies, which became visible during the pandemic, highlighting the private and familial nature of care that continues to be predominantly a matter of family responsibility even today. This is an important aspect to consider when thinking about the meanings that processes of socio-familial democratization and anti-patriarchal struggles acquire in each time and place. In our societies, care is neither recognized nor valued, under the implicit assumption of its absence or minimal involvement of costs and efforts on the part of those who provide it. The relevance of this issue is reflected in its centrality to daily life, gender relations, sexualities, power and authority within family relationships, and the deeply rooted representations of care as naturally feminine and unquestioned, within the persistent absence we have observed on state agendas. This point is raised because it connects to another area of ​​interest: studying violence against women, children, and feminized bodies in spaces that are currently attracting the attention of academia and policymakers. These constitute new challenges, such as the right to the city, linked to the possibility of moving about safely and with full security, and the appropriation of public space (Di Marco et al., 2022). The Working Group has explored this topic in depth during this 2019-2022 phase and plans to continue this work, given that violence manifests itself in diverse ways and in various spaces (both within and outside institutions).