Ideological, useless, and harmful? Neoconservatism and the triple threat to gender studies in Latin America

Since the 1970s, gender studies have become a consolidated field within Latin American academia, marked by a continuous and critical dialogue with feminist and LGBTIQ+ social movements. However, this institutionalization is currently under an unprecedented and multifaceted attack. This article analyzes the contemporary offensive against university gender studies in the region, arguing that it transcends traditional academic resistance. We posit that these attacks are the result of a renewed political and cultural alliance between traditional “pro-life” and “pro-family” religious sectors and emerging far-right political forces. This neoconservative bloc has effectively mobilized the discourse of “gender ideology,” transforming it from a religious critique into a central pillar of a broader culture war. To understand the depth of this phenomenon, we identify three interconnected discursive registers through which this offensive operates: the epistemological, which denies the scientific status of gender studies by labeling them as ideological; the utilitarian, which dismisses them as unproductive and irrelevant to economic development; and the political-moral, which frames them as a form of “indoctrination” that corrupts youth and destroys the family. This triple strategy of delegitimization serves to justify concrete policies of defunding, institutional dismantling, and academic persecution.