The Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda has evolved dramatically since the implementation of the first UN resolution in 2000, and its uptake is now widespread across states, international NGOs and transnational bodies. The academic literature around WPS has stressed the evolution of international liberal norms around gender equality as being related to this uptake. There has been less consideration of how we might explain support for the WPS agenda in contexts which are illiberal or strongly right-wing.   

In recent years, Brazil and Poland have elected governments which are sceptical of the liberal international order and strongly anti-gender. In both cases these political leaders have bolstered the pre-existing anti-gender offensive of religious and secular conservative forces and converted this into legislation and public policy. Yet, both have created National Action Plans around WPS. Why is this the case? Why have two governments which have strong reservations about international cooperation and see gender as an ‘ideology’ continue to work on the WPS agenda?  This paper draws on semi-structured in-depth interviews with policymakers and academics in Brazil and Poland to explore this puzzle. We argue that the WPS agenda has survived in these political contexts due to a combination of factors including – key ‘critical actors’ working both inside and outside government to further the agenda; the governments’ lack of knowledge and understanding of the agenda; and the symbolic power that the WPS agenda gives to these states’ international standing. As such, this paper will make a key contribution to the literature on the WPS agenda and the evolution of global norms around women’s and gendered rights.