Populism and antigender politics in Peru: From civil society to electoral sphere

Abstract

Popular support to antigender politics that emerged in the last years in several countries of Latin America has been explained mostly in terms of the entry of religious actors in the political system. Based on an analysis of antigender activists' and politicians' discourse in Peru, it is argued that building political representation vehicles around the rejection of the concept of gender constitutes a new expression of populism in Latin America. The new populisms use gender as a central concept in their discursive strategy. In Peru, the trajectory of antigender politics shows its origins in civil organizations and a rapid entry into the elec-toral sphere. The construction of populisms centered on value conflicts shows the need to widen the analytical framework on antigender politics beyond the relationship between reli-gion and politics. Keywords: gender, politics, populism, electoral sphere, Peru.