Women’s Rights in Liberal States: Patriarchy, Liberalism, Religion and the Frailty of Rights. Around the world, including in liberal states such as the USA, populist and conservative leaders use gender to generate moral panic and ensure the success of their bid for power.  These leaders portray the social construct of gender as an enemy of the so-called natural social order and use it as a symbolic glue to unify different right-wing, conservative, religious and nationalist strands and guarantee their combined political support. Liberals have been caught off guard as the aggrandizement of patriarchy and the opposition to women’s rights have become the engine of a right-wing populist revolution and rights of women that until recently have been deemed secure, nonnegotiable, and indelible are being restricted or denied altogether even in liberal states. The recent overturn of Roe v. Wade by the US Supreme Court is but one recent example. I will claim that an important reason for the success of right-wing populism and its attack on women’s rights even in liberal states is that there are significant ways in which patriarchy is embedded in liberal theory and practice themselves. By analyzing the ways in which patriarchy is thus embedded I will expose the weaknesses within liberal theory and within the practices of liberal states that enable religious conservatives and populists to wage a successful attack on women’s rights even in countries in which these rights are supposed to be the most secure. I will suggest ways to confront and resolve these weaknesses and strengthen women’s rights.