ABSTRACT. The purpose of this paper is to provide a new theoretical perspective to understand anti-human trafficking policy by making visible the role of the state in shaping gender ideologies which influence the improvement of gender equality and women’s empowerment. In this paper, gender is being analyzed as a coherent institutional power relationship of the state, globalization, and civil society. This paper delivers two important messages. First, gender ideologies are the root of the state policy as they influence the way the state perceives gender roles, women’s identities, and the gender structures within a relation of the state and women in a given socio-economic, political cultural context. Second, as human trafficking is widespread in the global context, anti-human trafficking should be analyzed as a power with the state as the main actor regulating the power relationship with others including women, men, the market, and civil society. pp. 34–53

Keywords: state, gender, ideology, human trafficking, women, globalization, identity