Garak doesn’t give a shit about gender, only secrets.

Even a Cardassian like Damar eventually puts the logic together to realize that all the racism he and his fellow Cardassians were doing to Bajor, well, it ended up happening to them via the Dominion. You can almost watch the realization towards the end of S7 of DS9 where he realizes he will need to lead a resistance movement, which had previously contributed to the downfall of Cardassian occupation of Bajor.

To miss the message of that show, even if you watch it from a Pro-Cardassian standpoint, takes real work. The themes are served to you on a silver platter for the taking.