News & Stories

Gender under Threat

Posted Mar 04 2019
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A panel on "Gender Under Threat" brought together a diverse group of online and offline gender activists.
A panel on "Gender Under Threat" brought together a diverse group of online and offline gender activists.

“In some places the very survival of the gender academy is threatened,” said Professor Yasmine Ergas, addressing students who had gathered to hear about the recent global attacks on gender advocacy.

Despite the crush of midterms, all the chairs in the 15th floor lecture room were filled, with students tucking themselves in between large coats and bookbags. In a departure from the typical SIPA event, organizers projected a screen on the wall to loop in countless others joining online.

The unique event on “Gender Under Threat,” held February 26, was coordinated through the combined efforts of the Gender Policy Working Group, the Gender and Public Policy specialization, Women and Gender in Global Affairs Network, and Spectrum, SIPA’s group for LGBTQ and allies. The presence of these organizations and others highlighted the cross-cutting nature of the issues raised by various participants.

Bringing together a diverse group of online and offline gender activists, the aptly titled panel event explored how illiberal and authoritarian regimes are influencing the space for gender advocacy and academia. Speakers considered how people can understand the hyper politicization of gender, the rollback of gender-policy implementation, the shrinking space for advocacy and advocates, and the attacks on the academic spaces for gender.

Joining Ergas were online and offline panelists: Marianna Muravyeva, professor of Russian law and administration at the University of Helsinki; Etuna Nogaideli, an LGBTQ rights advocate at Kvinna till Kvinna, Georgia; Vladimir Tlali MPA ’19, who is also an activist in Mexico; and Gabriela Cano, a visiting professor at Columbia and former director of the gender studies program at El Colegio de México.

After a brief presentation by Ergas, each panelist shared an overview of their background and the ways in which the changing political climate had taken root in their work and communities.

Muravyeva opened with an explanation and a tryptic framework in which to make sense of the most recent attacks on women’s rights in Russia by looking at: the economic crisis, political ideology of populism, and women working with the far right. That is, the ways in which the political elites had connected a neoliberal backlash and economic problems to an almost nostalgic harkening to traditional gender roles and expectations. She was quick to point out that these values and stringent expectations for women’s positions in society are often pushed by populist leaders and women that many times fail to embody the same archetypes they project on Russian women. Furthermore, these values and criticism of LGBTQ rights are packaged as pushback against western and American culture which has corrupted the pure “Russian” traditions.

Nogaideli expanded upon this sentiment, laying out the ways in which right wing and religious groups in Georgia implement these policies through appropriations and confusions of histories, traditions, and holidays. She especially referenced the Georgian Orthodox Church’s movement to appropriate May 17, an important day of celebration for LGBTQ rights, as a religious holiday that promoted traditional family formations.

Bringing out the transnational issues around gender identities, Tlali spoke about the current LGBTQ rights activism in Mexico within the context of migration and human rights. For him, it was important to note that within Central America, there are rarely safe spaces for LGBTQ individuals.

“The life expectancy for a transgender women is 35 years,” he said. Contrasted with the overall population’s life expectancy of 77 years, the statistic underscores how gender expression can be extraordinarily deadly for many.

Cano echoed some of the difficulties mentioned by Tlali, also speaking about the Mexican context. This is because, despite having recently elected a leftist government, the coalition between progressive parties and more traditional religious groups has meant many liberal causes like LGBTQ rights and public services that benefit women have been left out of the new administration's platform. In fact, the defunding of state funded care centers plays directly into the neoliberal playbook even while it has a more leftist face stamped on it.

The event concluded on a hopeful note: While it may be a difficult time for the practice of advocacy and study of gender, the crowded room and the panelists calling demonstrated the energy that is already going into thinking about ways in which to create new openings for policies and cultural transformation.

— Alexandra Feldhausen MIA ’19