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Gender • Power • Eastern Europe - Changing Concepts of Femininities and Masculinities and Power Relations
The rise of right wing populist parties and conservative movements in Eastern Europe i , from Poland to Hungary and Russia, has dramatically affected discourses about and concepts of gender. The “turn to the right” ii has also ushered substantial shifts in policies concerning women’s rights as well as gender studies as an academic and educational project.iii Arguably, in some cases right wing political victory was facilitated by usage of anti-gender equality rhetoric (anti-genderism; anti-gender mobilization).iv These worrisome developments demand exploration in broader contexts. Yet, the situation in East European societies is quite diverse if scrutinized from a gender perspective. After the transformation process of the early 1990s, increasing participation and liberation of women in public spheres can be observed in various countries. Other countries like Poland and Hungary experienced setbacks at several points of their history and in diverse spheres of society. There, traditional gender roles re-entered the discourse and practice. In other countries again, new problems arose with political and territorial tensions. In Ukraine, for example, spaces of violence and war are forcing us to monitor gender roles, women’s rights, and participation from a new perspective. In Russia, Ukraine and Belarus strong antiauthoritarian protests are renegotiating gender roles and concepts in multiple ways v , and creating new potentials for feminist and LGBTQ movements.
Three thematic panels are planned:
1) The new conservativism and changing concepts of masculinity and femininity
2) Gender and participation in politics and economics
3) Gender, sexuality, and violence