Thirty years after the International Women’s Conference in Beijing, where the international community committed itself to, among other things, true gender equality, an end to sexual violence against women, and greater political participation of women, many of these achievements or their implementation are now being questioned or reversed.
Jerker Edström, who heads the Countering Backlash programme, was interviewed by Welt-Sichten’s Melanie Kräuter, and explains how such setbacks occur and who is driving them. In the interview, Jerker speaks to:
The causes of backlash
Who the driving forces behind them are
Why backlash groups rely so heavily on traditional values and outdated gender roles
Why the regressive backlash movement is so popular
Our ‘Cards Against Backlash: Forwards to a Feminist Future – Strategies for Surviving and Countering Gender Backlash’ draws on real-life tactics from our programme but individuals and organisations have been anonymised to keep them safe. These inspiring strategies are based on our struggles. […]
O material informativo para jornalistas e comunicadores/as sobre Violência Política de Gênero e Direitos Reprodutivos. A cartilha é resultado do curso de extensão realizado no âmbito do projeto de pesquisa “Combatendo a ocorrência, reivindicando justiça de gênero”, do Núcleo de Estudos Interdisciplinares sobre a Mulher (NEIM/UFBA).
O material informativo busca contribuir para a cobertura de questões relacionadas à violência política de gênero e aos direitos reprodutivos, que nesta semana estão ameaçados pelo PL 1904, que equipara ao homicídio o aborto de gestação acima de 22 semanas. Mobilizações de mulheres e pessoas com útero ocuparam as ruas das principais cidades brasileiras para se contraporem ao PL.
Participaram da produção do material, estudantes reivindicando o BEGD que realizaram estágio no NEIM, no projeto Combatendo a ocorrência, fazendo justiça de gênero, sob supervisão da professora Dra. Maíra Kubik Mano.
Gender backlash is continually gaining momentum across the globe, and social and political institutions and policies are being dismantled. Gender justice activists and women’s rights organisations are having to mobilise quickly to counter these attacks.
With speakers from Bangladesh, Uganda, Lebanon, Serbia and India, in this official NGO CSW68 event we asked, ‘how is gender backlash weakening institutional contexts for gender justice globally?’ Speakers discussed: stalling and lack of implementation of the Domestic Violence Prevention and Protection Act (2010) in Bangladesh; the infiltration of conservative religious and political actors in democratic institutions in the context of Serbia and neighbouring countries; anti-feminist backlash as institutional by default in Lebanon; and the legislative weakening of institutional contexts in Uganda, examining Acts which exert control over Civil Society Organisations.
When
11 March 2024
Speakers
Pragyna Mahpara, BRAC Institute of Governance and Development (BIGD)
Sandra Aceng, Executive Director, Women of Uganda Network (WOUGNET)
Nay El Rahi, Activist and Researcher, Arab Institute for Women (AIW)
Nađa Bobičić, Researcher, Center for Women’s Studies Belgrade (CWS)
Santosh Kumar Giri, Director, Kolkata Rista
Jerker Edström, Research Fellow, Institute of Development Studies (IDS)
Countering Backlash’s Jerker Edström joined Satish Kumar Singh on the Azad Foundation’s ‘Masculinities in focus’ podcast to discuss ‘Politicising masculinity and its politics in the global context‘. They unravel the politicisation of masculinity and its wide-ranging implications for politics, gender equality, and power relations in the global context, in a discussion moderated by Mr. Shrinivas Rao, National Lead, Azad Foundation.
Recent years have seen a rising concern over the politicisation of masculinity impacting global politics. Masculinities politics often emphasises traditional gender roles, maintaining male dominance in politics. This manifests in the underrepresentation of women in leadership and the perpetuation of gender stereotypes promoting male dominance and aggression. Additionally, the politicisation of masculinity is evident in populist movements and nationalist ideologies, relying on exaggerated hyper-masculine narratives that create a toxic political environment, reinforcing stereotypes and undermining gender equality.
This episode aims to delve deeper into the politicisation of masculinity and its global implications, explore strategies for mobilising resources to engage with men amid the current dilemma with feminist organisations, and recommend a way forward for civil society actors.
Despite a rich cultural tradition of gender-fluidity, the transgender community in India have been stigmatised as a ‘criminal tribe’ through a colonial-era law. The community has struggled for their rights over decades, and only after significant engagement with the judiciary were they finally counted in the population Census of 2011.
The Supreme Court of India ruled in 2014 that transgender persons had the right to self-identify as male, female or a third gender. It also brought into law that the constitutional rights to life, dignity and autonomy would include the right to a person’s gender identity and sexual orientation. The government then brought in the ‘Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act 2019 (TG Act)’, and issued the Rules in September 2020, which are used to enforce the act.
But the transgender community has seen little change, and still face discrimination in everyday life.
Re-watch the discussion with Countering Backlash about reclaiming trans rights in India, and how individuals and organisations unsettling the patriarchy and patriarchal masculinities.
Join Countering Backlash for the fourth session in the ‘Countering Patriarchal Backlash against Gender Justice’ Ubuntu Symposium. This will be an interactive space for reflecting on experiences of anti-feminist backlash in our own contexts, and how to explore strategies to support feminist movements in countering backlash.
Facilitators: Sinead Nolan (Chair) with Jerker Edström and Chloe Skinner.
Reflecting on insights from previous sessions on backlash, this penultimate session of this series creates an open space for conversation among participants to share practical strategies used in different contexts and begin to collectively consider some concrete steps that members of the MenEngage Alliance can take to build on and link with efforts from other gender justice movements to counter backlash.
The format involves two rounds of breakout room discussions with some three-to-five participants per breakout room, interspersed with an opening, two feedbacks and a closing in plenary. Key outcomes of the session will feed into the final plenary of the series on 1 June tying together the series and proposing ways forward for the Alliance, as per the commitment in the Alliance’s new strategic plan for 2021-24.
