2-го марта 2018 в 17.00 в рамках регулярного семинара программы «Гендерные исследования», состоится выступление Марианны Муравьевой «Анти-гендерные движения и неолиберализм: нужно ли женщинам больше прав?» (Do Women Need More Rights?: Anti-Gender Movements and Neoliberalism). Адрес проведения: Европейский университет в СПб: ул. Шпалерная, дом 1, ауд. 429.

После январской демонстрации 2013 года в Париже, где протестующие против однополых браков несли плакаты «Стоп гендер» и «Стоп гендерной идеологии», эксперты и ученые начали серьезно анализировать открытое сопротивление гендерной повестке дня, которое теперь наблюдалось не только в Восточной Европе и России, но и затронуло Францию, Италию, Испанию и другие старые страны Евросоюза. В ряде стран, антигендерные движения получили поддержку правительства, в ряде стран они, наоборот, принадлежали к оппозиции официальной политике национального правительства. Россия оказалась среди стран, открыто поддерживающих антигендерную повестку дня. В докладе анализируются причины и последствия проведения политики «традиционных ценностей» в связи с экономическим кризисом и политикой жесткой экономии.

Семинар пройдет на русском языке, подробнее на английском языке:

In January 2013, France saw one of the largest protests in recent history, the demonstration against same-sex marriage. Some of the protesters held banners saying ‘Stop gender’ or ‘Stop gender ideology’. The notion of ‘gender ideology’ was seen as a symbol of moral crisis. Since then, similar demonstrations have been occurring in other European countries, heavily sponsored by the religious and conservative pro-life pro-family groups. In a number of countries, these movements have been supported by national governments who assumed ‘traditional values’ as their new moral ideology. Gender theory has been criticized as a ‘power tool’, used by supranational bodies (such as the UN) to promote alien value systems via education and public programs, aiming at destroying traditional (local) value system.

Deconstructing gender theory became a central point for anti-gender movement activists and some religious and conservative intellectuals (such as Tony Anatrella or Gabriele Kuby) thus recognizing the powerful effect of gender theory as an academic discourse on public and private life. In this presentation, we examine the ‘fight for knowledge’ in respect to ‘gender’ as a category and methodology, that involved activists, intellectuals, scholars and legislators, and how affected public decision-making.

Following the ideological fight against gender, some of those anti-gender movements exhibit signs of being the response to the politics of austerity. Using Russia as a case-study, we will focus on how Russian government does not hesitate to challenge human rights regime and gender equality, easily shifting the blame on leftist ideologies, primarily on feminism, now responsible for poor demography, health and family instability. Using ‘traditional values’ concept as a cover-up for increasing austerity measures, the government dwells on short-term solution strategies. However, this shift to conservative public discourses has not been easily accepted by Russian population, mostly women. There is clear resistance on behalf of various social groups, including women. This resistance, though, is not taking the familiar form of public protests (however, protests have been taking place as well) but rather a form of withdrawal from public space to minimize dealings with the state, a strategy familiar from the Soviet experience of resistance. Therefore, on the surface, Russian public discourse seems to be dominated by officially promoted ideologies, which does not mean that the society just accept or follow or even implement those eagerly. At the same time, there is a clear tendency to follow supranational austerity measures by cutting public spending, amending social security policies, privatizing care and forcing women to return to the double-burden situation of the Soviet type of social contract by openly attacking feminist ideologies, gender equality and human rights. In this situation, Russian NGOs, especially those with human rights and gender-sensitive agenda, need more subtle strategies to deal with public policies, starting at the local government level.

Marianna Muravyeva is a Professor of Law at the National Research University Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Russia, and incoming Professor of Russian Law and Administration at the University of Helsinki. Her research is interdisciplinary bringing together history, social sciences and law to examine long-term trends and patterns in social development with a special focus on normativity, gender and violence. Some of her most recent projects focus on family violence (violence against parents and domestic violence), the history of crime (homicide and, particularly, femicide), legal history, gender history, and history of sexuality. Professor Muravyeva co-chairs Women and Gender Network of the European Social Sciences History Conference and a founding member of the Russian Association of Women’s Historians (RAIZhI). She has published extensively, including edited volumes Parricide and Violence Against Parents throughout History: (De)Constructing Family and Authority? (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2017), Domestic Disturbances, Patriarchal Values: Violence, Family and Sexuality in Early Modern Europe (New York: Routledge, 2015); Women’s History in Russia: (Re)Establishing the Field (Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2014); Gender in Late medieval and Early Modern Europe (London and New York: Routledge, 2013); Shame, Blame, and Culpability: Crime and Violence in the Modern State (London and New York: Routledge, 2012) and numerous articles and books chapters.