Konwersatorium, wtorek, godz. 13.30-15.00, Kolegium Heliodora Święcickiego, Grunwaldzka 6, sala 046

The idea of the course stems from an observation that a concept of linear historical progress marked by increasing gender equality and piecemeal but inevitable dismantling of patriarchal hierarchies is far from being an adequate description of reality, both in Western and non-Western societies. While in many spheres of social life gender equality has been a significant achievement of emancipatory movements, we have been simultaneously witnessing diverse political, cultural and economic processes that have undermined it and contributed to establishing new forms of hierarchy and dependency. Among the most important factors responsible for these processes one should mention so called „return of religion” (especially in its politicized and neo-traditionalist variants), implementation of the neoliberal economic policies (involving the dismantling of the welfare-state and privatization of social reproduction), resurgence of nationalism (with its hierarchical gender models) as well as different forms of rejection – both practical and intellectual – of the Enlightenment values that have been a basis of progressive movements, including feminist ones. The goal of the course will be to analyze these multiple processes and to examine a number of cases illustrating the anti-egalitarian backlash that takes place in Western as well as non-Western societies. During the course we will refer both to theoretical and empirical studies from the fields of history, sociology, political science as well as philosophy and cultural studies.


Recommended reading:

  • Faludi, S. (2006). Backlash: The undeclared war against American women. New York: Broadway Books.
  • Scott, J. W. (1986). Gender: A Useful Category of Historical Analysis. The American Historical Review, 91(5), 1053–1075.
  • Kelly, J. (1986). „The Social Relation of the Sexes. Methodological Implications of Women’s History”. in: Women, History, and Theory. University of Chicago Press.
  • Oyěwùmí, O. (1997). The Invention of Women: Making an African Sense of Western Gender Discourses. University of Minnesota Press.
  • Zahia Smail Salhi (2010) „The Algerian feminist movement between nationalism, patriarchy and Islamism” Women’s Studies International Forum, 33, 113–124.
  • Korolczuk, E., Graff, A. (2018). Gender as “ebola from Brussels”: the anticolonial frame and the rise of illiberal populism. Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, 43(4), 797–Scott, J. W. (1986). Gender: A Useful Category of Historical Analysis. The American Historical Review, 91(5), 1053–1075.
  • Kelly, J. (1986). „The Social Relation of the Sexes. Methodological Implications of Women’s History”. in: Women, History, and Theory. University of Chicago Press.21.
  • Moghadam, V. M. (1995). Gender and revolutionary transformation: Iran 1979 and East Central Europe 1989. Gender & Society, 9(3), 328–358.
  • Kimmel, M. (2017). Angry white men: American masculinity at the end of an era. London: Hachette (fragments).
  • McDowell, L. (1991). Life without father and Ford: the new gender order of post-Fordism. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 400–419.
  • Fraser, N. (2009). Capitalism, Feminism, and the Cunning of History. New Left Review, 56, 97–117.
  • Datta, N. 2018. “Restoring the Natural Order”: The religious extremists’ vision to mobilize European societies against human rights on sexuality and reproduction. the European Parliamentary Forum on Population & Development. https://www.epfweb.org/sites/epfweb.org/files/rtno_epf_book_lores.pdf
  • Kuhar, R., and D. Paternotte,  (Eds.). 2017. Anti-gender campaigns in Europe: Mobilizing against equality. London, New York: Rowman & Littlefield International.
  • Catherine Rottenberg (2014) The Rise of Neoliberal Feminism, Cultural Studies, 28:3, 418-437.

Additional:

  • Novel: Atwood, M. 1986. The Handmaid’s Tale. Everyman’s Library Classics, London, New York: Penguin.
  • Films: The Handmaid’s Tale (TV Series 2017), Mrs. America (HBO mini series 2020).