Feminist Futures II Conference: Feminist Socialization
The conference will be held in German, but there will be live translations into English and Spanish.
To participate, please register here.
You can join the telegram channel of the conference for updates before and during the conference.
This event is held in cooperation with the Marie Jahoda Center for International Gender Studies.
You can find the full program here (and in other languages through the event website).
This description has been taken from the conference website.
Whether juggling everyday life tasks as a single parent or caring for relatives while on unemployment benefits, whether working to the bone in a hospital or helping to heal the wounds everyday racism inflicts within our communities — much like the violence that is done to our bodies and relationships — we all know: the world does not run on its own. We keep it running. And that is precisely why we are devalued. We are individualized and often even pitted against one another.
However varied our struggles may be, we are all faced with some common questions: who keeps the world going — and under what conditions? Who receives support and who doesn’t? Who has access to and control over whose labour, body, and time?
The hierarchical division of productive and reproductive labour is central to the devaluing of care work and is a load-bearing pillar of capitalism: by encoding care work as “feminine” and relegating it to the private sphere, labour costs are reduced and profits secured. Our labour is exploited in multiple ways, while vitally important common goods are privatized. This is not just about the economy. The binary gendered division of labour also reinforces violent patriarchal, cis-normative, and heteronormative gender relations. This affects FLINTA* people particularly harshly.
Our bodies are sexualized and subjected to racist and binary norms. In the crisis of capitalism, right-wing authoritarians the world over are declaring that there are only two genders, attacking reproductive rights, and attempting to reimpose traditional gender roles. The closing of borders and the relentless persecution of immigrants demonstrates just how far dehumanization has progressed, and that some lives are valued less than others. At the same time, cheap immigrant labour is recruited in attempts to stave off the healthcare crisis.
We know that liberation for all will only be possible if we act together to tackle the various intertwining forms domination takes.
Feminist socialization means challenging this global, gendered, and racist division of labour — and with it the devaluing and oppression of the very people whose labour makes life possible in the first place. We want collective care rather than the burden of care being forced upon the family, public infrastructure rather than neoliberal austerity, and solidarity rather than right-wing divisiveness.
How this might be achieved is what we plan to discuss together at the second Feminist Futures conference:
We are inviting groups and initiatives engaged in struggles around the politics of care work, against patriarchal and sexualised violence and femicide, or for queer and trans liberation, reproductive justice, and diverse ways of life. Come and join us in discussing anti-racist and internationalist perspectives in struggles for freedom of movement and abolition, against war and militarization, and for climate justice.
How can we better link up our various struggles? And what strategies does a queer-feminist and anti-racist movement need in times of rising authoritarianism? Let’s share our experiences, forge alliances, and take concrete steps toward a caring, solidary society.
For further info, contact feministfutures@rosalux.org.