In the context of the WIDE+ series: “COVID19 and care: feminist reflections on a new normal”, this online webinar reflects on how authoritarian regimes and elites are using the insecure and uncertain situation during the pandemic to advance the state’s monopoly on the use of force, militarization and de-democratization to further marginalise and exclude part of the population, downgrading women, indigenous people, LGBTIQ people and poor classes to secondary citizens with high risks to their livelihoods and lives.
Poland is an outstanding example how the state instrumentalised the COVID19 crisis to adopt a strict abortion law against the declared will of the majority of its female citizens. In El Salvador there was a further militarisation and instrumentalisation of women. In Indonesia and India new labour laws were introduced to accelerate the economic recovery at the cost of labourers. At the same time, women report that these drastic measures of securitisation and surveillance do not provide them with protection in the frequent cases of sexualized violence. In Ghana, the pandemic has also impacted the undermining of LGBT+ rights.
The COVID19 pandemic has highlighted one of the main tenets of feminist economics, namely the central place of care for societal and economic wellbeing. This webinar series addresses the gendered impact of COVID and recovery measures on the unpaid & paid care, global care chains and women’s rights including sexual and reproductive rights.
The third webinar is moderated by Christa Wichterich, a researcher, activist and author that is currently also teaching at the University of Kassel.
Speakers
- Jennifer Ramme will speak on the Polish state’s attack on and curtailing of women’s sexual and reproductive rights, its anti-feminism and re-traditionalisation of gender roles in the framework of familism.
Jennifer Ramme is researcher at the European University Viadrina (Germany) and Collegium Polonicum (Poland) and member of the Institute for European Studies (IFES). She has widely published on sexual and gender politics, right-wing populism, familism and familist nationalism, LGBTQ* and feminist movements and protest in Poland. Some of her publications, is the coedited volume about feminist mass-mobilizations in Poland: “Bunt Kobiet. Czarne Protesty i Strajki Kobiet 2016-2018” [Female Revolt. Black Protests and Women Strikes 2016-2018]. Her public engagement includes documenting activities (e.g. interviews, photography, film) for a the online Social Unrest Archive and the Our Common Cause series: https://
- Roxana Calderon covers the further militarisation and the instrumentalisation of women to cope with social tensions and social costs in El Salvador.
Roxana Calderón is a master’s student of Global Political Economy and Development at the University of Kassel, Germany. Originally from El Salvador, Calderón counts with over 10 years of work experience in multinational corporations and development agencies. In her current studies, she has focused mainly on researching issues of Political Economy in Latin America, particularly those of migration, presidential regimes and North-South power relations. The central point of her research is within the feminist paradigm, for the most part on Global Care Chains of Central American Migrants.
- Kartika Manurung will talk about the new labour, taxation and land grabbing laws in Indonesia that were pushed during COVID while criminalizing protests, and the re-traditionalization of gender roles that has also impacts on sexual and reproductive rights.
Kartika Manuring is a feminist, activist, scholar who had been involved in pailm oil wokers organizing work in Indonesia since 2008. She has worked with international trade unions, rural women organizations, and human rights initiatives in accordance to support the right of workers, land rights of the peasant and indigenous people; principal human rights for all. In 2018 studied in Germany on MA Labour Policies and Globalization study. She is a member of FBLP Trade Union (Federasi Buruh Lintas Pabrik – Inter-Factory Workers’ Federation) and SBPI (Serikat Buruh Perkebunan Indonesia – Palm Oil Workers’ Trade Union). She has worked with Watch Indonesia! e.V Berlin (February – September 2020), member of AG Resourcen (organized by AsienHaus, Koln) and the steering committee on Transnational Palm Oil Labour Network (TPOLS).
- Roslyn Mould will speak about the ways in which in Ghana LGBT+ Community and activism has been affected during this pandemic.
Roslyn Mould is a board member of LGBT+ rights Ghana. She is currently also a board member of Humanist International, a global network for humanists. As President of Humanist Association of Ghana she helped to build the young group to become the umbrella organization for non-religious groups in Ghana and the biggest allies to the LGBTI+ community and feminist movement in Ghana. She has been a member of the Humanist Association of Ghana since it was founded in 2012; from 2015 to 2019 she was its Organizing Secretary, President and Council Member. She was Secretary and Chair of the Young Humanists International African Working Group from 2014 to 2019 and she was recently elected Coordinator for the West African Humanist Network. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Linguistics and Modern Languages.