Under Threat in Europe: Democracy, Feminisms and Women’s Rights
18 June 2025 | 17.00 – 18.30 CET
Part of a new webinar series: Feminist resistance and alternatives for Europe’s uncharted future
Watch the recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8fGWUpoV0k
Feminisms, women’s rights and diversity have come under strong attack in Europe, not only by far right and ultra conservative forces but increasingly by the politics of the so-called democratic center of European societies.
In this webinar we want to outline from a feminist perspective three democratic areas under threat in three European countries, and ongoing struggles:
- in Poland – the never-ending struggle for sexual and reproductive rights
- in Hungary – the strategic defence of freedom of opinion by civil society groups e.g. CSD-groups
- in Germany – the resilience against the attack on academic freedom that uses the fight against anti-semitism as pretext to disrupt gender, diversity and other critical studies
The webinar will be opened by Silke Steinhilber, who will provide an introduction to the topic and the webinar. Silke is an activist researcher and independent consultant on transformative feminist policies.
Moderator:
- Edme Dominguez R., Associate Professor in International Political Economy and Gender and Coordinator of the Gender and trade group in WIDE+.
- Silke Steinhilber is an activist researcher and independent consultant on transformative feminist policies
Speakers:
- Antonina Lewandowska, sociologist, researcher and activist from Poland
- Melani Barlai, researcher at Andrássy University Budapest and co-founder of Unhack Democracy from Hungary
- Christa Wichterich, a feminist sociologist, university lecturer, author and scholar-activist from Germany
Practical information:
- Date: 18 June 2025
- Time: 17.00 – 18.30 CET
- Format: Online on Zoom
- Registration: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_XCiGrIWzSk2xN4l4zIMWFQ#/registration
The webinar will include a presentation on each country by the respective speaker as well as a Q&A session opening the space for a collective discussion.
The launch of a new collective feminist space
This webinar is part of the WIDE+ webinar series: ‘Feminist Alternatives for Europe’s uncharted future’.
The launch of the series was marked by the first webinar on 20 May: ‘With Gender Equality Deconstruct Sport towards Social Health’, followed by ‘Gendered Crossings: Feminist Perspectives on Borders, Racism, Violence and Survival’ on 9 June.
After the summer, the series will continue with another round of webinars.
Stay tuned for more information!