do Czech Women Need ‘Gender’?: A Conceptual History of ‘Gender’ in Czechia

Abstract

In recent years, there has been a growing anti-feminist, conservative movement across many parts of the world known as the anti-gender movement. This movement has been especially strong in Central Eastern Europe, where anti-gender actors have framed ‘gender’ as a static, foreign concept imported from ‘the West’ and destructive to ‘traditional’ societies. Utilising a postcolonial feminist approach, I examine the concept of ‘gender’ in Czechia, drawing attention to the role played by Czech academics, activists and policymakers in negotiating the use of the term ‘gender’. This article traces the history of the term from the 1990s when ‘gender’ was first introduced to a Czech academic audience, through public seminars and lectures hosted by the Prague Gender Studies Centre, to the present-day inclusion of gender mainstreaming discourse in Czech policy documents. I reveal that ‘gender’ is not a timeless, clearly defined, fixed term wholly imported from ‘the West’ but rather a concept with a variable and complicated history. Thus, this crucial term, first developed in Anglo-academia, is not uncontested or uncritically accepted, contrary to the claims made by anti-gender actors. The findings presented in this article hold implications critical to transnational feminist dialogue and activism during the current period of growing global anti-feminist sentiment.

Gender and eco-domesticity: Are sustainable consumption and a return to the home emancipatory in Czechia?

“…This generation of contemporary mothers interested in eco-domesticity perceives feminism in its most visible form, as equal opportunities campaigns for greater representation of women in the public sphere, in paid jobs and politics, and gender mainstreaming in policymaking (Wilson-McDonald, 2023) which leads them to view it as being at odds with their position as homemakers and caretakers. There is no mention of feminism in Pravý domácí časopis.…”