When: Tuesday, 2 May 2023, 18:30
Where: Konferenzraum IPW (room A 222), University of Vienna, Department of Political Science, NIG, Universitätsstr. 7, 2nd floor, 1010 Vienna
Lecturer: Zuzana Maďarová (Comenius University, Bratislava)
Moderation: Eszter Kováts (IPW | University of Vienna)
Abstract
Since 2018, more than 20 anti-abortion bills have been introduced in the Slovak Parliament. While early bills talked about irresponsible women who kill children to pursue their careers, more recent ones have been presented as supporting pregnant women in difficult situations. Tracing the shifts in discourse and political support, this lecture provides insight into how the demand for the “protection of life” (similarly to the “protection of family”) comes to represent a set of diverse demands regarding cultural recognition, material redistribution, and political representation. Whereas the interpretation of efforts limiting sexual and reproductive justice (or other rights of women and LGBTQI people) usually emphasises the recognition issues, the Slovak case provides a more nuanced picture and invites us to examine the phenomenon of “anti-gender” politics as part of a complex alternative to the localised failures of the global neoliberal project.
