Globalizing Gender Norms in the Twentieth Century: Opportunities, Challenges, and Impact of International Feminism Before and After World War II

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Globalizing Gender Norms in the Twentieth Century: Opportunities, Challenges, and Impact of International Feminism Before and After World War II

Organizer
Regula Ludi / Brigitte Studer; in cooperation with Edith Siegenthaler and Elife Biçer-Deveci (SNSF-Research Project “International Gender Policies of the Interwar Era”), Universities of Bern and Zurich
Venue
UniS, Room A019, Universität Bern, Schanzenstrasse 1, CH-3012 Bern
Location
Bern
Country
Switzerland
From - Until
13.06.2014 -
Website
By
Edith Siegenthaler, Historisches Institut, Universität Bern

The interwar period and the years following World War II were an era of prolific debate about women’s rights and gender justice. Framed through the language of legal equality, feminist demands in the 1930s gradually entered mainstream internationalism and, after 1945, resulted in the advancement of women’s rights within the UN system. But this move was not uncontested. Many denied that gender relations were an issue of international concern. Governments considered efforts to generalize women’s rights standards as a violation of domestic jurisdiction, whereas feminists endorsing special protection for female workers and mothers saw a threat to international labor standards in the rise of egalitarian claims.

In recent years, research has paid growing attention to these early efforts to spell out international standards regarding gender relations. This research has revealed stunning continuities between interwar women’s rights advocacy and the emerging international human rights system after World War II. It has also shed new light on the impact of interwar feminism on postwar ideas of gender equality, for instance, through its inclination to privilege legal approaches and encourage a juridification of the struggle for gender justice. These results invite reflection and open up new paths for future research. It is the goal of this conference to discuss the significance of interwar feminism for the international gender regime of the postwar period in the light of new research on internationalism, human rights history, and women’s rights advocacy.

Programm

9.30 Brigitte Studer, Institute of History, Univ. of Bern: Welcome Address
Regula Ludi, Institute of History, Univ. of Zurich: Introduction

10:00-11.00 Susan Zimmermann, Central European University, Budapest: Night Work for White Women, Bonded Labour for Colored Women? The International Struggle on Labour Protection and Legal Equality, 1926 to 1944

11:15-13:00 Panel 1: Claiming Rights and the Trouble with Equality (Moderator: Leena Schmitter, Institute of History, Univ. of Bern)

Marie Sandell, New College of the Humanities, London: Challenges to a Western Model of Gender Equality: The Rise of Regional Women’s Organisations in the Interwar Period

Edith Siegenthaler, Institute of History, Univ. of Bern: Difference as a Reason for Equality? Arguments for the Employment of Women Police Articulated in the League of Nations' Advisory Committee on Traffic in Women and Children

13.00-14.00 Lunch Break

14:00-16:30 Panel 2: Internationalizing Gender Relations (Moderator: Edith Siegenthaler)

Joelle Droux, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, Univ. of Geneva: Feminist Internationalism and the Advocacy of a New Children’s Rights Regime during the Interwar Years: A Discrete Influence or a Prevalent Role?

Elife Biçer-Deveci, Institute of History, Univ. of Bern/Central European University, Budapest: Internationalizing Women`s Claims: The International Alliance of Women as a Case Study

Giusi Russo, State University of New York (Binghamton): Women as Civic Warriors or Members of Humanity? Genealogies of Gender Politics in the United Nations System, 1945-1952

17:00 – 18:00 Comment by Jean H. Quataert, State University of New York (Binghamton), Followed by Final Discussion (Moderator: Regula Ludi)

Contact (announcement)

Edith Siegenthaler

Historisches Institut, Universität Bern, Länggassstrasse 49, CH-3000 Bern 9

edith.siegenthaler@hist.unibe.ch

Editors Information
Published on
01.05.2014
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