Transitioning to Gender Equality

Front matter

Transitioning to

GENDER EQUALITY

Christa Binswanger and Andrea Zimmermann (Eds.)

Part 1: Politics of Difference Interview with Margo Okazawa-Rey

Politics of Difference as Politics of Connection 17 ANDREA ZIMMERMANN Policing Difference, Feminist Oblivions and the (Im-) Possibilities of 27

Intersectional Abolition VANESSA E. THOMPSON

Who Intervenes? Thoughts from the Perspective of Arts and Culture Activism 43 RAHEL EL-MAAWI AND SARAH OWENS

Gender Roles and Empowerment in Women’s Islamic Activism 53 SHERINE HAFEZ

Men and Masculinities: What Have They Got to Do with Gender Equality 67 and Women’s Empowerment?

JEFF HEARN

Transitioning Gender Equality to the Equality of Sexgender Diversity 85

PERSSON PERRY BAUMGARTINGER

Part 2: Sexuality Interview with Kathy Davis

Transitioning to Gender Equality with Regard to Sexuality 97 CHRISTA BINSWANGER

Comprehensive Sexuality Education as a Tool towards Gender Equality 107 ‘MATHABO KHAU

The Political Economy of Violence: Gender, Sexuality and SDGs 119

SURUCHI THAPAR-BJÖRKERT AND RUCHIKA RANWA

Queering Gender Equality: UN SDG 5 Beyond the Sex_Gender Binary 139 ANTKE ANTEK ENGEL

Part 3: Care, Work and Family Interview With Shahra Razavi

Global Trends, Challenges and Controversies in the Areas of Care, Work and Family Relations

KRISTINA LANZ

Care and Work Matter: A Social Sustainability Approach CHARLOTTA NIEMISTÖ, JEFF HEARN AND CAROLYN KEHN

Ideas of Family and Work - Their Impact on the Careers of young Men* and Women*

DIANA BAUMGARTEN AND ANDREA MAIHOFER

Gender and Intersectional Climate Justice SYBILLE BAURIEDL

About the Authors

About the Editors

Prof. Dr. Christa Binswanger (she/her) is Head of the Gender and Diversity Department at the School of Humanities and Social Sciences (SHSS) at the University of St. Gallen. She is a member of the leadership team of the Contextual Studies program at the University of St. Gallen. Since March 2021 she co-leads the nationwide project “Think Tank Gender & Diversity”. Additionally, she is a member ofthe Swiss Association for Gender Studies (SAGS) and of the CEMS Faculty Group on Gender and Diversity Management. Her teaching and her research interests include cultural studies of gender, intersectionality, diversity and inclusion, care economy, queer and affect studies, sexuality, sexual script theory, intimacy, violence, and narrative identity. In her second book on sexuality, affect, and gender, she analyses sexual scripts as palimpsests in theoretical debates and literary texts. The Book appeared in 2020.

Dr. Andrea Zimmermann (she/her) is Senior Researcher at the Center for Gender Studies, University of Basel. She received her PhD from the University of Zurich. Since January 2017 she has coordinated the inter-university PhD program, Gender Studies CH, of the Universities of Basel, Bern and Zurich. Andrea Zimmermann is project manager of the literature study ‘Gender Equality Measures in Academia’ on behalf of the Gender Equality Commission of the SNSF, and project manager of the cooperation project “Gender & Science. Analysing and transforming Gender Structures in the NCCR MSE”. Furthermore, her research analyses gender relations in the Swiss cultural sector. Together with Dominique Grisard she founded “Art of Intervention”—a platform for research and collaboration with cultural institutions to foster the dialogue between art and academia. Her research and teaching focuses on gender theory, queer feminist critique, affect studies, diversity and inclusion, masculinity(s), postcolonial theory and psychoanalysis.

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Contributors

BAUMGARTEN, DIANA

Dr. phil., Departement of Social Science, Centre for Gender Studies, University of Basel, Switzerland.

BAUMGARTINGER, PERSSON PERRY

Dr., Independent Scholar and Senior Lecturer, FH Campus Wien, FH Vorarlberg, University of St. Gallen, Trans— Arts & Cultural Production

- Research, Consulting & Training.

BAURIEDL, SYBILLE Professor, Geography Department, Europa- University Flensburg, Germany.

BINSWANGER, CHRISTA Professor, Department of Gender & Diversity SHSS, University of St. Gallen, Switzerland.

DAVIS, KATHY Professor, Senior Research Fellow Sociology, VU University, De Boelelaan, The Netherlands.

EL-MAAWI, RAHEL Independent Scholar, Social Justice Trainer, Co- Founding Member of Bla*Sh.

ENGEL, ANTKE ANTEK

Professor for Gender and Queer Studies, Department of Cultural Studies and Social Sciences, Guest Professorship, FernUniversität Hagen, Germany.

HAFEZ, SHERINE

Professor, Chair ofthe Gender and Sexuality Studies Department, University of California, USA.

HEARN, JEFF

Professor Emeritus, Management and Organisation, Hanken School of Economics, Finland.

Senior Professor, Gender Studies, Örebro University, Sweden.

Professor of Sociology, Behavioural Sciences, University of Huddersfield, UK.

KEHN, CAROLYN

Affiliated Researcher, GODESS Institute, Management and Organisation, Hanken School of Economics, Finland.

KHAU, ‘MATHABO Professor, Faculty of Education, Nelson Mandela University, South Africa.

LANZ, KRISTINA Dr., Alliance Sud, Bern.

MAIHOFER, ANDREA

Professor Emerita, Departement of Social Science, Centre for Gender Studies, University of Basel, Switzerland.

NIEMISTO, CHARLOTTA

Project Leader and Director, GODESS Institute, Management and Organisation, Hanken School of Economics, Finland.

OKAZAWA-REY, MARGO

Professor Emerita, School of Social Work, College of Health and Social Sciences, San Francisco State University, USA.

OWENS, SARAH

Professor, Head of Subject Area Visual Communication, Zurich University ofthe Arts, Switzerland.

RANWA, RUCHIKA Assistant Professor of Sociology, School of Liberal Arts, IMS Unison University, India.

RAZAVI, SHAHRA Director, Social Protection Department, ILO.

THAPAR-BJÖRKERT, SURUCHI Associate Professor, Department of Government, Uppsala University, Sweden.

THOMPSON, VANESSAE.

Dr., Faculty of Social and Cultural Studies, European University Viadrina Frankfurt (Oder), Germany.

ZIMMERMANN, ANDREA

Dr., Departement of Social Science, Centre for Gender Studies, University of Basel, Switzerland.

Abstracts

Interview with Margo Okazawa-Rey: Politics of Difference as Politics of Connection by Andrea Zimmermann

Margo Okazawa-Rey, a founding member of the Combahee River Collective and a world-renowned activist and scholar, talks to Andrea Zimmermann about challenges for a transnational feminist politics of difference. Okazawa-Rey reflects on feminist genealogies and intersectionality from the perspective of personal experience and points out the importance of analyzing the complex individual relations between powerregimes and difference. As feminist politics ofidentity have not managed to change power dynamics fundamentally, but rather reworked them along categories of difference, she strongly advocates coalitions of transnational feminism. These coalitions need to take differences and contexts into account. It is in this vein that Okazawa-Rey proposes the reimagination of politics of difference as politics of connection.

Policing Difference, Feminist Oblivions and the (Im-) Possibilities of Intersectional Abolition by Vanessa E. Thompson

Intensive policing and the expansion of the carceral condition are some of the most flagrant expressions of the current phase of gendered racial capitalism. Through the regulation and illegalization of migration, anti-terror legislation, the punishment of poverty and the war on crime, black and other negatively racialized subjects and groups are particularly vulnerable to state sanctioned forms of premature death across the Global North and South. Inmany contexts of continental Europe, mobilizations against racist policing (racial profiling) lead by human rights and community organizations and initiatives have addressed this condition in the recent years. What often remains at the margins, however, are the intersectional modalities and dimensions of racist policing and punishment. Likewise, the issue of racist policing and the expansion of the punitive condition is seldomly discussed within European gender studies and broader feminist movements in continental Europe. As the title suggests, this article challenges one-dimensional readings of racist policing and engages with the silences around intersectional modalities of xi police violence. It further addresses the reproduction of carceral feminisms within gender studies and feminist approaches in continental Europe. Departing from current debates and my scholar activist work on racial profiling in the contexts of continental Europe (mainly Germany, Switzerland and France) and by applying a black feminist framework, I interrogate modalities of intersectional structural, slow and silent violence engendered by policing. In a second step, I discuss the implications of carceral feminisms and problematize the broad silences within gender studies and feminist movements around intersectional modalities of police violence. Finally, possibilities and horizons of intersectional abolition are sketched out.

Who Intervenes? Thoughts from the Perspective of Arts and Culture Activism by Rahel El-Maawi and Sarah Owens

The following text is a transcription and translation of a conversation between Rahel El-Maawi and Sarah Owens, which took place as part of the 2018 lecture series “The Art of Intervention.””. Their dialogue touches upon topics such as Blackness, in/visibility, community, culture, art and criticism. Using their own voluntary work and Black-/queer-feminist literature as a starting point, El-Maawi and Owens talk about their motivations for, as well as possibilities and consequences of, intersectional activism in arts and culture. Through this, the point of view shifts from the art of intervention to the question of who intervenes and how this intervention is supported or restricted by sociopolitical conditions.

Gender Roles and Empowerment in Women’s Islamic Activism by Sherine Hafez

The success and longevity of women’s Islamic social activist work across Muslim majority countries has gained much attention from feminist scholars who focus their work on gender empowerment and women’s status in Muslim majority societies. While some studies applauded the positive impact Islamic activism has had on women in these societies, others remained skeptical about the extent of empowerment women might enjoy in Arab Muslim countries. Essentialized as misogynist and patriarchal in the extreme, Muslim majority countries are often depicted as hostile to women’s empowerment, which leads some to represent Islamic women activists as women who “buy into the very discourses which subjugate xii them.” Further noting that women who join Islamic movements and organizations parrot their male leaders, others maintain that Muslim activist women have access to leadership only under male supervision and command. The following chapter questions the theoretical assumptions on which these conflicting views rest, to consider forms of empowerment other than those informed by mainstream liberal principles. Drawing on feminist literature on power, the discussion is based on what empowerment entails for Islamic women activists thus offering an Islamic alternative.

Men and Masculinities: What Have They Got to Do with Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment? by Jeff Hearn

This chapter addresses how men and masculinities are relevant for the positive promotion of gender equality, in the context of the persistence of gender inequality in society and policy development that impedes the achievement of SDG5 and other SDGs. This concerns both how gender regimes can and do change men, and how men can be and are involved in changing gender regimes. In particular, I address challenges in terms of organizing with and by men, and strategies for changing men and masculinities, including action against violence, and transnational approaches.

Transitioning Gender Equality to the Equality of Sexgender Diversity by Persson Perry Baumgartinger

In this article, I will show that achieving sustainable “gender equality” is possible only when sexgender is seen as a whole, that is, when human rights are extended to those who are intersex, trans, and sexgender non-conforming. This transformation is shown in the 2006 Yogyakarta Principles (YP) and the 2017 addition to them, the Yogyakarta Principles Plus 10 (YP+10), in their extension of Human Rights Law in the years 2006 and 2017, based on sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression and sex characteristics (SOGIESC). To do so, I will take the word transition literally in the sense of trans-ness, and will use the concept of “trans-” as an intersectional approach to sexgender diversity. I will also use the neologism “sexgender” as an umbrella term to include the diverse spectrum of sexes and genders. Furthermore, data gathered on the situation of sexgender-diverse people worldwide, as well as claims made by intersex, trans and sexgender xiii non-conforming activists, will support my conclusion that the SDG 5 must adopt a broader understanding of sexes and genders in order to do justice to intersex, trans, and sexgender non-conforming children and adults.

Interview with Kathy Davis: Transitioning to Gender Equality with Regard to Sexuality by Christa Binswanger

This interview opens up the chapter on transitioning to gender equality, exploring sexuality and sexual agency. It aims at addressing possible changes towards more equal sexual relations among all sexes. Within the field of Feminist and Gender Studies, sexuality and sexual encounters are contested topics and riddled with tensions regarding gender relations. These tensions have provoked many debates or even “wars” within the field of Feminist and Gender Studies. In the interview with Kathy Davis, Christa Binswanger takes up feminist discussions dealing with inequality within sexual relations in order to lay out the field. In the interview Davis and Binswanger discuss some problematic aspects of the feminist movement in the 1970s, like, for example, the assumption of a single notion of female sexuality. More recently, work on transnational feminism has also been helpful for thinking about sexuality and gender and for fostering a self-critical and open dialogue about the complexity of sexual practices and desires. Davis points to the importance of listening to what women in different parts of the world have to say about their own problems and struggles. As such, notions of gender equality and sexual freedom always need to be kept in perspective, as one version of feminism, but never the only one.

Comprehensive Sexuality Education as a Tool towards Gender Equality by ‘Mathabo Khau

The attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030 is a global imperative. In order to achieve the goal of gender equality, there is a growing realization that respecting everyone's rights to sexual and reproductive health is of paramount importance. This foregrounds the importance of comprehensive sexuality education (CSE) towards the attainment of universal sexual and reproductive health. Thus, this chapter focuses on the need for sexuality education to drive the agenda for sustainable communities and the achievement of the SDGs.

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It highlights the current challenges towards sexuality education in schools and how these can be overcome. It also brings forth the need for changed laws supporting the rights of women and girls to sexual and reproductive health. Finally, it discusses how communities that embrace CSE can be enabled to reach a state of equitable treatment of all.

The Political Economy of Violence: Gender, Sexuality and SDGs by Suruchi Thapar-Björkert and Ruchika Ranwa

In this paper, we explore the theoretical framework of the violence(s) of development through the empirical convergence of two seemingly disparate local realities—the skewed child sex ratio in rural North India and bride trafficking. We approach the idea of violence of development through a political economy perspective which enables us to understand how social institutions of caste, class and gender intersect in rural India, together with political structures, to create contexts of inclusion and exclusion. We suggest that development is inherently paradoxical; while development envisions the elimination of social inequalities, it inadvertently also recreates them. When the state does not adequately respond to its agenda of development and social justice, the vulnerability of marginalised social groups is enhanced. The Sustainable Development Goals which aim to achieve gender equality and counter gender-based discrimination need to acknowledge these complex but nonetheless skewed gendered realities that shape the lives of many in India.

Queering Gender Equality: UN SDG 5 beyond the Sex_Gender Binary by Antke Antek Engel

With the aim of introducing a queer perspective to the UN SDG 5, the article explores tensions between gender equality politics and gender diversity politics within different strands of the United Nations (UN). It asks if there is indeed an irresolvable dilemma concerning gender equality and LGBTI+ diversity politics. Analyzing programmatic material found online on websites of UN bodies focusing on gender equality or LGBTI+ rights, the article concludes that the shift towards the SOGIEC (sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression and sex characteristics) approach in Human Rights law (see Yogyakarta principles), provides a decisive steps towards resolving the dilemma. In looking at current reforms in German Civil Status Law, the article moves from critically considering the newly established sex-gender registration ‘diverse’ towards queerversity, which

XV is offered as a modification of diversity politics. The principle of queerversity is meant to function as a political corrective, an ethical attitude and an aesthetic strategy. As such it combines the avowal of multiplicity, ambiguity and alterity with struggles against discrimination, social inequalities and the intersectional complexity of regimes of domination. Consequently, the article proposes the principle of queerversity as an overarching perspective of intersectional justice.

Interview With Shahra Razavi: Global Trends, Challenges and Controversies in the Areas of Care, Work and Family Relations by Kristina Lanz

This interview opens up the chapter on Care, Work and Family. It analyzes international trends in women’s paid and unpaid work. Kristina Lanz and Shahra Razavi also discuss why—despite the increasing visibility of “women’s economic empowerment” on the international policy agenda—gender inequalities in the work place and at home persist and how they can be overcome. The interview also picks up important discussions on the role of men and masculinity in these debates, on the intersectional and globalized dimensions of work and care (i.e., care chains), and on the challenges of adopting a non-binary lens, when analyzing and assessing progress in gender equality, in the areas of care, work and the family.

Care and Work Matter: A Social Sustainability Approach by Charlotta Niemistö, Jeff Hearn and Carolyn Kehn

The intersections of work, family, and life relations are a fundamental component of gender research and the pursuit of the United Nations’ Social Development Goal 5: Gender Equality. This chapter takes a social sustainability approach to exploring the diversity of these realities for men, women and further genders worldwide. Both societal and policy-focused solutions are necessary to correct the historical inequalities in gendered care and unpaid labor.

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Ideas of Family and Work— Their Impact on the Careers of Young Men* and Women” by Diana Baumgarten and Andrea Maihofer

The article deals with the question “How do ideas of family and work impact the careers of young men* and women*?” The first hypothesis is the ideas of a future family and one’s own occupational activities reciprocally influence each other and, secondly, that it is precisely this interrelationship that causes occupational gender segregation. Our analyses show the interconnections of institutional and individual perspectives.

Gender and Intersectional Climate Justice by Sybille Bauriedl

Climate change basically affects all people—but to varying degrees. Apart from regional differences, this is mainly due to social structures. Being affected by the consequences of climate change also depends to a relevant extent on genderconform behaviour and gender-unjust distribution of resources. Women and men are affected differently by the effects of climate change. A central reason for this is their social understanding of their roles and role behaviour and the social and economic inequality associated with them. Thus, climate change-induced problems and responses are deeply connected to gender justice.

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Transitioning to Gender Equality

Andrea Zimmermann and Christa Binswanger

Gender equality is the fifth UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDG 5). It aims to eliminate all forms of discrimination against women and girls. To this end, SDG 5 addresses all forms of violence based on sex or gender, unequally distributed unpaid and unacknowledged care and domestic work, unequal access to resources, as well as the need for equal opportunities for leadership at all levels of decision-making in political, economic and public life. Thus, the areas in which changes with regard to gender equality on a global scale are needed are very broad. In this volume we focus on three areas of inquiry that are especially pertinent with regard to SDG 5: “politics of difference”, “sexuality”, and “care, work and family”. These areas have been core feminist topics since the 1970s and have proven to be of high importance in societies’ aim of transitioning to gender equality. Each thematic field is introduced by an interview that explores the subject area with regard to important genealogies, theoretic developments, and current challenges in general terms. The format of the dialogue allows for the contextualization of the interviewed experts, their personal approach to the thematic field, as well as to their theoretical, methodological and practical knowledge and experience.

Some theories and methods we deem necessary in the process of transitioning to gender equality are transversal themes of this volume: first, an intersectional perspective, linking gender to further categories of difference; second, the contestations of binary notions of gender constitutive for inequality regimes; third, the difficulties of measuring, controlling and portraying progress with regard to gender equality; and, finally, the need for multi-, inter- and transdisciplinary perspectives for understanding the diversity of gender, and to avoid simplifications of complex power regimes.

The volume combines various approaches of critique and, therefore, is to be considered an assemblage of perspectives, methodologies, theoretical concepts and contexts of research. In particular, the configuration of approaches that focus on the impact of hegemonic regimes of gender inequality with those that focus on marginalized communities enables us to gain access to underlying mechanisms of discrimination and othering that grease the wheels of gender inequality. At the same time, calling into question seemingly universal categories and mechanisms contributes to a rethinking of epistemological and methodological approaches, and a reconceptualization of theoretical instruments to foster further steps on the way to gender equality.

2. Politics of Difference

The volume opens with a look at “politics of difference”, the first thematic field. In this section, theories, methodologies, and practices of intersectionality are of high importance. Intersectionality allows for reflection on gender inequality with regard to different experiences of structural discrimination and power hierarchies. The complexity of power regimes in different contexts, and the need for translation, challenges not only the analysis of difference but, also, practical work aiming at coalition and cooperation, be it local or transnational. Reflections on questions and concepts of difference have a long-standing tradition in feminist theory and have contributed to many theoretical debates within and outside social movements to this day. These movements criticize power regimes that are organized along conditions of recognition and that are at work in manifold mechanisms of the othering of those who are placed and perceived as beyond these norms. Recognizing difference and the challenging of normative settings are important steps towards gender equality, as well as regarding legal systems and the distribution of resources and access to positions of power and authority. At the same time, politics of difference can also lead to new normative exclusions if power is reorganized alongside “new” established identities. Thus, if concepts are transferred to other contexts, they always need to be translated and adapted. A constant reflection about who is included and who is not is, therefore, urgently needed. As the first dialogue by Andrea Zimmermann with Margo Okazawa-Rey suggests, the contextualization of difference is best performed in transnational coalitions. They enable constant translation work and contribute to an ongoing self-reflection on their own premises and a collaborative development of concepts. This first interview is followed by five contributions that focus on the current challenges of politics of difference. Every contribution has its own starting point, its own set of interests, and is situated in different empirical, geographical and theoretical contexts. The different standpoints and topics presented in the following chapters do not form a coherent and easy-to-understand picture. They shed light on specific questions and problems in the context that they analyze. Thereby, they reveal paradoxes, ambivalences and current empirical and theoretical challenges for concepts and policies of gender equality, which require further research.

Margo Okazawa-Rey, a former member of the Combahee River Collective and a world-renowned activist and scholar, talks to Andrea Zimmermann about challenges for a transnational feminist politics of difference. Reflecting on feminist genealogies and intersectional feminism, Okazawa-Rey points out the importance of questioning and analyzing the complex individual relations between power regimes and differences. As the feminist politics of identity have not managed to change power dynamics fundamentally, but rather reworked them along categories of difference, she strongly advocates coalitions of transnational feminism. These coalitions need to take differences and contexts into account, emphasizing the power of cooperation and mutual exchange at the same time. It is in this vein that Okazawa-Rey proposes the reimagination of politics of difference as politics of connection.

In her chapter on policing, Vanessa Thompson challenges the feminist silence around racist practices and intersectional modalities of police violence. This contribution proves the urgency of the #BlackLivesMatter movement once more. By applying a black feminist framework, Thompson reflects on current debates and her work as an activist scholar on racial profiling. The concept of slow violence, which also takes mental and psychic vulnerabilities, and the long-term effects of everyday racism, into account, forms the cornerstone of her argument. Thereupon, Thompson conceptualizes policing as a multidimensional institutionalized practice and aims at a complex intersectional analysis. Furthermore, Thompson criticizes the entanglement of feminist antiviolence campaigns with the criminal justice system and the acceptance of intersectional state violence by certain feminists. Referring to a term by Elizabeth Bernstein, Thompson calls this stream of the feminist movement “carceral feminism”, an important concept for problematizing the complex relation between feminism and the state’s violence exercised by the criminal justice system. Finally, Thompson advocates for an intersectional and interventional concept of abolition that not only transforms individuals and communities but gender politics as such.

The dialogue between Rahel El-Maawi and Sarah Owens, both members of Bla*sh—the Swiss Network Black She—also considers questions surrounding the recognition of difference and reflections on the importance of networks and communities. The conversation originally took place in 2018 as part of the event series, “The Art of Intervention”, at the Kunstmuseum Gegenwart in Basel, Switzerland.! During the exhibition, “War Games”, which staged artwork by Martha

1 https: //theartofintervention.blog/programm/ (accessed on 5 August 2021).

Rosler and Hito Steyerl,? El-Maawi and Owens, were invited to reflect on motivations and consequences of intersectional activism in arts and culture. As starting points for their conversation, they take quotes from Black women and women of Color that critically intervene in the hegemonic, and very often white, canon of thinkers who are usually quoted. As such, their conversation is not only a dialogue with each other but a dialogue with a genealogy of Black feminism. This format goes hand in hand with their emphasis on the importance of networks and communities as sources of strength. Their dialogue leaves room for different perspectives and individual answers to the everyday challenges of structural discrimination. Finally, art may serve as a space in which hypervisibility /invisibility, everyday racism, experiences of sexualization and exotization can be negotiated and reflected upon. Here humans can rest from academic or political work and alternative perspectives can be offered and articulated: places for empowerment.

In her chapter about Islamic women activists, Sherin Hafez highlights the need to adapt concepts that have emerged in Western feminist contexts to her field of inquiry. In order to understand Islamic women activists in Egypt, the Western notion of empowerment needs to be revised. The work of these women and their self-perception is deeply embedded in Islamic understandings, including the acceptance of a gender order, which is considered unequal in Western contexts. Nevertheless, their activities create a space for agency, including the power to decide and act, embedded in the values of their religious community. Hafez highlights the need for a consideration of agency and empowerment of activist subjects as created by social relations and not as autonomous from them. Hafez’ contribution challenges the often implicit dominance of Western theoretical concepts. She advocates a careful translation, or revision, if applied to differing contexts. Without such a contextualization, these concepts are at risk of failing to question dominant power regimes and systems of exclusion.

The next part of this first section is dedicated to work on men and masculinities. As Jeff Hearn argues, “men” should be recognized as a policy area. There is an urgent need for explicitly men-related politics and policy, even if these are still relatively rare phenomena. Investigating masculinities critically and developing gender strategies for change contribute to the transformation of the hegemonic gender order, to gender equality, and to women’s empowerment. Hearn’s contribution refutes the argument of antifeminist suggestions that greater gender equality harms men. On the contrary:

2 https: / /kunstmuseumbasel.ch/de/ausstellungen/2018/rosler-steyerl (accessed on 5 August 2021).

Findings point to better health, reduced threats of violence and better wellbeing for both men and women, if feminist politics gain importance. Engaging critically in the study of men and masculinities thus opens up possibilities for societal change not yet considered well enough by politics and policies.

Finally, this section is completed with a chapter by Persson Perry Baumgartinger, who discusses the notion of gender in the wording of SDG 5. SDG 5 claims gender equality for “women and girls”. Thus, gender difference is reduced to a gender dualism, consisting of “men and boys” versus “women and girls”. Baumgartinger suggests introducing the term sexgender, which includes inter-, trans-, and sexgender nonconforming people, thus enlarging a dualistic understanding of gender to a multiplicity of sexgenders. Taking the title of the volume literally, Transitioning should enable an intersectional approach to sexgender diversity. This broader understanding of sexes and genders is needed in order to do inter-, trans-, and sexgender nonconforming children and adults justice, and to contribute to the fight against the discriminatory practices that many face on an everyday basis. As such, sexgender equality aims to overcome discrimination for all sexes and genders.

This assemblage of articles on “Politics of Difference”, with specific sets of interest and empirical findings, reveals several challenges for theoretical, methodological and practical work on transnational progress towards gender equality. As the contributions by Thompson, Owens, El-Maawi and Hafez suggest, intersectional analysis in different contexts needs to consider the complexity of persistent inequalities and structural discrimination that are shaped by the current hegemonic gender order in a given context. Everyday sexism and racism, as well as other forms of structural discrimination, work along the binary mechanism of othering, of inclusion and exclusion. In order to critique these mechanisms, it is important to point to the exclusionary and privileging effects of binary systems. This is also the starting point for Hearn’s contribution. He explicitly refers to the binary gender order and insists on the necessity of focusing not only on femininities but on masculinities, too. The articles by Thompson and Baumgartinger emphasize that gender equality does not only mean including those who have been excluded so far. The way power is organized in relation to identity has to be fundamentally questioned, e.g., by opening up the categories of gender or race beyond essentialism and binary categorization. Moreover, Margo Okazawa-Rey points out that every new organization of power along identity categories relies on the mechanism of new exclusions. Transnational coalitions are needed for ongoing mutual and intersectional critiques of newly established structures and power mechanisms. In sum, the contributions in this section offer space for different perspectives and the recognition of different fields of interest and research, and open up a frame for new collaborative answers across disciplines and contexts.