Gender

Katrin Köppert takes a new look at the explainability of AI systems, through a queer perspective. Queersplaining means not only explaining AI, but also revealing the inherent contradictions and power structures. An explainability that does not support the illusion of a universal solution, but recognises the complexity and context dependency of AI.

With the European Parliament elections taking place between on 6-9 June 2024, the European Union stands at a defining moment. The 2019-2024 term witnessed the breakthrough of long-stagnant gender initiatives, but challenges loom large in advancing gender equality in the EU. This article explores the prospects for the policy directions that will shape the gender equality agenda of the next European Parliament and Commission in this context.

This year’s Rainbow Map by ILGA-Europe, published at a time when Europe is gearing up for 20-plus elections, including the EU elections next month, shows that while authoritarian leaders across the region continue to use the scapegoating of LGBTI people to divide and mobilise their electorates, others are conversely showing robust political will to honour commitments to advancing and protecting the human rights of LGBTI people. Joan Lanfranco asks 3 questions to Katrin Hugendubel, Advocacy Director at ILGA-Europe.

Working on and with AI is inherently influenced by gender and race. The small number of women and minorities among AI developers has even been described as a "diversity crisis". At the same time, however, women from the Global South are strong in lowly-paid areas of the field, from hardware assembly to crowd work addressing bias and injustices in AI. Understanding these present discriminating structures is the first step to social change.

Aifric Campbell explores the future of love and intimacy as our attention to humans is seduced by machines.

The precondition for a real and sustainable recovery of Ukraine is, above all, the victory over the Russian aggression against the country. Still, the discussion on the vision and specific steps for reconstruction cannot wait as residents of damaged towns and millions of internally displaced persons need viable living conditions already now, while the war is still ongoing. Ukrainian society needs to build up resilience in many aspects. This interview presents a feminist perspective on the priorities of reconstruction and the importance of international support and allyship among communities. An interview with Galyna Kotliuk, Programme Coordinator - Gender Democracy/Women Rights/LGBT-Rights at the Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung Kyiv office. Українська версія | Auf Deutsch

In Iran, feminist foreign policy demands both short-term interventions to alleviate the suffering of the civilian population and a long-term approach to deal with the state’s structural violence against its own citizens.

Women working in agriculture often have lower levels of income and lack decision-making power. There is urgent need for gender equality to achieve food security and protection from pesticide exposure.

In the months of July and August 2022, Senegal and Kenya will hold their general elections. However, the big question remains: Where do Senegalese and Kenyan women stand on their quest to parliamentary mandates and political offices?

On Monday night, a surprise draft ruling by conservative Justice Samuel Alito was released in the U.S. indicating that a majority on the Supreme Court wants to reverse the legalization of abortions. Ella Müller, director of the Democracy Programme at the Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung Washington, DC, puts this impending caesura and the political developments behind it in context.

Every single day, women are abused, threatened or slandered on digital social networks. Yet the operators of these platforms are doing very little to make the digital space a safer place for women. The whistleblower Frances Haugen talked to Spiegel journalist Ann-Katrin Müller and Alexandra Geese, Member of the European Parliament, about what needs to be done right now to stop violence on the net.

The COVID-19 pandemic has heightened many of the challenges that mothers around the world face as the global health threat and resulting economic downturn have created a caregiving crisis that has disproportionately affected women and motherhood.  

The German parliamentary election campaign played out on the internet as never before. In the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, this was certainly necessary, but it brought with it all the evils we have previously seen in US election campaigns: disinformation campaigns and hate speech were used to discredit candidates, paid political online advertising and foreign influence circumvented basic democratic values. As a woman, Annalena Baerbock the Greens' candidate for Chancellor, was particularly affected. The elections have shown that what we need, in Germany and the EU, are better media skills for the population and clear rules for communication platforms.

In many countries, women do most of the farm work, but they are not allowed to make most of the decisions. They have to balance caring for their children and elderly parents with looking after the chickens and goats. Livestock can be a welcome source of extra money, but may also mean more work. And if selling eggs and milk becomes more profitable, men very often take charge.

Green budgets refer to tools that aim to achieve environmental and climate objectives by analysing the environmental impacts of budgetary and fiscal policy choices. Budgeting can therefore be a tool to mainstream gender equality and environmental objectives at the same time. While taxation can also enhance gender equality and incentivise a green transition, this chapter  focuses on the budget side due to the revenue structure of the European Union (EU), in the context of the European Green Deal, the EU Budget 2021-2027 and the Recovery and Resilience Facility.

2020 was expected to be the feminist super year - the anniversaries of the UN Resolution on "Women, Peace, and Security" and the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action were supposed to be celebrated, and discussions about the lack of their implementation to be held. Instead, this became the year that, according to UN Women, would destroy 25 years of feminist achievements.

Gendered disinformation is a form of identity-based disinformation that threatens human rights worldwide. It undermines the digital and political rights, as well as the safety and security, of its targets. Ellen Judson from Demos explains what gendered disinformation is, how it impacts individuals and societies, and the challenges in combating it, drawing on case studies from Poland and the UK. It assesses how the UK and EU are responding to gendered disinformation, and sets out a plan of action for governments, platforms, media and civil society.

The increasing data-driven nature of societies raises concerns about how to prevent data misuse and abuse that may harm individuals and communities, particularly marginalized groups. A feminist critique of the model law on data protection of the Southern African Development Community and the EU’s GDPR, however highlights the dangerous gaps that place women and gender-diverse people at risk.

In this time of triple crises, with intersecting impacts from the pandemic, the climate emergency, and persistent economic inequality, the global community and its leaders face a “Kairos moment” – a turning point at a critical time for action. The choice is whether to continue with failed policies that have brought the world to this perilous juncture or to retool global economies and systems. Imaginative and transformative approaches could address climate change and other environmental, health, and social threats, based on equity and justice, including gender-equitable access to sustainable finance.

Hungary voted for a bill originally intended to enhance the protection of children and tighten sanctions against pedophile offenders, though introducing an explicit, harsh ban on the "portrayal and the promotion of gender identity different from sex at birth, the change of sex and homosexuality" for persons under the age of 18. What led to the scapegoating of the LGBTQI community?