Populism and Women's Lives

(This article is from Sept 2020, but still relevant)



Populism and Women’s Lives
Populism has swept into power on the back of a largely male desire to return to how things used to be, born of an aggrieved sense of being “left behind.”
Rosalind C. Barnett and Caryl Rivers
September 24, 2020


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In July, The U.S. Supreme Court upheld a Trump administration regulation that allows employers with religious or moral objections to contraception to limit women’s access to birth control coverage under the Affordable Care Act. This was yet another win for populism, though the decision was rarely covered in this light. As a wave of populism intensifies across the globe, and democracy recedes, women’s rights are in danger of being rolled back. “Democracy won the 20th century,” writes critic Andrew Rawnsley in the Guardian. “The hubristic mistake was to think that this trend was so powerful that it could not be reversed.” Freedom House, a think tank that conducts an annual audit of global freedom, reports that “the fundamentals of democracy are under attack around the world.” Those most often targeted for attack are those who most recently won legal rights; women are a prime example. In the U.S., the Trump administration is moving swiftly against women’s reproductive rights. The European Women’s Lobby reports that far-right extremist parties are gaining power and taking “concrete steps against equality between women and men.”

The patriarchy, the ancient code that cedes to men the control of most of the power and authority in a society, is a formidable foe. Women’s lives, research finds, are shaped by what Laura Bierema of the University of Georgia calls life’s hidden curriculum, that teaches girls and women “subordination to the dominant patriarchal system of power.” She says, “Lessons learned include gender roles, a devaluing of women, silence and invisibility, submission to male power, and acceptance of role contradictions. Girls and boys, women and men learn these power relations throughout their lives. [They] are so ingrained in the culture that they are practically invisible, neither questioned nor challenged by most people. “

At a time when populism is on the rise, patriarchy flourishes, and today, democratic countries have been outnumbered by those becoming less so. Andrew Rawnsley observes that democracy is “more fragile, vulnerable and contingent” than we supposed. “The arc of history is not irreversibly bent in favor of freedom. The case for it has to be renewed and reinvigorated for each generation.” If it is not, the hard-won rights of women could be a major casualty.” Further, according to The World Economic Forum Global Gender Gap Report 2020: “This year’s report highlights the growing urgency for action. At the present rate of change, it will take nearly a century to achieve parity, a timeline we simply cannot accept in today’s globalized world, especially among younger generations who hold increasingly progressive views of gender equality.”

But perhaps even more ominous than falling behind in economic areas, women are being urged to abandon feminism to return to their traditional status as the second sex, retreating to home and hearth and being subservient to men. Shelina Janmohamed, author of Generation M: Young Muslims Changing the World, writes, “We should be most concerned about the prevailing social and political mood. In some circles, the empowerment of women is seen as an existential threat to men. Populism has swept into power on the back of a largely male desire to return to how things used to be, born of an aggrieved sense of being “left behind.”

. . . .

Stanford political scientist Anna Gryzmala-Busse says that populism is a political program and has a political solution. She says to women (and to men), “Vote! Vote for politicians and parties who make credible promises, who do not simply want to shut down criticism or who view their opponents as their enemies, and who are committed to the democratic rules of the game. At the same time, we need to understand, not just condemn, why so many voters find populist politicians appealing.” Silence, in this case, is not golden, especially where women’s hard-won rights are concerned gender awareness.

https://womensenews.org/2020/09/populism-and-womens-lives/