Comotion’s Post

Greetings from Association for Women's Rights in Development (AWID) Forum in Bangkok - where changemakers from all over convened about gender equality and international development💡 It was v useful for me to learn from Asian, African and Middle Eastern perspectives in the context of far right authoritarianism - here are a few notes among many that I’m taking back home with me: ▪️Democracy and gender equality are intertwined—undermining one inevitably destabilizes the other. ▪️Gender norms have historically been used as a tool to control populations, all over the world. The control is manifested through sometimes seemingly subtle policy or lack of policy: for example in South Korea post Korean War, they sought to increase the birth rate through abortion bans for some and forced sterilization of others. Over time, it became clear that the burden of continually addressing exceptions to these restrictive rules was unsustainable, ultimately leading to the rules being overturned. Still, South Korea continues to have a very high gender wage gap and lack of affordable childcare which discourages women from participating in the workforce and reinforces their social expectations. ▪️The promotion of gender norms makes LGBT people common targets for scapegoats for other problems. Marriage equality in the US was one win, but did not translate to basic physical safety and community acceptance for gay people in many, many countries. ▪️On language: we need to start explaining how reproductive freedom/family planning is a macro and micro economic issue in a simple and relatable way, and repeat it over and over and over again.