Subaltern and Decolonial Citizenships - 3 June 2021 - Body Politics: Legal Abortion as Battle Ground Over Women’s Rights in Latin America

Duration: 50 mins 20 secs

Share this media item:

Embed this media item:

<iframe width="_width_" height="_height_" src="https://sms.cam.ac.uk/media/3549387/embed" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Choose size:

About this item

Available Formats

About this item

Subaltern and Decolonial Citizenships - 3 June 2021 - Body Politics: Legal Abortion as Battle Ground Over Women’s Rights in Latin America's image

Description:	Speaker Jelke Boesten (Kings College London) Abstract Argentina’s political win in December 2020 over the legalisation of elective abortion was the result of years of activism and lobbying by feminist activists and their allies. It has created impetus throughout Latin America to continue the fight for women’s rights despite powerful and aggressive transnational conservative forces actively undermining gender equality and women’s citizenship. In this paper I will discuss what is at stake by making the direct link between abortion rights and widespread and persistently high rates of violence against women and girls, and the insidious patriarchal forces manipulating public discourse around ‘gender ideology’. The battle over legal abortion is important for its own sake; however, the stakes are of course much higher: it is about bodily and sexual autonomy and thus against violence, about women’s right to control their own lives without imposition of a harmful patriarchal order. Abortion is the main field allowing conservative forces to mobilise religious ‘pro-life’ morality in support of a range of oppressive gender structures and norms far beyond abortion. Therefore, as I will argue, activism for legal abortion is central to a broad movement for inclusive citizenship, women’s equal rights, against violence, and pro-sexual and gender diversity. About the speaker Jelke Boesten is Professor of Gender and Development at King’s College London. She has published widely on gender and violence in Peru. Her latest book is Gender, Transitional Justice and Memorial Arts. Global Perspectives on Commemoration and Mobilisation (Routledge Transitional Justice Series, 2021), co-edited with Helen Scanlon. The current paper forms part of a co-authored book called Women Resisting Gendered and Intersectional Violence to be published by the Latin America Bureau in 2022.

Description:

Speaker
Jelke Boesten (Kings College London)

Abstract
Argentina’s political win in December 2020 over the legalisation of elective abortion was the result of years of activism and lobbying by feminist activists and their allies. It has created impetus throughout Latin America to continue the fight for women’s rights despite powerful and aggressive transnational conservative forces actively undermining gender equality and women’s citizenship. In this paper I will discuss what is at stake by making the direct link between abortion rights and widespread and persistently high rates of violence against women and girls, and the insidious patriarchal forces manipulating public discourse around ‘gender ideology’. The battle over legal abortion is important for its own sake; however, the stakes are of course much higher: it is about bodily and sexual autonomy and thus against violence, about women’s right to control their own lives without imposition of a harmful patriarchal order. Abortion is the main field allowing conservative forces to mobilise religious ‘pro-life’ morality in support of a range of oppressive gender structures and norms far beyond abortion. Therefore, as I will argue, activism for legal abortion is central to a broad movement for inclusive citizenship, women’s equal rights, against violence, and pro-sexual and gender diversity.

About the speaker
Jelke Boesten is Professor of Gender and Development at King’s College London. She has published widely on gender and violence in Peru. Her latest book is Gender, Transitional Justice and Memorial Arts. Global Perspectives on Commemoration and Mobilisation (Routledge Transitional Justice Series, 2021), co-edited with Helen Scanlon. The current paper forms part of a co-authored book called Women Resisting Gendered and Intersectional Violence to be published by the Latin America Bureau in 2022.


Created:	2021-06-08 10:51
Collection:	Subaltern and Decolonial Citizenships
Publisher:	University of Cambridge
Copyright:	Glenn Jobson
Language:	eng (English)
Keywords:	CRASSH; Subaltern and Decolonial Citizenships; Jelke Boesten;


Abstract:	Speaker Jelke Boesten (Kings College London) Abstract Argentina’s political win in December 2020 over the legalisation of elective abortion was the result of years of activism and lobbying by feminist activists and their allies. It has created impetus throughout Latin America to continue the fight for women’s rights despite powerful and aggressive transnational conservative forces actively undermining gender equality and women’s citizenship. In this paper I will discuss what is at stake by making the direct link between abortion rights and widespread and persistently high rates of violence against women and girls, and the insidious patriarchal forces manipulating public discourse around ‘gender ideology’. The battle over legal abortion is important for its own sake; however, the stakes are of course much higher: it is about bodily and sexual autonomy and thus against violence, about women’s right to control their own lives without imposition of a harmful patriarchal order. Abortion is the main field allowing conservative forces to mobilise religious ‘pro-life’ morality in support of a range of oppressive gender structures and norms far beyond abortion. Therefore, as I will argue, activism for legal abortion is central to a broad movement for inclusive citizenship, women’s equal rights, against violence, and pro-sexual and gender diversity. About the speaker Jelke Boesten is Professor of Gender and Development at King’s College London. She has published widely on gender and violence in Peru. Her latest book is Gender, Transitional Justice and Memorial Arts. Global Perspectives on Commemoration and Mobilisation (Routledge Transitional Justice Series, 2021), co-edited with Helen Scanlon. The current paper forms part of a co-authored book called Women Resisting Gendered and Intersectional Violence to be published by the Latin America Bureau in 2022.

Abstract:

Available Formats

Format	Quality	Bitrate	Size
MPEG-4 Video	1280x720	2.95 Mbits/sec	1.09 GB	View	Download
MPEG-4 Video	640x360	1.67 Mbits/sec	632.01 MB	View	Download
WebM	1280x720	1.29 Mbits/sec	488.83 MB	View	Download
WebM	640x360	442.16 kbits/sec	163.06 MB	View	Download
iPod Video	480x270	481.51 kbits/sec	177.51 MB	View	Download
MP3	44100 Hz	249.8 kbits/sec	92.18 MB	Listen	Download
Auto *	(Allows browser to choose a format it supports)