Feminist Library

Feminist Library

Over the last thirty years woman’s identity in Georgia has undergone significant change and this transformative process has not yet been completed. Significantly this shift was predetermined by a corresponding radical revision in the global economic and social paradigms. As it happened in many other countries, women in Georgia had to leave their traditional social roles and alongside men take active part in the capitalist labor marketplace.

By Nina Mdivani

We are pleased to present educational feminist materials, which were created under different projects at our office. We hope that the scarce literature about feminism in Georgian language will be enriched by these articles and will become more available for the broader public.

I woke up knowing that this time around there would be no way to reach the center by car. The morning of April 16, 2018 was going to be busy for many that had been fed up with cronyism, corruption and complete isolation of the government from its own people. The leader of the parliamentary minority had called on the citizens to block the main roads, bridges and other key intersections. It was already the third day of the peaceful standoff between the disenchanted citizenry and the ruling elite.

"The first principle of recovery is empowerment of the survivor. She must be the author and arbiter of her own recovery. Others may offer advice, support, assistance, affection, and care, but not cure," - Judith Herman.

Discussions about representation crisis in the Georgian Parliament has been increased among advocacy groups during the recent years. I claim, that these discussions lacked normative rethinking of the following: Why should women be represented in the parliament? And what threats does their invisibility imply for the democracy?

Collectively generating and sharing knowledge, experiences, dances, food, water, and laughter – attuned to each other’s voices and imagination – constitute collective care that counters the depletion and exhaustion that can come with political work.

"I wish that freedom could be a blank page for you, which you can fill as you wish and write on it, what you desire - fearlessly and freely." Full article is available only in Georgian or could be read in German here.

Article analyzes the agenda, policy and practice of the feminist groups in Georgia based on the interviews with The Independent Goup of Feminists, Women's Movement, Women's Gaze and The Georgian Young Greens.

Pro-abortion activist argue that fetus is not a life and thus, abortion cannot be a murder. Their opponents claim that - exactly, abortion is a murder. Such ethical arguments do not consider the contexts in which the questions have been asked.

As the results of the 2012 elections show, on average in party lists women stood at 23%, however, in the end when in the parliament their overall share amounted to only 10.7% (now down to 10%). This fact already shows the ineffectiveness of the applied gender quota.

In spite of the efforts invested both by the state, civil society and international community, the reality shows that there is no common understanding of the “gender” and related terms and, what is more, there is overuse and at the same time misunderstanding of those, what leads to deflected discourse on gender equality and (re-)produces misinterpretations and further stereotypes.

It is not surprising that the concept of masculinity is so normalized within the army that it is not being questioned at all. In most societies, masculinity is generally not perceived as something, which needs to be scrutinized.

The idea of worker's leisure is so shocking for the privileged classes they they create the as if poor do not know what to do with it. Thus, leisure becomes accessible for underprivileged only in a form of punishment - as a result of unemployment.

Prostitution is based on the idea that men have unlimited access to a female body and sexuality. Also, it assumes the necessity of satisfaction of the male sexual needs. Full article is available only in Georgian.

Gender-based violence is the cause and the negative outcome of women’s multidimensional disadvantages in social and political life. The contributing factors can be divided into structural and cultural categories.

It would not be superfluous to note that some women artists were the protagonists of a style characterized as strongman painting, one heavily invested with simulations of male artistic practices, and which adhered to the aesthetic models common to Armenian traditional painting and art.

One of the most interesting aspects of lesbian feminism is the idea of separatism, which implies emotional, social, sexual, economic and political separation from men and patriarchal institutions. Article is available in Georgian.

19th century was marked by the phenomenon of women public activism, and the emergence and development of women’s social organizations. Women entered the public sphere in a triumphal procession, and the impact they left on the Armenian culture is undeniable.

Independence, that apparently have had the ambition of having solved the liberation of nations from the Soviet rule, discarded March 8. Instead, April 7 now was the Day of Motherhood unobstructed introduced to the calendar.

The presentation of myths about feminism circulated in the Armenian society should start from the study of stereotypes in countries where feminist approaches have received extensive legal and cultural legitimization.

Chapter from the Georgian translation of publication "Thirty Years of Bundestag Presence: A Tally of the Greens’ Impact on the Federal Republic of Germany’s Political Life and Public Culture". A. Markovits's and J. Klaver's essay.