An important feature of the rising tide of authoritarian politics across the world today is their emphasis on crafting  ‘gender regimes’ that reassert the role of women in patriarchal terms. In the context of the anti-liberal and soft-authoritarian transformation of Hungarian democracy since 2010, this talk will outline the key challenges to gender justice arising out of the pro-natalist agenda of the Orban government. It will focus especially on how the Orbanist regime shaped a set of policies that ties social citizenship rights to having children, thereby engendering a new variety of gender regime that I call “carefare”. Coupled with the authoritarian crackdown on what is often dubbed “gender ideology” in universities and other spaces in the civil society, this reformulation of the ‘problem of care’ into one of reasserting the gender roles of women poses a powerful challenge to gender justice. While this talk will draw on the distinct trajectory of gender regimes within the specific history of state socialism and post-socialist society in Eastern Europe, it hopes to open a wider dialogue on the ramifications of the rise of soft-authoritarian politics in different parts of the world for the question of gender justice.

Eva Fodor is Professor of Gender Studies and is currently a member of CEU’s Senior Leadership Team as Pro-Rector for Teaching and Learning.  She has a Ph.D. in Sociology  from the University of California in Los Angeles and works in the field of comparative social inequalities.  Specifically, she is interested in how and why gender differences in the labor market and elsewhere are shaped, reshaped, renegotiated and reproduced in different types of societies and in different social contexts. Her recent book, „The Gender Regime of Anti-Liberal Hungary“ describes the introduction of what she calls a „carefare“ regime in Hungary after 2010 (open access with Palgrave Pivot, 2022).  Her ongoing research projects puruse this agenda further and seek to create a gendered political economy of illiberalism.

Podiumsteilnehmer*innen:
Dr. Onur Erdur | Institut für Kulturwissenschaft, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin & WOC Gastprofessor 2025
Prof. Dr. Stephan Lessenich | Institut für Soziologie, Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main & Institut für Sozialforschung
Prof. Dr. Rozena Maart | University of KwaZulu-Natal Durban & Mercator Fellow am WOC Research Center Contradiction Studies

Moderation:
PD Dr. Ehler Voss | Worlds of Contradiction

Mit anschließendem Empfang zum 10-jährigen Bestehen von WOC

Anmeldung unter woc@uni-bremen.de

Lesung und Gespräch mit dem Autor Dr. Onur Erdur (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin & WOC Gastprofessor 2025)

Early Career Vernetzungsworkshop mit Mitgliedern des WOC Graduiertennetzwerks (WOC GradNet), des DFG-Graduiertenkollegs 2686 Contradiction Studies, der Bremen International Graduate School of Social Sciences (BIGSSS) & des Instituts für Sozialforschung (IfS) und des GRK 2638 Normativität, Kritik, Wandel

Podiumsdiskussion in Kooperation mit der Senatskanzlei der Freien Hansestadt Bremen:

Preisträgerin des 19. Bremer Solidaritätspreises 2025:
Meseret Hadush | Gründerin der Hilfsorganisation Hiwyet (Heilung) in Tigray, Äthiopien

Mitglieder des Kuratoriums des Bremer Solidaritätspreises:
Dr. Ernesto Harder | Geschäftsführer des DGB Region Bremen-Elbe-Weser
Prof. Dr. Shalini Randeria | Central European University & Worlds of Contradiction
Bernd Schleich | ehemaliger Geschäftsführer InWEnt GmbH

Moderation:
Prof. Dr. Alisha M.B. Heinemann | Worlds of Contradiction