Abstract
This paper challenges the notion of populism and minorities from the viewpoint of gender relations. Yet the first general query is: could women be merely considered like a minority? And, in particular, can practices of political mobilization and women’s grassroots participation be considered forms of populism? And finally, is there any connection between populism and gender? This paper aims to answer these questions, arguing that women cannot be fully identified with a minority group because from a quantitative perspective they cover at least half of the entire world population and from a qualitative viewpoint they may belong to variegate target groups (based on cultural, social, religious, ethnic differences), which are intersectionally dealing with overlapping issues and struggles. Yet recent political trends in Europe have shown the emerging of female populist leaders, who assume populist futures and reinterpret gender-based arguments, identifying woman’s reproductive body as a “protective mother” who fights not only against the foreigners but also against corrupt male elites.
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Notes
- 1.
UN, Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
- 2.
UN, Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action.
- 3.
UN, Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women.
- 4.
ILO, Definition of Gender Mainstreaming.
- 5.
ILO, Definition of Gender Mainstreaming.
- 6.
Council of Europe, Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence.
- 7.
Constitute Project, France’s Constitution of 1958 with Amendments through 2008.
- 8.
Italian Republic, Constitution of the Italian Republic.
- 9.
European Parliament, Women in the European Parliament.
- 10.
European Union, Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union.
- 11.
Anderson, Imagined Communities.
- 12.
Calloni, ‘Intersectionality and Women’s Human Rights’.
- 13.
Mill, On Liberty, p. 2.
- 14.
Mill, On Liberty, p. 8.
- 15.
Mill and Staurt Mill, Enfranchisement of Women and the Subjection of Women.
- 16.
Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War, Book II, Chapter VI, p. 88.
- 17.
Kantorowitz, The King’s Two Bodies.
- 18.
Rousseau, Social Contract, p. 8.
- 19.
Pateman, Sexual Contract; and Nussbaum, Frontiers of Justice.
- 20.
D’Alembert, Lettre de M. d’Alembert à M.J.J. Rousseau, sur l’article Genevetiré du septieme volume de l’Encyclopédie.
- 21.
France’s National Constituent Assembly, Declaration of the Rights of the Man and of the Citizen.
- 22.
De Gouges, Les Droits de la Femme.
- 23.
De Gouges, Les Droits de la Femme.
- 24.
Näsström, ‘The Legitimacy of the People’, p. 649.
- 25.
Okin, ‘Is Multiculturalism Bad for Women?’ p. 12.
- 26.
Okin, Justice, Gender, and the Family.
- 27.
Okin, Justice, Gender, and the Family, p. 23.
- 28.
Benhabib, The Claims of Culture.
- 29.
Sámi Parliament, The Sámediggi in Norway.
- 30.
Kent, The Sámi Peoples of the North.
- 31.
Sámi Council, 1980, Sámi Political Program, Article 1.
- 32.
UN, Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
- 33.
Andrews, ‘Women in Saami Society’.
- 34.
The research was directed by Aino Saarinen and financed by the Nordic Council of Ministers (Copenhagen, Denmark), the Centre for Advanced Study (Oslo, Norway), and the University of Oulu (Finland) during 1997–2002.
- 35.
See Minority Rights Group International, Peoples under Threat.
- 36.
Nara Baré, We Are the Forest. Baré affirmed this during the conference on ‘Indigenous Women: Struggles for Local Recognition and Global Rights’, organized on 23 April 2013 at the Uiversity of Milano-Bicocca in Milan. Keynote speakers were Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, Special Rapporteur of the United Nations for the Rights of Indigenous Peoples; Nara Baré, Leader of the Coordenação das Organizações Indígenas da Amazônia Brasileira Inka; and Saara Arttijeff, Councilor of the President of the Sami Parliament in Finland. The conference was part of the Festival of Human Rights; see https://festivaldirittiumani.it
- 37.
Mueller, What Is Populism?; Urbinati, Me the People.
- 38.
Nussbaum, Anger and Forgiveness.
- 39.
Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism.
- 40.
Calloni, ‘Neopopulism and Corruption’.
- 41.
Global Studies Institute, Is Populism Bad for Women?
- 42.
Pitkin, The Concept of Representation.
- 43.
Serughetti and Lanni, ‘Marine e le alter’.
- 44.
Gilligan, In a Different Voice; and Held, The Ethics of Care.
- 45.
Ferrara, ‘How to Rescue “The People” from Populism’.
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Calloni, M. (2020). Women, Minorities, Populism. In: Kaul, V., Vajpeyi, A. (eds) Minorities and Populism – Critical Perspectives from South Asia and Europe. Philosophy and Politics - Critical Explorations, vol 10. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-34098-8_17
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