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WORLD ANTHROPOLOGICAL UNION

CONGRESS 2024​

Paper

Dialogues with Lithuanian Christian Women on Gender Equality: Power Imbalances in the Context of Rising Anti-Gender Populism

presenters

    Egle Aleknaite

    Nationality: Lithuania

    Residence: Lithuania

    Vytautas Magnus University

    Presence:Online

In anthropology at home, the distance between “us,” represented by a researcher, and “the Other,” represented by research participants, may be minimal. How does the relationship between a researcher and research participants play out in anthropology at home focused on topics that may make the researcher feel as occupying a marginal position? Lithuania is a post-Soviet country characterized by the rather slow implementation of gender equality which is driven by EU policies and initiatives and hindered both by the heritage of Soviet gender politics and by the anti-gender nationalist populism currently rising in the region. As in other Central and Eastern European countries, popular anti-gender sentiments and support for traditionalist gender policies in Lithuania constrain feminist activities and gender equality initiatives, including research based on them. The paper is based on an analysis of interviews conducted with Lithuanian Catholic and Evangelical Lutheran women about their understanding of gender, gender roles, and gender equality. The interviews were conducted by Lithuanian female researchers who had liberal gender views and conducted research funded by institutions seeking to implement the principle of gender equality. Informants, Lithuanian women affiliated with the Catholic Church, the Lithuanian majority religion, and the Lutheran Evangelical Church, a recognized minority religion, tended to oppose “radical gender equality” they associated with the EU policies. At the same time, quite a few informants correctly guessed that the interviewers and the rationale of their research project were motivated by this “radical gender equality”. The paper presents an analysis of interviews as encounters where power relations are negotiated in the context of popular anti-gender sentiments that may marginalize a researcher as the Other who is seen as representing the EU rather than Lithuania.

Keywords:

power imbalance, anti-gender populism, research on religion and gender