Sociologists for Women in Society

SWS Endorsed Statements

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November 9, 2023

Sociologists for Women in Society Statement on Israel-Gaza

As a feminist organization deeply embedded in intersectional, anti-racist, and decolonial feminist, queer, and trans theory and activism, Sociologists for Women in Society (SWS) decries and grieves the violence and humanitarian crisis that is increasing daily after the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023, where members from the group killed more than 1,400 Israelis and kidnapped hundreds of others. SWS condemns the killing of innocent lives –– whether Palestinian or Israeli. We acknowledge that Jews across the globe have historically been victims of genocide and continue to experience antisemitic discrimination and violence. The latest attacks are an egregious example. We also recognize that the political, historical, and present-day Israeli military siege of Gaza has resulted in systematic violence, expulsion, Zionist settler colonialism, sexual and racialized terror, poverty, displacement, and ethnic cleansing. Israel’s current horrific violence against Palestine has resulted in over 8,000 deaths and tens of thousands of injuries. SWS decries the impact of Islamophobia on self-identified Muslim women and LGBTQ+ people.

We are an association that promotes social justice research within local, national, and international activist spaces, and we endorse the statement issued by the International Sociological Association to express our “deep concern about the horrific events of October 2023 in Israel and Palestine, that are continuing in Gaza, as the human carnage there is unfolding in plain view. We stand by and respect the UN resolutions concerning this situation and share the call by many of our Palestinian and Israeli colleagues for an immediate release of hostages, exchange of prisoners, and the ending of the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.”

SWS agrees with ISA that we:

  • “stands in solidarity with the Israeli and Palestinian social scientists who have defended human rights and raised their voices against the killing and kidnapping of civilians, the bombing of civilian infrastructure, including residential areas, hospitals, and universities, and occupation and war in general.”
  • “condemns the massacre of Israeli and Palestinian civilians. We share the repeated denunciation by our colleagues in the Israeli Sociological Society of the violence against Palestinians and the illegal colonies in the Palestinian territories over the past few years.”
  • “We also express our deep concern about and condemn the rise of antisemitism, Islamophobia, and xenophobia globally and the everyday acts of violence these entail. We are particularly alarmed by the political backlash within the international academic community.”
  • and “cannot remain silent as spaces of public and academic debate are shrinking and increasingly policed. Today, more than ever, we require critical interventions by social scientists. Academic freedom needs to be protected and promoted. Well-informed and nuanced debate and a historicized and sociological understanding of the events that have led to the October 2023 atrocities [and that continue as SWS releases this statement in November] are required to forestall further catastrophic loss of life. As stated by the Department of Historical and Cultural Studies at the University of Toronto, ‘it is not only permissible, but it is essential for scholars to situate the current war in its broad historical contexts, including those of settler colonialism.’ Our duty as sociologists is to maintain spaces of debate and foster discussion during such a critical moment.”

As a community of feminist scholars and activists, we acknowledge with humility the complexity of the issues that these events raise. Some SWS members, both faculty and students, as well as others more broadly, are currently experiencing a great deal of fear and anxiety in the academy concerning freedom of expression about the violence in the Middle East. This is especially the case for pre-tenure faculty whose area of expertise is Palestine-Israel and/or whose activist work focuses on this area, for fear of retaliation by their institutions. Many students feel that they are taking tremendous risks by even mentioning the current conflict in the classroom. As a feminist organization, SWS stands firmly in support of academic freedom and freedom of expression, which must be maintained and protected as core values in higher education. We also realize that the experience of fear and harassment surrounding the current conflict are not limited to those of us in the academy, but also threaten the well-being of feminist sociologists wherever we are based on our identities, ideas and beliefs.

Along with other feminist organizations, SWS demands an immediate ceasefire in the Israel-Palestinian conflict. The violence in Israel-Palestine and other ongoing conflicts around the globe point to the critical need for our continued efforts as a feminist organization to promote social justice and a peaceful, sustainable world.

Here is a list of readings and resources:

Teach-In for Palestine: No to Genocide, No to War, Ceasefire now! The recording of the teach-in is now available here and on their Facebook page.

March 27, 2023

Sociologists for Women in Society Statement Against Florida HB 999

Official Statement by Sociologists for Women in Society Against Florida HB 999

As an international organization of feminist sociologists, Sociologists for Women in Society (SWS) has been closely monitoring the recent spate of proposed bills and new laws across the country that threaten civil rights and free expression around race and gender. The political intent to reduce free expression and personal autonomy by criminalizing drag shows, gender-affirming medical care, full control of reproductive care, as well as stunting efforts toward diversity, equity, and inclusion across public and private entities is a matter of great concern for researchers who focus on gender and race among other inequalities. Yet, as feminist sociologists, Florida’s HB 999 is particularly chilling, not only to academic freedom, but to free expression and democracy more broadly. Proposed Bill HB 999, filed in the Florida House of Representatives on February 21, 2023, provides for significant opportunity for political intervention abridging free expression and academic freedom by students and faculty, especially around the issues of race and gender.

HB 999 places ultimate control for hiring and firing of faculty within political control of the Florida Governor’s office; it calls for the defunding of any activities on campus that attempt to increase diversity, equity or inclusion among the student body or the faculty and administration; and it explicitly intervenes in how curriculum can be organized.

We take issue with attempts to decrease racial and gender representation by defunding hard won initiatives to encourage full inclusion of all members of society. Yet this bill goes beyond simply defunding some offices. While hiring and discipline of faculty are typically a power explicitly held by the provost and faculty under a system of shared governance, this bill centralizes almost unchecked power in the Governor’s office and by the Governor’s appointees to university Boards of Trustees to control scholarship by controlling hiring of new faculty and the ability to call for impromptu “post-tenure review” of any faculty member “for cause”–an implicit threat of dismissal.

Further, (as of 3/24/23) this bill states that for each Board of Trustees “The board shall periodically review the mission of each constituent university and provide updates or revisions to such mission, as appropriate; upon completion of such review, examine existing academic programs at each constituent university for alignment with the university’s mission; and provide direction to each constituent university to remove from its programs any major or minor that is based on or otherwise utilizes pedagogical methodology associated with Critical Theory, including, but not limited to, Critical Race Theory, Critical Race Studies, Critical Ethnic Studies, Radical Feminist Theory, Radical Gender Theory, Queer Theory, Critical Social Justice, or  Intersectionality, as defined in Board of Governors regulation, or any major or minor that includes a curriculum that promotes the concepts listed in s. 1000.05(4)(a).” It should be worrisome to any democratic endeavor that any set of ideas is explicitly targeted for “removal” and that only race and gender are targeted by this bill. Importantly, none of the other federally-protected statuses such as veteran status or disability are similarly targeted for removal of programs.

The most basic purpose of tenure is to shield faculty—who are vetted by a five- to six-year process of peer-review—from political intervention in the pursuit of knowledge. This bill undermines that ethic entirely while chilling free expression around race and gender specifically and constitutes an unprecedented political overreach of a university system. We condemn these efforts to stifle crucial scholarship and teaching on racial and gender experience, expression, and equality and reject in the most vociferous terms the implied and explicit attempt to chill free expression. This bill allows governing boards and political appointees unprecedented oversight in the everyday decisions of governance. Conservative forces and right-wing extremism continue to flourish across the United States, and Florida is leading the way in attacking academic freedom.

HB 999 is a direct attack on the principles that are at the heart of SWS’s mission: it perpetuates the structural inequalities grounded in the intersecting identities of which it seeks to ban instruction, and it attacks academic freedom that exposes these structural inequalities. SWS recognizes the extremely negative effects this bill would have on our members in Florida, as well as the horrible consequences of such blatant frontal attacks on education and academic freedom in general.

SWS acknowledges the importance of academic freedom:

  • Public and private universities provide students and faculty the freedom to conduct research, study, and teach without fear of government censorship. The sta
  • te, including but not limited to elected politicians, administrators, and political appointees, has no role in hiring, evaluation, or curriculum content. Tenure must be sheltered from politics.
  • Faculty make curriculum choices, hire faculty, and evaluate the performance of students and faculty.

SWS is working on ways to address this serious threat to academic freedom, and we welcome your ideas for ways that we can partner with you and hope that you will share this information with your networks in solidarity.

Signed,
SWS Council on March 24, 2023

November 18, 2022

WS Stands in Solidarity with Iranian Protestors, SWS Council Endorses NWSA Statement

On November 16, 2022, SWS Council voted to endorse the National Women’s Studies Association’s statement below:

NWSA Stands in Solidarity with Iranian Protestors
we fight because we must
we rise up because there is no other path to freedom
except straight through the road of resistance
built by the hands of our oppressors

https://mailchi.mp/nwsa/nwsa-stands-in-solidarity-with-iranian-protestors

The National Women’s Studies Association (NWSA) is more than just an academic association. We are activists. We are freedom fighters. We are feminists. We are scholars. We understand that there are times when we must speak up because our silence will never protect us, and if we are not careful, our silence will always appear to be a sign of silent approval. We have never chosen and will never choose to stand with our oppressors. We are on the side of justice. We are on the side of liberation. And we stand on the side of oppressed people fighting to be free.

We have been watching what has been happening in Iran since September 16, when Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian woman, was arrested in Tehran by the Morality Police for “improperly” wearing her hajib. Amini was placed in detention, where she was beaten into a coma and later died. Since then, protests of solidarity have erupted all over the world, from Istanbul to Los Angeles. These are the moments—while the Iranian rallying cry “Women, Life, Freedom” is being heard worldwide and Iranian women and girls are cutting their hair and burning their hijabs in protest—when we must speak out. We add our voices to the collective, and we strongly condemn the detention and death of Mahsa Amini. We support the women and people of Iran as they work to resist and overturn the ongoing effort by the Morality Police to suppress Iranian women’s right to freedom of expression and opinion. We support self-determination and stand by a woman’s right to choose whether or not they want to veil. We also condemn the violence committed by the Iranian government against peaceful protestors that have resulted in injury, detention of more than 1000 protesters, and the deaths of at least 41 people. Furthermore, we condemn the Iranian government’s intentional suppression of information by shutting down mobile internet access, which is the most severe internet restriction Iran has implemented since 2019.

Additionally, we are compelled to add that as we are watching what is happening in Iran, we are also aware of what is happening right here in America on college campuses, in community centers, and in public and private spaces as politicians across the country are taking draconian steps to control our reproductive rights. We demand that they remove their hands from our wombs and their laws from our bodies. Women are not second-class citizens; despite what oppressive governments would like us to believe, and we do not accept second-class treatment.

We are now at the moment when everyone is being called upon to do something. The world is watching and will remember where we stood, who we stood with, and when we chose to speak up and out. At the same time, we want to remind our members that this is the moment to support but not appropriate the actions of Iranian women and girls for clout or likes or follows. Our goal is to stand with or behind them and not try to move in front of them.

NWSA understands that it is not enough for us to have discussions amongst ourselves within the protective silos of the Academy. We must speak out into the wind with a loud collective voice and say that Solidarity with Iranian Women is a Feminist Issue. We must stand together and add our voice to the collective call for peace, for justice, and for freedom.

Bending toward Social Justice,Karsonya Wise Whitehead, NWSA President (2021-2023)Beverly Guy Sheftall, NWSA President (2008-2010)The National Women’s Studies Association (NWSA)

******

We add here the link to the protest song that’s been galvanizing the unrest. The singer, Shervin Hajipour, was arrested several days ago. In the song, Shervin notes that people are protesting:

For my sister, your sister, our sistersFor embarrassed fathers with empty hands For the sigh over an ordinary lifeFor the child laborer and his dreams For this dictatorial economyFor this polluted airFor all those unstoppable tearsFor missing the murdered kids For the smiling facesFor the students and their future For all the smart ones in prisonFor the Afghan kids For all the meaningless slogansFor the feeling of peaceFor the sunrise after the long dark nights For the girl who wished she was born a boy…For Woman, Life, Freedom

******

For more information about what is happening in Iran (this is not an exhaustive list):

https://iranhumanrights.org/ https://www.en-hrana.org/******

The open “Call for Transnational Feminist Solidarity With Iranian Protests” shared the following statements from both inside and outside of Iran:

A collective of Iranian feminists  The Iranian Sociological AssociationThe Iranian Sociological AssociationThe International Sociological AssociationAcademics across the globeThe Association for Iranian Studies

November 16, 2022

The SWS Social Action Committee and Student Caucus drafted this statement and SWS Council voted to endorse this statement on November 16, 2022.

Student protests at Marquette University in Milwaukee, WI have recently made media headlines including Inside Higher Ed, but the institutional racism and deleterious campus climate for students of color is far from recent. On August 25, 2022, Marquette students gathered at the New Student Convocation to protest the lack of institutional resources and support for students of color on campus. Following the protest, 10 Marquette students of color were charged with student conduct code violations, including violating university policies. Soon thereafter, they were sanctioned, fined, and removed from campus leadership roles including elected positions of student government president and vice president, and leaders of campus groups including the Latin American Student Association and the Black Student Union, recently honored with the 2021 Student Activist Award from the Wisconsin Institute for Peace and Conflict Studies.

Marquette’s new demonstration policy requires most protests to be cleared by university administrators before they take place. This policy was adamantly opposed by faculty and students when it was first introduced in 2019 (see open letter in The Chronicle of Higher Education). Faculty criticized the policy, arguing that it restricted student and faculty demonstrations so severely that almost any form of protest could be categorized as “disruptive” and thus the policy further silenced the voices of the most marginalized on campus. Soon thereafter, the Marquette University chapter of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) was formed in 2020, standing up for academic freedom, free speech, and shared governance. AAUP members convened the chapter in response to threats of hundreds of faculty layoffs and permanent changes to university structures, policies, lack of transparency and, notably, lack of support for students, faculty, and staff of color.

Our solidarity

SWS members are invited to be in solidarity with Marquette students of color and their right to freedom of speech as a foundational value of a democratic society. As educators, we value students’ voices and their right to act together in dissent – and to speak out against institutional racism. These events and concerns at Marquette are not isolated but are part of a long history of systemic racism against students of color across college and university campuses, especially predominately white institutions. Our institutions continue to recruit and yet tokenize students of color without resourcing services and staff needed or adequately addressing discriminatory and hostile campus climates. And in this case, campus leaders retaliated and disciplined students of color for speaking out against unjust treatment and lack of support.

The concerns and experiences of Marquette students of color Matter, and they ought not be silenced or punished. SWS members value raising voices of dissent because through them we clearly see the systems of inequality embedded in our institutions and supported by campus leaders across the country. Educational systems must seek truth and knowledge free of suppression, free of threats, and free of fear of retribution. To address social challenges and injustices facing our communities, universities must stand up as places for critical analysis, discovery, reflection, growth, humanity, and active citizenship. A community of scholars and learners listen and engage each other toward generative conflict; not disproportionate punishments that further silence and marginalize a community of students and a campus of support

Our action. 

As a community of scholar-activists, we call each other in, to be in solidarity with Marquette students of color and encourage all students and scholars across our institutions to actively support each other to make Black Lives Matter on our campuses. This call to action includes promoting social justice and change through education, activism, and demonstration aimed at eradicating the injustices on our campuses. We call on universities across the country to prioritize freedom of expression, social justice, care and support, and thereby social transformation.

  • You can add your voice and your signature to the student-initiated Instagram account that has been started in support of the protestors and the petition demanding that Marquette University officials repeal all the penalties attached to the student conduct violations.
  • When Marquette University leadership removed students from their leadership positions, student stipends were forfeited, and threats to housing choices, study abroad opportunities, suspension and expulsion were enacted. In response, a Gofundme page remains active and ongoing to help address the fines, financial losses, and looming threats of further retaliation toward the students.

 

January 2022

SWS Call to Action Against Voter Disenfranchisement and Support for Federal Voting Rights Legislation  

Dear Colleagues:

This is a pivotal moment in our democracy. Consistent with voter suppression and election manipulation, hundreds of repressive bills propose to deliberately reassign, replace, or terminate key precinct- and state-wide easy and accessible voting practices, polling places, and election officials necessary for securing electoral justice. This brazen, cumulative attempt to subvert the will of the people persists, as the Senate refuses to back paths and actions to protect hard fought civil rights, federally. More than 34 voting restrictive laws have already been enacted across 19 states, demonstrating a coordinated effort to discourage, dilute, or delete the votes of Americans, particularly Black, Indigenous, and People of Color who have been historically and intentionally disenfranchised from their civil rights. These regressive actions predate the Jim Crow era, similarly extending from the same racialized motivations that fueled the deadly, attempted white supremacist coup on January 6, 2021 at our nation’s capitol. Not only are civil rights under attack but the very foundations of our participatory democracy are under siege. The Department of Justice must act against discriminatory anti-voting legislation.    

“With no sacredness of the ballot, there can be no sacredness of human life,” stated Black suffragist Ida B. Wells. This is because she and others, including but not limited to, Mary Church Terrell, Nannie Helen Burroughs, and Anna Julia Cooper faced intersecting oppression and outright overlapping threats. Today is no different; the work is ongoing. And like former Georgia gubernatorial candidate and founder of Fair Fight Action Stacey Abrams, we should not only be advocating for “free and fair elections” but doing so, understanding that “victory must begin to mean more than winning a single election.”

As an intersectional, feminist sociological organization, Sociologists for Women in Society (SWS) must take up voter suppression and political violence as central to our activist efforts to dismantle repressive systems of power. SWS is dedicated to promoting social justice through our recognition, advocacy, and support of activist spaces and communities. The actions we must take in this moment will resist and refuse white supremacy, or will enable it through inaction. We must be audacious, bold, and confident in our collective solidarity against oppressive, anti-democracy government and laws.

We acknowledge and take a definitive stand against articulations, actions, and inactions that encourage, support, or protect voting disenfranchisement. We denounce voter suppression and subversion in any form – restrictive identification, voter purging, poll intimidation, ballot tampering, prison-based gerrymandering, and more.

In solidarity with organizations like the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), and the NAACP, we echo the sentiments of the Legal Defense and Educational Fund (LDF) specifically, urging “members of the U.S. Senate to fulfill their Constitutional and moral obligations by immediately passing the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act by whatever legal means are necessary. Nothing less than the future of democracy in the U.S. is at stake” (NAACP-LDF)

We urge you to also take action, mindful that inaction is a form of complicity.  We cannot allow this orchestrated, unraveling of civil rights.

Time is of the essence.  Here’s how you can get involved immediately:

  1. You may write or call your state senators, asking them to support the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Amendment.  

For contacting your Senators particularly, and other elected officials at the federal, state, and local levels, go to: https://www.usa.gov/elected-officials 

Note: For phone calls, you should be prepared to leave your full street address whether a live exchange or voicemail, to ensure that your call is tallied.

  • Letter sample script for writing Senators (and other elected officials):

Hi, my name is _______________________ and I am a constituent of ______________________ (city and zip code).  I am writing to express support for the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Amendment and to recommend Senator ______________ backing for this legislation. This is even if it means also acting to abolish the filibuster, in order to clear a path. Accessible voting for all Americans should be protected and nonpartisan. This means voting should also be free of widespread restrictions, intimidation, and manipulation. The future of democracy is at stake.  With numerous restrictive laws enacted countrywide and as a constituent, I urge you to do the right thing and sooner rather than later by advancing federal voting rights acts and processes for them, towards the betterment of this nation.  

  • Phone call sample script for calling Senators (and other elected officials): 

Note: For phone calls, you should be prepared to leave your full street address whether a live exchange or voicemail, to ensure that your call is tallied.

Hi, my name is _______________________ and I am a constituent of ______________________ (city and zip code).  I am calling to express support for the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Amendment.  I am also calling to urge Senator ______________ to back this legislation. This is even if it means also acting to abolish the filibuster, in order to clear a path. Accessible voting for all Americans, free of intimidation and manipulation, should be a protected, nonpartisan matter. 

  1. Join efforts in your community, teaming up with organizations like:

Note: There are countless organizations tirelessly engaging in this effort daily.  The previous are just a few for reference.

  1. Take to social media, raising awareness and action through the use of hashtags such as:
  • #Giveustheballot
  • #votingrights
  • #FreedomToVoteAct
  • #VotingRightsAct
  • #DeliverForVotingRights
  • #JohnLewisAct

Stay tuned!  Other ways for getting involved may include but are not limited to:

  1. Joining or facilitating campus or workplace activities  
  2. Attending City Council and Town Hall meetings 
  3. Helping register people to vote (via in-person or phone banks)
  4. Postcarding
  5. Donating
  6. Volunteering at polling places
  7. Encouraging others to: know their voter registration statuses and registration deadlines; learn upcoming local/state/national election dates; order ballots early if voting via mail; and stay in line (take a folding chair, if necessary)

In solidarity,

SWS Executive Council and Social Action Committee

May 2021

Sociologists for Women in Society (SWS) Supports the Right to Mobilization of Women, Students, Indigenous and Afro-descendant Communities and Other Sectors of Cali, Colombia Who Called a National Strike to Oppose Unjust Laws that Deepen Social Inequalities Already Exacerbated by COVID-19

Written by SWS Member, Erika Márquez Montano of Universidad Icesi

As a professional feminist organization dedicated to promoting social justice and democratic principles, we support the right to mobilization of women, students, indigenous and Afro-descendant communities, as well as other sectors of Cali and other cities in Colombia who called on a national strike on April 28, 2021 to oppose unjust laws that deepen social inequalities already exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Cali ranks third highest among Columbian cities in inequality indicators. Large sections of the population face difficulties in accessing health, quality education, and job security, at the same time that young people lack opportunities thus facing a future of labor precariousness and uncertainty. With the pandemic, this situation has been exacerbated. According to official statistics, many families have gone from eating 3 to 2 meals a day — which constitutes a serious indicator of growing food insecurity. Cali women, on the other hand, are overrepresented in the informal economy and bear a disproportionate burden regarding unpaid care work as well as alarming rates of gender-based violence exacerbated by the pandemic.

The social outbreak resulting from these conditions has been confronted by the government with a wave of unparalleled state repression, leading to serious human rights violations. The non-governmental organization Temblores reports alarming figures of police violence including 31 deaths and 841 arbitrary detentions up to the morning of May 4, 2021. These acts of violence especially target young people at protest points and rely on terror tactics such as cutting power and internet communications at night in order to prevent citizens from documenting the abuses. All this is in addition to a widespread climate of intolerance against protesters backed up by the documented intervention of agent provocateurs supported by the police forces. Efforts to document these situations have been compounded by the obstacles that human rights bodies face in their work to verify police violence as it was recently denounced by a United Nations verification mission that was harassed by armed mobs. At the same time, at least 10 cases of gender and sexual-based violence by security forces against women protestors have been documented.

We urge Colombian authorities to review the conditions of inequality that affect women and the population at large, including consideration to the reforms of harming laws on taxation, health, and pensions that are now being discussed in Congress. We call for the demilitarization of protest and civil life that aggravate adverse security conditions for women and youth. A peaceful agreement should be reached urgently in a way that accounts for the protesters’ demands as well as for the unrestricted respect for the physical, sexual and psychological integrity of the protesters including especially women and young people already at risk of violence and social vulnerability. We stand in solidarity with the local women’s social movement which has fiercely defied the climate of violence, leading efforts to reach solutions for the crisis. We call upon the international community to pursue all efforts for a just and peaceful resolution of this conflict which is pushing the whole country on the verge of a serious democracy breach.

Spanish Translation

Translated by SWS Member, Erika Márquez Montano of Universidad Icesi

(Sociólogas por las Mujeres en la Sociedad)

Como organización profesional feminista dedicada a promover la justicia social y los principios democráticos, apoyamos el derecho a la movilización de mujeres, estudiantes, comunidades indígenas y afrodescendientes, así como de los demás sectores de Cali y otras ciudades en Colombia que convocaron un paro nacional el 28 de abril de 2021 para oponerse a leyes injustas que profundizan las desigualdades sociales ya exacerbadas por la pandemia del COVID-19.

Cali es la tercera ciudad colombiana en indicadores de desigualdad. Grandes capas de la población enfrentan dificultades de acceso a la salud, a la educación de calidad y a la seguridad laboral, al mismo tiempo que sus jóvenes afrontan un difícil panorama de falta de oportunidades y un contexto de precariedad e incertidumbre laboral. Con la pandemia, este contexto se ha agravado. De acuerdo con estadísticas oficiales, muchas familias han pasado de consumir 3 a 2 comidas diarias, lo que se constituye en un grave indicador de creciente inseguridad alimentaria. Las mujeres de Cali, por otra parte, están sobrerrepresentadas en la economía informal y enfrentan una carga desproporcionada del trabajo de cuidado, así como alarmantes índices de violencias basadas en género agudizadas por la pandemia.

El estallido social resultante de estas condiciones ha sido confrontado por el gobierno con una ola sin precedentes de represión estatal que ha conducido a graves violaciones de derechos humanos. La organización no gubernamental Temblores reporta cifras alarmantes de violencia policial incluyendo 31 muertes y 841 detenciones arbitrarias hasta la mañana del 4 de mayo de 2021. Estos actos de violencia se dirigen especialmente a jóvenes en los puntos de protesta y se basan en tácticas de terror tales como los cortes nocturnos de energía y comunicaciones de internet para evitar que los ciudadanos documenten los abusos. Esto ocurre en conjunto con un clima de intolerancia contra quienes se manifiestan y se refleja en actos como la intervención documentada de agentes provocadores apoyados por las fuerzas policiales. Los esfuerzos por registrar estas situaciones han sido agravados por los obstáculos que enfrentan los cuerpos de derechos humanos en su trabajo de documentar la violencia policial, como fue denunciado recientemente por una misión de verificación de Naciones Unidas que fue hostigada por una turba de personas armadas. Al mismo tiempo, se han documentado al menos 10 casos de violencias de género y sexuales cometidas por la fuerza pública contra mujeres que participan en la protesta.

Exhortamos a las autoridades a revisar las condiciones de inequidad que afectan a las mujeres y a toda la población, incluida la consideración de las reformas a leyes sobre tributación, salud y pensiones que se discuten en el congreso. Llamamos a la desmilitarización de la protesta y de la vida civil que agravan las adversas condiciones de seguridad que enfrentan mujeres y jóvenes.  De manera urgente debe alcanzarse un acuerdo pacífico que dé cuenta de las demandas de quienes protestan, y que permita el respeto irrestricto a la integridad física, sexual y psicológica de los manifestantes, incluyendo especialmente a las mujeres y a los jóvenes ya en riesgo de violencias y vulnerabilidad social.  Nos solidarizamos con el movimiento social de mujeres local, el cual ha desafiado con fuerza el clima de violencia para apoyar los esfuerzos que permitan alcanzar soluciones a la crisis. Llamamos a la comunidad internacional a buscar todos los esfuerzos para alcanzar una resolución justa y pacífica de este conflicto que está empujando al país al borde de una grave ruptura democrática.

April 2021

Sociologists for Women in Society (SWS)

Stands in Solidarity with Dominican Feminists

Defending Women’s and Girls’ Lives, Health and Dignity

Link: https://socwomen.org/sws-stands-in-solidarity-with-dominican-feminists-defending-womens-and-girls-lives-health-and-dignity/

PDF and Word DOC 

During the early hours of April 20, 2021, police officers arrived at the public space in front of the National Congress in Santo Domingo, the Dominican Republic, and proceeded to violently evict the young feminist activists who had been camping there. The activists were staying there in the most recent mobilization in the movement’s 20-year-plus fight to decriminalize abortion under three exceptional circumstances or “causales”: when a woman’s life is in danger, the pregnancy is not viable or in cases of rape or incest as the Dominican Republic is one of the very few countries in the world that penalizes abortion under all circumstances.

Sociologists for Women in Society (SWS), a professional feminist organization with 1045 members, stands in solidarity with the Dominican feminist movement and firmly condemns this arbitrary and anti-democratic action. SWS also supports the Feminist Camp or Campamento de las Causales, the first camp feminists established in front of the Presidential Palace on March 11, 2021  (LINK: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/fight-against-dominican-republic-s-total-abortion-ban-intensifies-after-n1263978) calling attention to the need to partially decriminalize abortion to save women’s and girls’ lives and protect their health and dignity.

The aggression by the police took place just a day after unknown criminals sent a poisoned dessert to the Camp, which resulted in 12 people intoxicated including activists, visitors, and members of the press. It was precisely because of the widespread manifestations of support from the public at large (in the forms of free food, blankets, desserts, and funds) that the activists were caught off guard and accepted what seemed to be another well-intentioned gift. Similarly, the Campamento de las Causales has received widespread support from healthcare professionals, academics, constitutional lawyers, and many other civil society organizations in the Dominican Republic and international organizations as you can see in this interview with SWS Sister to Sister Committee Co-Chair, Dr. Esther Hernández-Medina (LINK: https://boycottx.org/las-3-causales/ ) .

Clandestine abortions represent the third cause of maternal death in the country (LINK: https://www.hrw.org/report/2018/11/19/its-your-decision-its-your-life/total-criminalization-abortion-dominican-republic), and two thirds of female college-age students know someone who has gone through an abortion procedure according to a recent study by PROFAMILIA, the leading family planning NGO in the Dominican Republic (LINK: https://profamilia.org.do/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/Situación-del-aborto-en-RD-min.pdf ). However, President Luis Abinader has backed down from his and his party’s longstanding support to las causales and is now proposing a national referendum to resolve the issue.

These challenges and the unacceptable acts on the part of the police and cowardly criminals will not deter our comrades in the Dominican Republic and will only motivate more people to join their just fight. Please help us by disseminating information about their struggle using #LasCausalesVan and #rd3causales on social media, writing to President Abinader through the Dominican embassy in the US (LINK: http://drembassyusa.org ) or donating to the GoFundMe Campaign to support the Camp (LINK: https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-in-the-fight-for-las-tres-causales-in-dr). Your support is crucial as the Dominican Chamber of Representatives has started debating the inclusion of the causales in the Penal Code this week and we need to show them and all Dominican authorities that women’s and girls’ lives and health are not negotiable.

—

La asociación internacional “Sociologists for Women in Society” (Sociólogas/os por las Mujeres en la Sociedad) manifiesta su solidaridad con las feministas dominicanas que defienden la vida, salud y dignidad de las mujeres y niñas 

Durante las tempranas horas del 20 de abril de 2021, agentes policiales llegaron al espacio público en frente del Congreso Nacional en Santo Domingo, República Dominicana y procedieron a desalojar de manera violenta a las jóvenes feministas activistas que se habían instalado en un campamento horas antes. Las activistas se encontraban en el lugar como parte del proceso de movilización más reciente en la lucha de más de 20 años del movimiento feminista por la despenalización del aborto en tres circunstancias excepcionales o “causales” (cuando la vida de la mujer está en peligro, cuando el embarazo es inviable o en casos de violación o incesto) ya que la República Dominicana es uno de los pocos países en el mundo que prohíbe el aborto en todas las circunstancias.

Sociologists for Women in Society (SWS) (Sociólogas/os por las Mujeres en la Sociedad), una asociación profesional feminista internacional con 1,045 integrantes, manifiesta su solidaridad con el movimiento feminista dominicano y condena firmemente esta acción arbitraria y anti-democrática. SWS también apoya el Campamento de las Causales, el primer campamento establecido por nuestras compañeras feministas en frente del Palacio Nacional desde el 11 de marzo de 2021 para llamar la atención sobre la necesidad de despenalizar el aborto de manera parcial para salvar la vida de las mujeres y niñas y proteger su salud y dignidad.

La agresión por parte de la Policía tuvo lugar solo un día después de que personas criminales desconocidas enviaran un postre envenenado al Campamento, acción que llevó a que 12 personas resultaran intoxicadas incluyendo activistas, personas que estaban de visita en el campamento y miembros de la prensa. Las amplias manifestaciones de apoyo recibidas del público en general (a través del envío de comida, frazadas, postres y fondos) fue precisamente lo que llevó a que las activistas fueran sorprendidas en su buena fe y aceptaran lo que parecía ser otro regalo bien intencionado. De manera similar, el Campamento de las Causales ha recibido amplias manifestaciones de apoyo de profesionales de la salud, abogados/as constitucionalistas, académicos/as y muchas otras organizaciones de la sociedad civil en la República Dominicana al igual que de organizaciones internacionales como pueden ver en esta entrevista con la Co-Coordinadora del Comité Sister to Sister (Hermana a Hermana) de SWS, la Dra. Esther Hernández-Medina.

Los abortos clandestinos representan la tercera causa de mortalidad materna en el país, y dos terceras partes de las estudiantes universitarias conocen a otra mujer joven que ha pasado por la experiencia del aborto clandestino de acuerdo con un estudio reciente de PROFAMILIA, la ONG líder en temas de planificación familiar en la República Dominicana. Sin embargo, el presidente Luis Abinader ha abandonado su compromiso y el de su partido con las causales y ahora está proponiendo llevar a cabo un referéndum nacional para resolver la situación.

Estos desafíos y las actuaciones inaceptables de parte de la Policía y de criminales desconocidos no van a desalentar a nuestras compañeras y compañeros en la República Dominicana y solo van a motivar a más gente a unirse a su justa lucha. Por favor, ayúdanos compartiendo información sobre su lucha usando los hashtags #LasCausalesVan y #rd3causales en las redes sociales, escribiendo al Presidente Abinader a través de la embajada dominicana en los Estados Unidos o donando a la campaña de GoFundMe para apoyar el Campamento (LINK:). Tu apoyo es crucial ya que la Cámara de Diputados de la República Dominicana está debatiendo la inclusión de las causales en el Código Penal esta semana y necesitamos mostrarles a ellos/as y a todas las autoridades dominicanas que la vida y salud de las mujeres y niñas no son negociables.

Traducción de Esther Hernández Medina
Texto original en inglés: https://socwomen.org/sws-stands-in-solidarity-with-dominican-feminists-defending-womens-and-girls-lives-health-and-dignity/

March 22, 2021

SWS Council Votes to Sign the Collective Statement – A Community-Centered Response to Violence Against Asian American Communities 

As an intersectional, anti-racist, feminist professional organization dedicated to promoting social justice and dismantling intersecting systems of oppression, Sociologists for Women in Society (SWS) adds its voice to the growing number of organizations that strongly condemn all forms of violence that are rooted in systemic racism. Today, Monday, March 22, 2021, SWS signed onto the statement issued by Asian Americans Advancing Justice – Atlanta.

The full statement can be located HERE, at this website:

https://www.advancingjustice-atlanta.org/aaajcommunitystatement

We mourn the loss of the 8 victims of the Atlanta Spa Shootings.

  • Xiaojie Tan
  • Daoyou Feng
  • Delaina Ashley Yaun Gonzalez
  • Paul Andre Michels
  • Soon Chung Park
  • Hyun Grant
  • Suncha Kim
  • Yong Ae Yue 

Link to article: https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2021/03/these-are-the-victims-of-the-atlanta-spa-shootings.html

We encourage you to review this statement and to consider signing it as well. The website has the statement translated into the following three languages: Chinese, Vietnamese, and Korean.

—

Collective Statement – A Community-Centered Response to Violence Against Asian American Communities

On March 16, eight people were killed at three different spas in North Georgia including six Asian women. We are heartbroken by these murders, which come at a time when Asian American communities are already grappling with the traumatic violence against Asian Americans nationwide, fueled by the United States’ long history of white supremacy, systemic racism, and gender-based violence.

As we collectively grieve and respond to this tragedy, we must lead with the needs of those most directly impacted at the center: the victims and their families. And during this time of broader crisis and trauma in our Asian American communities, we must be guided by a compass of community care that prioritizes assessing and addressing our communities’ immediate needs, including in-language support for mental health, legal, employment, and immigration services.

We must also stand firm in decrying misogyny, systemic violence, and white supremacy. We must invest in long-term solutions that address the root causes of violence and hate in our communities. We reject increased police presence or carceral solutions as the answers.

For centuries, our communities have been frequently scapegoated for issues perpetuated by sexism, xenophobia, capitalism, and colonialism. Asians were brought to the United States to boost the supply of labor and keep wages low, while being silenced by discriminatory laws and policies. From the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882, to the incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II, to the forced migration of refugees from U.S.-led military conflict in Southeast Asia, to post-9/11 surveillance targeting Muslim and South Asian communities, to ICE raids on Southeast Asian communities and Asian-owned businesses, Asian American communities have been under attack by white supremacy.

Working class communities of color are disproportionately suffering from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The Trump administration’s relentless scapegoating of Asians for the pandemic has only exacerbated the impact on Asian business owners and frontline workers and inflamed existing racism. The hypersexualization of Asian American women and the broad normalization of violence against women of color, immigrant women, and poor women make Asian American women particularly vulnerable. Hate incidents against Asian Americans rose by nearly 150% in 2020, with Asian American women twice as likely to be targeted.

We are calling on our allies to stand with us in grief and solidarity against systemic racism and gender-based violence. Violence against Asian American communities is part of a larger system of violence and racism against all communities of color, including Black, Brown, and Indigenous communities.

In this time of crisis, let’s come together and build just communities, where we are all safe, where all workers are treated with dignity and respect, and where all our loved ones thrive.

Please see this statement in the SWS Response to White Supremacy/Systemic Racism section of our website: https://socwomen.org/sws-responds-to-white-supremacy-systemic-racism/

January 2021

SWS Recommends Establishing Office for Gender Equity in the Department of Education

See Letter Sent to Biden-Harris Transition Team

To view this letter on the Feminist Majority Foundation website, click HERE.

—

FEMINIST MAJORITY FOUNDATION

January 8, 2021

Linda Darling-Hammond, Director of the Biden-Harris Education Transition Team and the Transition Team

Dear Dr. Darling-Hammond and the Department of Education Transition Team,

The undersigned organizations, all of whom support greatly increased attention to educational equity, recommend that the Biden-Harris Department of Education (ED) prioritize establishing an Office for Gender Equity reporting to the Secretary of Education as soon as possible. This Office is the first priority in a longer letter sent to the transition teams by the National Coalition for Women and Girls in Education.

Creation of an Office for Gender Equity is critical in restoring and ensuring opportunity, safety, and gender equity in education particularly as the Department of Education rectifies the 2020 changes to the Title IX Regulations and withdrawal of important Guidance documents by the Trump Administration and as it advances initiatives to ensure educational opportunity for all. The Office for Gender Equity is immediately needed to obtain public input on revising theTitle IX regulations relating to sexual harassment and assault and other rescinded guidance on transgender individuals and Title IX Coordinators. It is also crucial that the new Biden-Harris Department of Education show proactive gender equity leadership to help establish an effective national infrastructure of Title IX Coordinators and other gender equity experts to implement full eradication of long-standing sex discrimination with attention to compounded discrimination based on race, disability, English Language Learners, immigration, pregnancy/parenting, and LGBTQ status in education. An Office for Gender Equity is also needed to coordinate policy and make high quality gender equity resources including research, policies, training, and student materials available to the public by re-establishing a Gender Equity Web-based Resource Center to serve all levels from pre-k to higher and adult education.

We recommend that the Department create the Office for Gender Equity administratively, with its Director reporting to the Secretary of Education. This office is also proposed in the Gender Equity Education Act (GEEA), and a Special Assistant for Gender Equity was authorized in the Department of Education Organization Act. A proactive ED Office for Gender Equity would also complement the parallel offices charged with leadership and coordination on gender issues in federal health agencies, Department of Labor, and the U.S. Department of State.

The gender equity community has been a long-time supporter of the GEEA and its predecessor, the Women’s Educational Equity Act (WEEA), which was the only federal legislation specifically focused on implementing Title IX. The current version of GEEA– the Patsy T. Mink and Louise K. Slaughter Gender Equity Education Act of 2019-20

(S. 1964, HR 3513) sponsored by Senator Mazie Hirono and Representative Doris Matsui outlines the many responsibilities of the Office, such as policy making, training, dissemination, and federal coordination within ED as well as with other government offices. It also emphasizes the need for intersectional approaches to gender and other civil rights protections.

Hopefully, when the 117th Congress passes GEEA, the existing Office for Gender Equity would assume responsibility for implementing the GEEA grants program to expand the necessary gender equity infrastructure, including well-trained Title IX Coordinators and gender equity experts. As appropriate, the Office for Gender Equity would also be home for other legislative gender equity programs, dealing with sexual harassment and assault, STEM, athletics and of course it would coordinate closely with the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) and White House equity initiatives.

Establishing an Office for Gender Equity at the beginning of the Biden-Harris Administration is an important and unmistakable signal of support for gender equity leadership. It gives the Biden-Harris Administration a head start on strengthening the Department’s capacity to address gender equity and will be an important asset in securing passage and needed implementation funding for GEEA and other civil rights legislation.

We urge the Transition Team to recommend the establishment of an Office for Gender Equity in the Biden-Harris Department of Education as soon as possible. Thank you for your consideration.

Cordially,

Feminist Majority Foundation-Eleanor Smeal, President and Sue Klein, Ed.D, Education Equity Director.

Organizations that signed as of 1-8-21: (117 organizations)

1st Amendment-1st Vote, Inc.
Activism Caucus of the Association for Women in Psychology
Alcyone LLC
Allies Reaching for Equity
American Association of University Women (AAUW)
Arkansas Department of Elementary & Secondary Education, Equity Assistance Center Augustus F. Hawkins Foundation
Autistic Self Network
BHS Stop Harassing
BRAV Consultations
California National Organization for Women
Casa de Esperanza: National Latin@Network for Healthy Families and Communities Catholics for Choice
Center for Advancement of Public Policy
Center for Partnership Studies
Central New York NOW Chapter
Champion Women
Charlottesville National Organization for Women Claremont Graduate University-Applied Gender Studies Clearinghouse on Women’s Issue
Coalition of Labor Union Women
Collin College
Committee for Equity in Women’s Surfing Democratic Womens Club of The Villages, FL Disability Rights New York
Displaced Homemakers Network of New Jersey, Inc. Durham NOW, Pauli Murray Chapter
East Valley Indivisibles
Education Law Center-PA
Equal Means Equal
End Rape on Campus
ERA Coalition
Feminist Majority Foundation
Florida NOW
Florida NOW Education Fund
Gender & Sexuality Studies Program at The University of Miami Girls Inc.
Girls on the Run International
Guam Department of Education
Healthy Teen Network
High School Title IX Consulting Services, LLC
Hollywood Chapter, National Organization for Women
Illinois Accountability Initiative
Indiana NOW
Institute for Women’s Policy Research
Japanese American Citizens League
Jewish Women International
Justice for Migrant Women
Langelan & Associates
Legal Momentum, the Women’s Legal Defense and Education Fund Liberal Ladies Who Lunch of SE Kansas
Loudoun County NOW
MANA, A National Latina Organization
Maryland Commission for Women
Maryland National Organization for Women
Maryland Women’s Heritage Center
Michigan NOW Fund’s Heritage Center
Michigan Organization on Adolescent Sexual Health (MOASH) Monmouth County Democratic Women’s Caucus
Monroe County NOW
Multicultural Dimensions
National Alliance for Partnerships in Equity (NAPE)
National Center for Transgender Equality National Congress of Black Women, Inc National Council of Negro Women, Inc. National Equal Rights Amendment Alliance, Inc National Organization for Women
National Organization for Women, Alaska
National Organization for Women, Baltimore City/County
National Organization for Women, Columbia (MO) Area
National Organization for Women, Seattle Chapter
National Organization for Women, Texas
National Partnership for Women and Families
National Resource Center on Domestic Violence
National Women’s Law Center
National Women’s Political Caucus
New Moon Girls
Ni-Ta-Nee NOW (Centre County PA National Organization for Women)
North Jersey Sierra Group
Northern New Jersey NOW
Ohio National Organization for Women
Oregon Safe Schools and Communities Coalition
Picture Social Justice, Inc.
Pinellas County National Organization for Women
Racial Unity Team (RUT)
Renew California
Reproaction
Saving Democracy Team of the Villages, FL
Shift Cultures: One Student
Shrewsbury, New Jersey, Democratic Club
Sociologists for Women in Society
South Jersey NOW-Alice Paul chapter
Southwest PA National Organization for Women
Sport Equity
Stop Sexual Assault in Schools
Tacoma NOW
The Hub Project
The Global Community of Women in High School Sports
The Goddess Temple of Palm Springs
The Unity Council
US National Committee for UN Women
University of Hawaii at Manoa, Dept. of Women’s Studies and Dept. of English Urban Learning Teaching and Research: American Ed Research Assoc: SIG ULTR Virginia NOW, Inc.
VoteERA.org
Washington State National Organization for Women Westchester NY National Organization for Women
Wild West Women, Inc.
Women Enabled International
Women Leading in Education Across Continents Women’s Equal Justice Project
Women’s Media Center’s
Women’s Sports Foundation
Women’s Studies Department, Old Dominion University YWCA USA

Additional Well Known Individuals who signed:

Lawrence Bloom, former Chicago City Council Member
Letty Cottin Pogrebin, co-founder of Ms. Magazine, writer and activist

 

SWS Condemns Atrocities at the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021

Dear Colleagues,

Many of us have had our eyes glued to the news since January 6th, when urged by the United States President, a group of white supremacist domestic terrorists breached the United States Capitol in an effort to block the certification of the 2020 Presidential Election. In the days since the event, we have seen that the Capitol insurrection was far more serious and violent than what we even previously thought. Further, in stark contrast to the Capitol Police’s physical presence and their harassment and brutality towards Black Lives Matter protesters just this summer, many in the Capitol Police seemed to actively or passively aid domestic terrorists in their attack on the Capitol. These events were certainly unprecedented, but they were also not unexpected. For months, the President and his extremist supporters have been openly planning these events and literally telling us this would happen. In the days leading up to the inauguration, we may see more violence.

As an intersectional, anti-racist, feminist professional organization dedicated to promoting social justice and dismantling intersecting systems of oppression, Sociologists for Women in Society (SWS) adds its voice to the growing number of organizations that strongly condemn the insurrection by white supremacist domestic terrorists last week. We hold the President of the United States, Donald J. Trump, responsible for inciting this atrocity. We call upon our elected officials to hold him accountable for his actions. We support that the 25th Amendment be invoked, or the immediacy of impeachment proceedings. Additionally, we join other organizations in demanding a full investigation and the termination of any Capitol Police involved in aiding the domestic terrorists and the expulsion of any lawmakers who incited this violence through spreading lies/conspiracy theories about the 2020 Election.

However, this only addresses the events that occurred on January 6th. As sociologists, we need to better understand the conditions in which Donald J. Trump came to power and became increasingly fascist. Throughout campaign speeches and rallies since 2016, Trump has openly used ableist, sexist, racist, and/or xenophobic rhetoric to incite his base. And yet, he not only won the 2016 Presidential Election, more than 74 million people in the United States voted for Trump in the 2020 Presidential Election after his “ist” rhetoric had only become more blatant and overt and after he grossly mishandled a global pandemic that has resulted in more than 2.7 million people contracting the virus and the deaths of more than 367,000 people. Brown and Black people in the United States are disproportionately affected by COVID-19. The COVID tracking project and researchers at Boston University report that Black individuals have “died at 1.6 times the rate of white people.” The Black Lives Matter protests of Summer 2020 and the growing documentation of the “Karen phenomenon” in which white women call the police to falsely claim criminal activity of Black people, particularly Black men, highlight a need to better understand deeply seated racism that permeates throughout the United States.

In short, we have been witnessing white supremacy in every layer of our government, in our healthcare system, in our academic institutions, and in our daily interactions. As sociologists, we can certainly increase our understanding of these processes that reproduce inequality, but we can also do more. In recent weeks, we have seen celebrations for the social justice work of Black women, but we have also seen calls from Black women for others to share the burden of this important work. Audre Lorde’s essay “The Transformation of Silence into Language and Action” (1977) still inspires us to reflect and to act, particularly the following excerpt:

What are the words you do not yet have? What do you need to say? What are the tyrannies you swallow day by day and attempt to make your own, until you will sicken and die of them, still in silence? Perhaps for some of you here today, I am the face of one of your fears. Because I am woman, because I am Black, because I am lesbian, because I am myself – a Black woman warrior poet doing my work – come to ask you, are you doing yours?

Are we doing our work? We call our members to action, to reflect on these questions, and to get to work because clearly, we have a lot of work to do. We encourage members to attend relevant programming at our upcoming Winter Meeting and to stay tuned for future opportunities and resources for action from SWS.

In Solidarity,

SWS Council

January 13, 2021

SWS Endorses AHA Issues Statement on the Recent “White House Conference on American History” (September 2020)

October 1, 2020

The AHA has issued a statement on last week’s “White House Conference on American History” deploring the tendentious use of history and history education to stoke politically motivated culture wars.

Link to the full statement that SWS has signed onto can be located HERE, or at this direct link:

https://www.historians.org/news-and-advocacy/aha-advocacy/aha-statement-on-the-recent-white-house-conference-on-american-history-(september-2020)

SWS Black Lives Matter Research Statement

July 15, 2020

As Black Lives Matter protests are ongoing in the United States and around the world, numerous sociologists are viewing these protests not only as opportunities to push for social change, but also as opportunities to better understand how social movements work. Given the emergent nature of these protests, some sociology faculty members working with students on collective action research may rely on students to collect data at these protests. While these protests may provide opportunities for student researchers, there are associated risks to be taken into account.

Therefore, sociology faculty should be careful not to ask students to put their bodies at risk for the sake of faculty research. The risk for these students is two-fold: the risk of COVID transmission and the risk of police brutality at the protests. Police use of force, chemical weapons, and tactics like kettling and arrests are still common, and their deployment is unpredictable. For students of color, the risks of suffering targeted police violence are even greater.

While Institutional Review Boards (IRBs) are in place to ensure ethical treatment of research subjects, we do not have the same guidelines for ethical treatment of student researchers.  As scientists, we should not assume that all students (graduate and undergraduate) will fully understand the scope of risks associated with this type of research.  In the event that fully informed students choose to participate then the risks and costs we ask students to bear must be proportional to the benefits they receive in terms of payment or academic compensation, such as co-authorship.

Under no circumstances should students be asked to volunteer for this type of research given the power differential between students and faculty. Volunteering poses an additional layer of risks because unlike paid research assistants, volunteers are not even covered by any form of institutional protection. If volunteer students were to be harmed (arrested, kettled, tear gassed, or even killed) at these protests, the university is not liable to represent them or compensate them.

Faculty members should keep in mind that undergraduate and graduate students may feel pressured to do this kind of research to maintain good relationships with their faculty advisors and mentors. As sociologists, we have the responsibility to remain aware of the power relationships in our educational programs. It would be unethical and exploitative to add our research projects to the list of structural inequalities our students face. Our students and the discipline of sociology deserve better.

July 3, 2020

Petition Against Public University Bill

Ghana Studies Association

an international affiliate of the African Studies Association

Please Click HERE for more information on the Ghana Studies Association website.

/ June 11, 2020

WE OPPOSE GHANA’S PUBLIC UNIVERSITY BILL

[SIGNATURE CAMPAIGN]

We, the undersigned, are scholars based in Ghana and all across the world who are horrified at the intention of the Ghanaian government to pass the Public University Bill. This draconian bill, which seeks to hand over control of tertiary education to the Executive Branch of the Government of Ghana, is a reversal of several decades of progress made by Ghana as an independent, democratic nation.

We hereby join the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Ghana Studies Association, and other members of the Ghanaian academia and public in calling for the complete rejection of a bill that is unconstitutional, unjustified, and harmful to the mission of public universities.

It is unclear the specific problem the bill seeks to solve that cannot be addressed with existing laws or with broad-based consultation with the universities themselves.  Rather than speaking to the challenges faced by public universities in Ghana (including lack of government funding and the lack of capacity to absorb increasing demand), the  bill proposes changes that are inimical to the development of tertiary education in Ghana, and that will negatively affect students, scholars, researchers, and international collaboration.

Among other harmful changes, the bill seeks to

  • bring University Councils under the control of the Executive by handing majority representation to the Executive arm of government, in contravention of the constitution of the Republic of Ghana;
  • diminish the autonomy and capacity of public universities to respond to changing research priorities, funding opportunities, and student and faculty needs in dynamic national and global contexts;
  • give the Sector Minister undue influence over the day-to-day management of the universities.

We are disappointed that a government that should allow intellectual work to thrive independently would instead seek to crush academic freedom, which is explicitly protected under the Constitution. Ghana’s Fourth Republic has been one of the most vibrant in Africa. This bill undermines that legacy.

We conclude by asking the Executive to withdraw the bill; failing this, Parliament should exercise its independence of the Executive by rejecting it outright.

[Click on this link or this URL: https://forms.gle/85pktgdUNNJdmjzC7  to add your signature.

The petition has garnered 2,500+ signatures from university faculty and administrators, students, and concerned citizens in Ghana and around the world.]

MORE INFORMATION ON THE PUB

See the GSA statement for further explanation of why the bill is being rejected as unconstitutional, unnecessary and harmful to the future of higher education.

**Download the PUB Factsheet for more information on why there is such strenuous opposition to the Bill. The factsheet also provides links to news items related to the Bill and answers frequently asked questions.

/ June 11, 2020

WE OPPOSE GHANA’S PUBLIC UNIVERSITY BILL

[SIGNATURE CAMPAIGN]

We, the undersigned, are scholars based in Ghana and all across the world who are horrified at the intention of the Ghanaian government to pass the Public University Bill. This draconian bill, which seeks to hand over control of tertiary education to the Executive Branch of the Government of Ghana, is a reversal of several decades of progress made by Ghana as an independent, democratic nation.

We hereby join the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Ghana Studies Association, and other members of the Ghanaian academia and public in calling for the complete rejection of a bill that is unconstitutional, unjustified, and harmful to the mission of public universities.

It is unclear the specific problem the bill seeks to solve that cannot be addressed with existing laws or with broad-based consultation with the universities themselves.  Rather than speaking to the challenges faced by public universities in Ghana (including lack of government funding and the lack of capacity to absorb increasing demand), the  bill proposes changes that are inimical to the development of tertiary education in Ghana, and that will negatively affect students, scholars, researchers, and international collaboration.

Among other harmful changes, the bill seeks to

  • bring University Councils under the control of the Executive by handing majority representation to the Executive arm of government, in contravention of the constitution of the Republic of Ghana;
  • diminish the autonomy and capacity of public universities to respond to changing research priorities, funding opportunities, and student and faculty needs in dynamic national and global contexts;
  • give the Sector Minister undue influence over the day-to-day management of the universities.

We are disappointed that a government that should allow intellectual work to thrive independently would instead seek to crush academic freedom, which is explicitly protected under the Constitution. Ghana’s Fourth Republic has been one of the most vibrant in Africa. This bill undermines that legacy.

We conclude by asking the Executive to withdraw the bill; failing this, Parliament should exercise its independence of the Executive by rejecting it outright.

[Click on this link or this URL: https://forms.gle/85pktgdUNNJdmjzC7  to add your signature.

The petition has garnered 2,500+ signatures from university faculty and administrators, students, and concerned citizens in Ghana and around the world.]

MORE INFORMATION ON THE PUB

See the GSA statement for further explanation of why the bill is being rejected as unconstitutional, unnecessary and harmful to the future of higher education.

**Download the PUB Factsheet for more information on why there is such strenuous opposition to the Bill. The factsheet also provides links to news items related to the Bill and answers frequently asked questions.

July 2, 2020

BNHR, Coalition of Organizations, Calls for El Paso City Officials to Demand Police Chief Gregg Allen’s Resignation and Immediately Implement Changes in EPPD

Please Click HERE for more information.

June 10, 2020

SWS Statement on White Supremacy

An SWS Call to Action

The recent racist threat toward Christian Cooper and the murders of Black people –Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, George Floyd and other victims of violence–are not isolated events. These are historical and pervasive incidents from the result of a system built on white supremacy. COVID-19 laid bare how racism is a public health crisis, with an overrepresentation of Black people being hospitalized for the virus, leading Roxane Gay to state “[t]he disparities that normally fracture our culture are becoming even more pronounced as we decide, collectively, what we choose to save — what deserves to be saved.”

 

The policing and weaponizing of white fear by law enforcement and non-Black people are also not the result of a few bad actors. Black individuals continue to endure racist discrimination related to profiling, criminalization, and state violence. These same Black people have led the effort to dismantle racist oppression.

As feminist sociologists and scholars it is our duty to be co-conspirators in the movement for making Black lives matter.

To Black feminist members: We offer our sincerest and heartfelt condolences not only to the families and friends of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, and George Floyd, but also to those in the Black community who are mourning. We acknowledge the grief, anguish, and outrage that is being felt throughout the Black community, which many of us are a part of. These persistent tragedies of racist violence and harassment leaves us deeply saddened.  As a community of scholars, we remain committed to our mission of “promoting social justice through local, national, and international activism.” This commitment calls for us to be critically active in eradicating injustices related to racism, sexism, and other forms of oppressive systems and structures.

We see you, we hear you, and stand in solidarity against the racism and injustices that our Black community faces daily.

To white and non-Black feminist members: It is time to think deeply about our positionality. Our work is not feminist if it does not embrace and embody anti-racism and reject anti-blackness. It is clear how Amy Coopers’ racism is unacceptable – and – the power that we can inflict through our positionality as white and non-black feminists can be a form of violence. It is imperative that we look within ourselves to see the parts of us that are reflected in her actions. Racial justice work is not only understanding the intricate systems of inequality built into our social institutions, but a practice of deep reflexivity to understand how we are implicated in racist oppression.

Black colleagues across the country have long expressed how hard it is to be the only voice of dissonance for their students before this moment, and there is no time like the present to become an accomplice. Here are some links to get you started:

Sociologists for Women in Society was founded as a response to institutionalized gender discrimination at ASA – and we have work to do in house to grapple with ways our institution has been complacent in racism in academia. Our current Council includes just two white voting members – a signifier of our path forward as an institution. We are currently working with the SWS Executive Office and other SWS leaders to develop a proposal to fund the research for a Department Report Card on the Status of Race Equity & Scholarship, to go alongside our Feminist Friendly Department & Lavender report cards. This tool is designed to support faculty and graduate students in 1) holding their departments accountable in the movement for Black lives and 2) to help graduate students understand the landscape of racism within departments before applying. If you are interested in working on this proposal, please reach out to Barret Katuna, Executive Officer at swseo.barretkatuna@outlook.com.

We urge white and non-Black feminist members to uplift Black voices, and demand solidarity from our institutions. If you are wondering how to get involved, remember that we are all educators. It is our duty as educators to serve those among us who are most marginalized – including working to dismantle racist oppression.

  • Encourage your department to hire more Black faculty
  • Write an email to your department urging solidarity
  • Write an email to your students
  • Read Black Women & #CiteBlackWomen
  • Center Black scholarship in your syllabi, and decolonize your classroom
  • Know your history of institutionalized racism in the US
  • Join Academics for Black Survival and Wellness Week – Friday, June 19 – Thursday, June 25, 2020
  • If you are Department Chair, take steps to foster inclusion
  • Follow the American Association for the Advancement of Science, American Association of Anthropologists and other professional and scholarly societies in supporting #ShutDownAcademia / #ShutDownSTEM, a grassroots movement with a goal to “transition to a lifelong commitment of actions to eradicate anti-Black racism in academia and STEM.” This is being held Today, Wednesday, June 10, 2020.
  • Listen to & uplift Black students and colleagues
  • Practice deep reflexivity
  • Do not rely on your Black colleagues to educate you on racism and anti-blackness
  • Develop a required reflexivity training in research methods courses – for undergrad and graduate students
  • Develop a required reflexivity training among faculty
  • Be a voice in meetings and committees speaking in support of Black students and faculty and out against racist ideas, microaggressions, and aggressions
  • Push college leadership (administration, senate, etc.) to support Black student and faculty recruitment, promotions, social justice work and abolitionist pedagogy
  • Consider forming a faculty and student-led Social Justice Project to run regular workshops, advocate for black students and provide ongoing information to faculty
  • Organize workshops and discussions for faculty to discuss white supremacy and racism in teaching and pedagogy

In Solidarity,

SWS Council

Please Click HERE to see the listing of the current SWS Council Members.

SWS Statement on White Supremacy06_10_2020 Word Document

SWS Statement on White Supremacy 06_10_2020 PDF

 

Message Sent to SWS Members on June 2, 2020

Dear SWSers:

These are challenging times we are living in. In so many ways our lives have been disrupted or put on pause as we navigate the various stages of the COVID-19 Pandemic, hoping things will get back to “normal.” And now, we are in the throes of competing epidemics, this time in the form of systemic racism, as seen in Amy Cooper’s false 911 Central Park call on Christian Cooper, the murder of George Floyd by four police officers in Minneapolis, the killing of Ahmaud Arbery while jogging by two armed White men in South Georgia, and the shooting of Breonna Taylor in her own home by police officers in Kentucky. Lest we forget, Tony McDade, a Black transgender man was also killed by police in Tallahassee, Florida on May 27th, 2020.

As sociologists, we know that these are not isolated incidents and that they form part of a historical process of systemic racism against Black men, women, trans, non-binary and intersex people in this country. As an intersectional feminist professional organization, we know that the intersections of race, class, sexuality, and other oppressive structures are key components that must be recognized and acknowledged in any conversation about these injustices. Not only has COVID-19 disrupted our way of life and our comfort zones, but it has disproportionately affected people of color, particularly Black communities who are most often frontline workers or among the poorest in our society. Statistics are clear that they are disproportionately impacted by unemployment, loss of housing, positive test cases and deaths from this virus and homicides generally. Likewise, statistics are clear about disproportionate rates of police brutality, sentencing and imprisonment of Black and Brown people, rape and sexual abuse of Black and Brown women, and violence against LGBTQI communities. Institutional racism is a painful experience for all who have to live through it whether in the United States or abroad, past or present.

This country needs to do better and we need to be more self-reflective about how we position ourselves in this conversation and everyday actions, whether as individuals (e.g., how we practice social justice in our own lives, professionally and personally), and in what kind of changes we want to see in our society. SWS has to be part of this conversation and make its voice heard in our scholarship, pedagogy, and activism. We should condemn recent atrocities perpetrated by the police on Black people and stand in solidarity with the protest movements across the country and around the world. We are having conversations and preparing a formal statement for the public. But as we do this work, we wanted to make it clear that we stand in solidarity with our Black students and colleagues and with all communities of color widely.  We invite you to share your thoughts, concerns, and ideas about ways in which SWS can support Black feminist membership at this time and moving forward.

In solidarity,

SWS Council and SWS Co-Chairs of the Sister to Sister Committee

Please stay tuned for additions to this conversation. 

June 2019

I’m writing as a member of ASA’s Status of LGBTQ People in Sociology committee collaborating with a task for ASA’s Teresa Ciabattari convened regarding the ways ASA surveys members about sex, gender, and sexualities. Alex Hanna, Nik Lampe, and Alicia VandeVusse have put together a proposal for the member survey questions to be changed and are hoping to include endorsements from some ASA Section councils if they are willing. I’ve been tasked with asking whether the SWS Council would consider endorsing this proposal. And we have a quick turnaround (sorry). Would you be open to sending this to Council members to ask whether they would be willing to endorse the proposal (link to the proposal below)?https://docs.google.com/document/d/1htFW5bUh2UMFVq3KDK8mjBwQUGZUBvDlUVq_d2-Wz90/edit?usp=sharing If you’d be willing, we’d love to include SWS Council’s endorsement before submitting the proposal to ASA. And we would need to know by Friday this week (sorry for the quick turnaround). Let me know if you have any questions and thank you for your consideration.

June 2019

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

You may have been following reports following New York’s passage of the Reproductive Health Act (RHA), asserting that the RHA somehow increases the risk of gender violence.  We are writing to ask you to sign on to and join the attached statement challenging those claims and other false claims linking laws criminalizing abortion and related feticide laws with protection of women from violence.

Claims that laws such as the RHA pose a threat to women’s safety, and that laws criminalizing abortion somehow protect people from gender violence are dangerous and totally unfounded.  We write to speak out against gender violence in all its forms and to oppose false claims about criminal abortion laws that distract attention from real threats to life and health.

We call for laws and policies based on evidence-based research and urge all those who are truly concerned with preventing intimate partner and other forms of gender violence to oppose laws that can be used to criminalize people for seeking to control their bodies and their lives.  Instead, they should support universal health care and other needed services for everyone, including survivors.

This statement will be circulated broadly to policymakers and to the media whenever this issue (equating criminal abortion laws with protecting pregnant women from violence) emerges. For example, this statement will provide important insights and framing in states such as Rhode Island and Vermont where activists are working to repeal their old criminal abortion laws and replace them with laws like the RHA that actually respect the life and health of everyone, including those with the capacity for pregnancy. It will anticipate and be used to oppose false claims and counterproductive policy proposals that emerge whenever there is a high profile murder of or attack on a pregnant woman. And, the statement, posted online, will stand as a repudiation of such things as the Kansas Resolution condemning New York’s RHA.  The statement also will inform conversations about gender violence occurring in the wake of Alabama’s sweeping anti-abortion legislation that effectively bans all abortions without an exception for pregnancies resulting from rape or incest.

To sign on, please click here.  The new deadline for signing on is Friday, June 14th.

If you have questions, feel free to contact Julie Goldscheid, CUNY Law School at goldscheid@law.cuny.edu, or Kendall Bentsen, NAPW at kdb@advocatesforpregnantwomen.org.

Thanks in advance, and in solidarity,

May/June 2019

Joint Appeal to Defend NGO Rights & Protest Anti-Muslim Racism by China, NWSA Statement Endorsement

May 22, 2019

The National Women’s Studies Association (NWSA) is a professional association of feminist scholars committed to social justice and academic inquiry. We strongly condemn the current attacks on reproductive choice and add our voice to the chorus of opposition. Autonomy over our bodies, including our reproductive choices, is fundamental. NWSA members have upheld this principle in our scholarship and practice for over four decades. We reiterate it today in these urgent times.

The new spate of laws limiting the right to abortion that is sweeping the country is alarming. In the past few months Alabama, Kentucky, Georgia, Mississippi, Ohio, and Missouri have passed restrictive legislation with other states poised to pass similar laws. In most of these cases, state legislators have made abortion illegal when a so-called “fetal heartbeat” is detected, which is usually around six weeks; in reality, what is being measured is fetal cardiac pole activity, since a six-week fetus does not have a heart.  Alabama’s law goes further and prohibits all abortion except when necessary to save the mother’s life. The aim of these laws is to overturn Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion.

The new laws are just one manifestation of a very long history of controlling women’s reproduction that includes forcing enslaved Black women to reproduce for economic profit; encouraging white women to reproduce to prevent “race suicide”; enacting forced sterilization on populations (often majority people of color) deemed unfit; outlawing abortion and birth control; reducing access to health care for poor pregnant mothers or neonatal babies; drug testing pregnant women and taking their babies if they test positive; forcing incarcerated people to labor and give birth in chains; and limiting welfare and childcare assistance to impoverished women.

The women’s movement of the 1960s and 1970s saw reproductive rights as inextricably linked to liberation and the full personhood of women, fighting on multiple fronts to ensure that women have freedom to control their reproduction, including abortion rights, an end to forced sterilization, access to birth control and the expansion of social and economic support for poor mothers and children. More recently, “reproductive justice” has been elaborated by Black women and other women of color as a broad framework that names these historic struggles and offers a human rights basis for the fight, saying that every individual must have the right to decide if and when they will have a child and the conditions under which they will give birth; decide if they will not have a child and their options for preventing or ending a pregnancy; parent the children they already have with the necessary social supports in safe environments and healthy communities, and without fear of violence from individuals or the government; and, have bodily autonomy free from all forms of reproductive oppression.

Since the passage of Roe v. Wade, there has been a concerted effort to undermine the substance of the Supreme Court decision. In 1977, Congress passed the Hyde Amendment, which prohibited federal funding for abortion and made it less accessible to poor women. In addition, states have imposed prohibitive regulations on abortion providers, imposed a “global gag rule” that denies US federal funding to any overseas organization that provides or even counsels women on abortion, and instituted myriad other measures.

The current spate of laws affects all people who can get pregnant, but hits poor women, women of color, gender-variant, and trans individuals the hardest since they often have fewer options. NWSA stands firm in its support of reproductive justice and condemns any attempt to curtail or control the reproductive decisions of anyone.

SIGNED by the Executive Committee (EC) with affiliations*

Premilla Nadasen, President, Barnard College
Barbara Ransby, Past President, University of Illinois at Chicago
Diane Harriford, Vice President, Vassar College
Patti Duncan, Secretary, Oregon State University
Karma Chávez, Treasurer, The University of Texas at Austin

(*affiliations for identification purposes only)

July 17, 2023

Sociologists for Women in Society (SWS) Response to the recent Supreme Court’s Decisions Curtailing Basic Civil and Human Rights

The U.S. Supreme Court ended its 2023 term by issuing a series of 6-3 decisions that will erode long-held rights, disproportionately impacting people of color, LGBTQ+ communities, and communities that have been historically subjected to racism and discrimination in the United States. Sociologists for Women in Society decries these decisions that will harm people of color and LGBTQ+ people across the United States. Issued shortly after the first-year anniversary of the Dobbs decision striking down Roe, these recent decisions inspire us as feminist scholars and activists to fight harder than ever for a more just and equitable society.

On June 29, 2023, the Supreme Court put an ostensible end to race-conscious admissions policies at colleges and universities across the country in its ruling that invalidates admissions programs at Harvard and the University of North Carolina. The ruling in Students for Fair Admission v. Harvard and Students for Fair Admission v. University of North Carolina (S.F.F.A. cases) undercuts almost 50 years of progressive movement towards combating systemic barriers to education for students of color. The majority opinion found that universities’ use of affirmative action to admit a diverse student body violates the guarantee of equal protection of the laws and the prohibition of discrimination based on race. In her dissent, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson pointed to the racist logic behind this decision: “With let-them-eat-cake obliviousness … the majority pulls the ripcord and announces ‘colorblindness for all’ by legal fiat.” Similar to the outcome of passing Proposition 209 in California, the SCOTUS decision will have an extremely negative effect on ongoing efforts to increase diversity and fight racism in higher education.

The Court didn’t stop at toppling affirmative action. On June 30, 2023, it dealt a major blow to the rights of LGBTQ+ people in the United States, confirming the argument of a website designer who said she had a First Amendment right to refuse to create wedding websites for same-sex couples. The Court’s ruling on 303 Creative LLC vs. Elenis framed the case as an issue of free speech. Justice Neil Gorsuch’s majority opinion stated that Colorado cannot “force an individual to speak in ways that align with its views but defy her conscience about a matter of major significance.” SWS believes that the Court’s decision puts prejudice before equality and undercuts long-fought non-discrimination protections for LGBTQ people and same-sex couples. It also greenlights justifications for businesses to discriminate against people simply because of who they are or who they love.

Each of these decisions overlooks the valuable insights of sociology: that we are not a collective of individuals but, rather, we exist as a social order–systematically organized in ways that tend to advantage some while they disadvantage others. The court has failed to see that race and sexuality are not personal traits; they are components of larger systems of social meaning and organization that impacts our lives in particular ways. As Judge Brown Jackson points out, social order has consequences and should be taken into account by the court.

Sociologists for Women in Society strongly opposes these two US Supreme Court decisions. We will continue our firm commitment to supporting people of color and LGBTQ+ populations in our ongoing efforts to create an inclusive and just society.