As we work toward eliminating gender-based violence, it is essential to reflect on the foundations of our progress. With the 30th anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action approaching in 2025, we have an opportunity to revisit this landmark moment in the global fight for gender equality. Reflecting on the lessons of the past not only illuminates how far we’ve come but also challenges us to envision the path ahead.
In this interview, we are privileged to hear from Prof. Dr. Wendy Harcourt, a scholar and advocate who herself attended the Conference firsthand. Drawing on her experiences and insights, in answering out questions Wendy reflects on the key messages of the conference, the progress achieved since 1995, and the challenges that persist today. She shares her vision for sustaining momentum in the fight for equality and ending gender-based violence, bridging past achievements and future aspirations.
About Wendy:
Wendy Harcourt is Professor of Gender, Diversity and Sustainable Development at the International Institute of Social Studies of the Erasmus University Rotterdam. She was born in Australia, lives in Italy and works in The Netherlands. She joined the ISS in November 2011 after 23 years at the Society for International Development, Rome as Editor of the journal Development. She has published widely on post-development, feminism and critical development theory, sustainability, gender and development issues. She was Coordinator of the EU funded Wellbeing Ecology Gender and cOmmunities Innovative Training Network from 2018-2022. She is editor of 14 books and her monograph: Body Politics in Development: Critical Debates in Gender and Development published by Zed Books in 2009, received the 2010 FWSA Book Prize. She is series editor of the Palgrave Gender, Development and Social Change series, and Bloomsbury Academic New Critical Thinking in Development series.
The most important message for me in Beijing, building on from the Cairo and Vienna conferences held in 1994, was about women’s sexual and reproductive health. It is important to underline that Beijing was part of a series of meetings that were feminist led as well as government led, and Beijing though it now looks radical was watered down in the final documents. For example sexual and reproductive rights were not in the document, which was why the message women’s rights are human rights was key. Even if Hillary Clinton (then First Lady of the United States) stated this in Beijing the term was coined earlier and was part of the women’s movement’s struggle to have sexual and reproductive rights acknowledged. Beijing produced a document that was important for advocacy on many levels, not only for advocacy for women’s reproductive health but also for social justice and people-centred sustainable development. I called this ‘Body Politics’. Beijing put gender equality and women’s empowerment squarely on the map but there were many issues missing, for example around sexuality and racial, class and other differences among women as well as critiques of knowledge and power that played out in governance structures and technocracy.
It is still shocking that gender based violence is so prevalent, even if it is no longer a taboo issue. Protests against femicide, intimate partner violence and sexual harassment are every where and there is much less shame in coming forward to denounce perpetrators. But there is also a growing backlash which needs to be addressed. We have to look at deeper psychological reasons for the violence, which cannot be ascribed just to wealth or culture. Another related issue is that still the right to control your fertility is not possible. For many contraceptives are not easily available. And in addition birth control is focused on women’s reproductive bodies rather than men’s, assuming choices around having children are a women’s responsibility. Abortion remains a major political issue. Furthermore, Beijing is still couched in a binary language that perpetuates an essentialising gender difference, that is transexclusionary and fails to challenge scientific biases and heteronormativity. The male and heternormative bias of medical knowledge still needs to be addressed if women’s and trans rights are to be achieved.
I think this is a very important question, as there are such pulls away from generational engagement and conversation. I am concerned that the generation gap is growing, particularly with social media that now shapes younger people’s social and inner lives as well as all of our access to news. As an older person I hope that my stories of how feminist struggles were won could inspire younger people. But there is a lot older people need to learn from younger people about relationships that do not presume heteronormativity and build on difference and trust. I see the younger generation in the Global North are needing to learn how to live with precarity and uncertainty which means that social justice and gender equality are key to sharing resources fairly. This means not only among genders but also at a global level challenging geopolitical assumptions – we wait to see what Trump 0.2 brings. I am just completing a book called Conundrums of Care (to be published by Bloomsbury Academic next year). In it I talk about the importance of building community through relationships with people we trust. I think an ethics of care practiced at all levels is key to ending gender-based violence from the micro aggressions to femicide. That means taking time to listen, to value each other and to practice an ethics of care that respects and values all life.
Wendy’s reflections remind us of the ongoing barriers and opportunities in our goal of achieving gender equality and eliminating gender- based violence. Her insights highlight the importance of learning from past struggles while embracing the perspectives and energy of younger generations. By fostering intergenerational dialogue and a collective commitment to justice and care, we can continue to advance the goals of the Beijing Platform and work toward a future free from gender-based violence. Thank you so much to Wendy for being willing to share her perspective and knowledge.
