Page 24 - Enakost spolov: premisleki in izzivi
P. 24
ial practice of ensuring equal treatment and equal opportunities for all peo-
ple, regardless of gender. As an academic concept, a legal category, and a political
principle, the idea of gender equality today refers to a state of universal equality
in society, regardless of gender, and in particular in people’s status, rights and op-
portunities. However, its historical origins are crucially linked to efforts to address
systemic, structural or institutional inequalities of women in relation to men. Gen-
der equality, as the equality of women and men, has thus been seen for several
decades as a prerequisite and indicator of plural democratic development, social
tolerance and prosperity, and as an indispensable political principle for guaran-
teeing human rights. As a legal and political concept, gender equality concerns all
key areas of social life, from the private to the public sphere, i.e. from the family
domain (equal gender status in the marital/extra-marital community, equal di-
vision of domestic labour, fair labour valuation, etc.), politics (equal or balanced
gender representation in political decision-making, equal citizenship rights, etc.)
to the economy (equal access to basic goods, equal pay for equal work, elimi-
nation of gender bias in the workplace, etc.). However, a cursory glance at in-
ternational, and especially local Slovenian, reference sources on gender equal-
ity reveals a fundamental feature of gender equality thinking: the cisbinary and
cisnormative character of the concept (equality between two sexes, equality of
two sexes), which excludes other genders or gender identities besides cis women
and cis men, i.e. identities outside of gender cisbinarism and cisnormativism. The
permanent Slovenian phrase enakost spolov (literally equality of genders) as a
translation of the English catchphrase ‘gender equality’ in Slovenian use is de-
ceptively promisingly pluralistic, even in cases of obvious semantic emptiness,
superficial referencing and bare trendy exploitation. It conjures up the illusion
of gender plurality. However, in the dominant uses, the Slovenian coinage with
the periphrastic genitive noun spolov – which has the same genitive inflectional
ending in grammatical plural and dual – is usually not used in a plural (equality
‘of [three or more] genders’) but mainly or even exclusively dual sense (equality
‘of two genders/sexes’). The latter reveals the legacy of how gender is thought of
within discourses of gender equality. It is (still) thought of in an instinctive, norma-
tive, cisgender and binary way, not (yet) in a reflexive, inclusive, transgender and
non-binary way. The whole binary gender equality enterprise has problems with
genders when it spontaneously or normatively applies to the idea of two sexes.
Suppose the main aim of ‘gender equality’ measures is to ensure that people are
treated equally in all areas of human activity and society, regardless of their gen-
der (and academia in particular should be a model for this). In that case, the idea
of gender equality must be given a more pluralistic follow-up in theory and prac-
tice, in declarative advocacy and actual implementation. This paper will conclude
by presenting the idea of transgender equality as a variant of a plural, reflexive and
inclusive understanding of gender equality and by assessing the gender equality
action plans of three Slovenian public universities from the perspective of trans-
gender equality.
Key words: gender equality, transgender, university
24
ple, regardless of gender. As an academic concept, a legal category, and a political
principle, the idea of gender equality today refers to a state of universal equality
in society, regardless of gender, and in particular in people’s status, rights and op-
portunities. However, its historical origins are crucially linked to efforts to address
systemic, structural or institutional inequalities of women in relation to men. Gen-
der equality, as the equality of women and men, has thus been seen for several
decades as a prerequisite and indicator of plural democratic development, social
tolerance and prosperity, and as an indispensable political principle for guaran-
teeing human rights. As a legal and political concept, gender equality concerns all
key areas of social life, from the private to the public sphere, i.e. from the family
domain (equal gender status in the marital/extra-marital community, equal di-
vision of domestic labour, fair labour valuation, etc.), politics (equal or balanced
gender representation in political decision-making, equal citizenship rights, etc.)
to the economy (equal access to basic goods, equal pay for equal work, elimi-
nation of gender bias in the workplace, etc.). However, a cursory glance at in-
ternational, and especially local Slovenian, reference sources on gender equal-
ity reveals a fundamental feature of gender equality thinking: the cisbinary and
cisnormative character of the concept (equality between two sexes, equality of
two sexes), which excludes other genders or gender identities besides cis women
and cis men, i.e. identities outside of gender cisbinarism and cisnormativism. The
permanent Slovenian phrase enakost spolov (literally equality of genders) as a
translation of the English catchphrase ‘gender equality’ in Slovenian use is de-
ceptively promisingly pluralistic, even in cases of obvious semantic emptiness,
superficial referencing and bare trendy exploitation. It conjures up the illusion
of gender plurality. However, in the dominant uses, the Slovenian coinage with
the periphrastic genitive noun spolov – which has the same genitive inflectional
ending in grammatical plural and dual – is usually not used in a plural (equality
‘of [three or more] genders’) but mainly or even exclusively dual sense (equality
‘of two genders/sexes’). The latter reveals the legacy of how gender is thought of
within discourses of gender equality. It is (still) thought of in an instinctive, norma-
tive, cisgender and binary way, not (yet) in a reflexive, inclusive, transgender and
non-binary way. The whole binary gender equality enterprise has problems with
genders when it spontaneously or normatively applies to the idea of two sexes.
Suppose the main aim of ‘gender equality’ measures is to ensure that people are
treated equally in all areas of human activity and society, regardless of their gen-
der (and academia in particular should be a model for this). In that case, the idea
of gender equality must be given a more pluralistic follow-up in theory and prac-
tice, in declarative advocacy and actual implementation. This paper will conclude
by presenting the idea of transgender equality as a variant of a plural, reflexive and
inclusive understanding of gender equality and by assessing the gender equality
action plans of three Slovenian public universities from the perspective of trans-
gender equality.
Key words: gender equality, transgender, university
24
