Women’s transnational encounters at the Cold War periphery
This project is a continuation of my research on women's transnational history during the Cold War. I plan publishing a book on women's encounters preliminary titled "East-South gendered encounters under the Cold War. Development and women’s rights from Tashkent to Havana and beyond". This project is aimed to answer the next questions:-How was the global connectivity under the Cold War gendered and what role did women’s encounters at the periphery of the main Cold War geopolitical locations play for the cooperation for social progress, development and women’s rights?-What did women participating in the encounters learn from each other, what ideas were in the center of the transnational communication and exchange?-How were the ideas and practices of development and women’s rights that originated in the Cold War centers challenged in the process of these peripheral encounters? The proposed project will explore the meanings and effects of the encounters through bringing in the perspective of flexible “East” and “South” and through paying attention to complexities of (dis)connectivity of subjects marked by ideological, racial and economic differences.
Final report
I am very grateful to the Riksbankens Jubileumsfond for my 6-months long (50% of full-time) Sabbatical, part of which I spent at the University of Glasgow. The period of my sabbatical was dedicated to the project dealing with women’s internationalism at the Cold War peripheries. The project was aimed at exploring the gatherings, networks, and connections between East-South women with a specific focus on two cities – Tashkent and Havana. While the last years have seen women’s internationalism being moved into the center of interest of gender historians (Olcott 2017; de Haan 2010; 2018; Bonfiglioli 2016, Donert 2022), the contributions of women from regions seen as peripheries of the global Cold War are not paid enough attention to. The development of a decolonial perspective in global history makes it important to subvert the Cold War geopolitical categories used for defining locations and ideological positions (in particular, “East” and “South”). Thus, the project was aimed to further problematize interpretations of the “South” and “East” in connection to women’s internationalism; in my research I use the categories of “East” and “South” as moving and flexible. I was specifically interested in internationalism as practiced by coming together in cross-border discussions and through maintaining contacts and networks created during and around these gatherings; also I explored the mundane practices of internationalism, and paid attention to the geographical locations where these encounters took place.
The study used archival sources collected in Tashkent (National Archive of the Republic of Uzbekistan), Havana (Regional Center of the Women’s International Democratic Federation) as well as archives and library collections in several other countries along with published memories of women in one or another way involved into the transnational encounters. However, the time of the Sabbatical was mainly dedicated to analysis of the data and work on the final monograph using materials that were collected in advance.
As a result of my study I came to the following conclusions:
- using a South–East (or East–South) gender lens to examine women’s networks and gatherings demonstrates the complexity, fragility, and changeability of the geopolitical belongings of the many women’s organizations and individual women who were transgressing the bipolarity of the Cold War logic. Meanwhile, the memories of some of the women I consulted show that they felt multiple gendered political pressures and, thus, had to answer them using a variety of ideological and everyday-level solutions, frequently through transnational networks.
- South-East transnational gatherings and networks contributed to changes in the global discourse around women's rights. On the other hand, these networks played an important role in exchange of experience around overcoming colonial legacies and women's illiteracy as well as for learning from each other with respect to ways for reaching gender equality in the spheres of professional education, protection of motherhood and many others.
- women’s gatherings at the Cold War peripheries, such as Havana and Tashkent, cannot be seen as free from the superpowers’ open and hidden confrontational agendas. Still, the analyzed materials show that, most of the participating women were moved by their (different) understandings of justice, gender equality, and the future.
- looking at women’s internationalism from the Cold War peripheries contributes further to a growing field of decolonial criticism of the “Second world” emancipation project by exploring how the vision of the linear progress of changes in women’s status practiced by the state socialist countries came into conflict with expectations of different groups of women living at the Cold War periphery (including in the Soviet borderlands such as Central Asia). In practice, coming together in the name of women’s rights and in the name of overcoming colonial legacies made many participants think about their differences, question hierarchies (including those hierarchies between women on the base of class and race) and contributed to the development of their own ideas about tactical and strategic unions.
- studying women’s networks from the Cold War peripheries brings to light the problem of racism as the “invisible” contexts and practices of the transnational relationships, hospitalities and collaborations.
During the period of the Sabbatical, I prepared the monograph preliminary titled “Coming together at the Cold War periphery: Women’s internationalism—from Tashkent to Havana and beyond". The monograph is under peer-review now and expected to be published by Rowman & Littlefield (Lexington Books) in the summer of 2025. I was also working on the chapter ”Acting for transnational women’s rights (but from East Berlin) - the WIDF and the Cold War” for the book with a preliminary title “Feminism in Non-English Speaking Countries”(Agnes Andeweg and Heidi Kurvinen eds., Palgrave). The book should be published in 2025.
Research stay at the University of Glasgow
The sabbatical included a period of visiting the Gender History Center at the University of Glasgow (10 days in March 2024 and one month – mid-April-mid-May 2024). My stay at the research center allowed me to significantly improve my theoretical approach to women’s internationalism. During the period of my stay I attended seminars at the center and presented my research at the work in a progress seminar. I also participated in online seminars at the center during period of my sabbatical and hope for continuation of contacts. The possibility of using the rich library collection of the University of Glasgow was particularly indispensable for my work on the monograph. During the period of my stay I established contact with researchers of the Center for East European Studies and presented my research there. Not least, I visited Center for research on Cuba at the University of Nottingham. Thus, I hope that these contacts can become the beginning of future cooperation.
The study used archival sources collected in Tashkent (National Archive of the Republic of Uzbekistan), Havana (Regional Center of the Women’s International Democratic Federation) as well as archives and library collections in several other countries along with published memories of women in one or another way involved into the transnational encounters. However, the time of the Sabbatical was mainly dedicated to analysis of the data and work on the final monograph using materials that were collected in advance.
As a result of my study I came to the following conclusions:
- using a South–East (or East–South) gender lens to examine women’s networks and gatherings demonstrates the complexity, fragility, and changeability of the geopolitical belongings of the many women’s organizations and individual women who were transgressing the bipolarity of the Cold War logic. Meanwhile, the memories of some of the women I consulted show that they felt multiple gendered political pressures and, thus, had to answer them using a variety of ideological and everyday-level solutions, frequently through transnational networks.
- South-East transnational gatherings and networks contributed to changes in the global discourse around women's rights. On the other hand, these networks played an important role in exchange of experience around overcoming colonial legacies and women's illiteracy as well as for learning from each other with respect to ways for reaching gender equality in the spheres of professional education, protection of motherhood and many others.
- women’s gatherings at the Cold War peripheries, such as Havana and Tashkent, cannot be seen as free from the superpowers’ open and hidden confrontational agendas. Still, the analyzed materials show that, most of the participating women were moved by their (different) understandings of justice, gender equality, and the future.
- looking at women’s internationalism from the Cold War peripheries contributes further to a growing field of decolonial criticism of the “Second world” emancipation project by exploring how the vision of the linear progress of changes in women’s status practiced by the state socialist countries came into conflict with expectations of different groups of women living at the Cold War periphery (including in the Soviet borderlands such as Central Asia). In practice, coming together in the name of women’s rights and in the name of overcoming colonial legacies made many participants think about their differences, question hierarchies (including those hierarchies between women on the base of class and race) and contributed to the development of their own ideas about tactical and strategic unions.
- studying women’s networks from the Cold War peripheries brings to light the problem of racism as the “invisible” contexts and practices of the transnational relationships, hospitalities and collaborations.
During the period of the Sabbatical, I prepared the monograph preliminary titled “Coming together at the Cold War periphery: Women’s internationalism—from Tashkent to Havana and beyond". The monograph is under peer-review now and expected to be published by Rowman & Littlefield (Lexington Books) in the summer of 2025. I was also working on the chapter ”Acting for transnational women’s rights (but from East Berlin) - the WIDF and the Cold War” for the book with a preliminary title “Feminism in Non-English Speaking Countries”(Agnes Andeweg and Heidi Kurvinen eds., Palgrave). The book should be published in 2025.
Research stay at the University of Glasgow
The sabbatical included a period of visiting the Gender History Center at the University of Glasgow (10 days in March 2024 and one month – mid-April-mid-May 2024). My stay at the research center allowed me to significantly improve my theoretical approach to women’s internationalism. During the period of my stay I attended seminars at the center and presented my research at the work in a progress seminar. I also participated in online seminars at the center during period of my sabbatical and hope for continuation of contacts. The possibility of using the rich library collection of the University of Glasgow was particularly indispensable for my work on the monograph. During the period of my stay I established contact with researchers of the Center for East European Studies and presented my research there. Not least, I visited Center for research on Cuba at the University of Nottingham. Thus, I hope that these contacts can become the beginning of future cooperation.