Feminist Conferences

Shahjehan Aapa grew up near Delhi in extreme poverty. In the late 1970s, her young daughter was burned alive because of dowry harassment, a tragedy that moved her to social activism. She helped found Shakti Shalini in 1987, an NGO that addresses gender-based violence by working both with individuals and with the broader community. The GFP staff note with sadness Shahjehan's death in September of 2013 after an accident on her way to Mahela Panchayat.
Keywords: feminist conferences, gender-based violence, community activism
Media: Transcript (English), Video, Bibliography, YouTube Video, Name Pronunciation Audio

Ai Xiaoming, born in 1953, is a feminist literary scholar and the co-producer and director of the Chinese version of The Vagina Monologues, one of the activities of the Stop Domestic Violence network. She is Deputy Director of the Women's Studies Center and director of the Sex/Gender Education Forum in Zhongshan University, Guangzhou.

A chapter in Gender Dynamics, Feminist Activism and Social Transformation in China published by Ke Qianting in 2019 discussing the Vagina Monologues in China can be found here.
Keywords: feminist conferences, media, academia and women's studies, education, gender-based violence, politics and the law, reform of domestic/family roles
Media: Transcript (English, Mandarin), Video (English, Mandarin), Bibliography, YouTube Video (Mandarin, English Dubbed), Name Pronunciation Audio

Violeta Delgado was born in 1969, participating in the National Literacy Campaign when she was just 11 years old, kicking off a lifetime of political participation and activism. She became involved in a campaign to end domestic violence. She has done consulting, run for the National Assembly, and now works with CINCO - an organization that researches the media's role in society and politics. In 2005, Delgado was part of the group of 1000 Peacewomen that was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.
Keywords: feminist conferences, gender and health, education, gender-based violence, politics and the law
Media: Transcript (English, Spanish), Video (English, Spanish), Bibliography, YouTube Video (English, Spanish) Name Pronunciation Audio

Josephine Effah-Chukwuma, born in Lagos in 1966, is a specialist in gender and development and a human rights advocate. She received her B.A. in English, and her M.A. in development studies with a special focus on women’s issues, from the Institute of Social Studies in the Hague, the Netherlands. She worked for a few years for the Constitutional Rights Project (CRP), and then in 1999 established Project Alert on Violence Against Women, a not-for-profit that addresses gender-informed abuses The Project provides counseling, advocacy, and temporary shelter for abused persons. The organization opened the first shelter for abused/assaulted women and girls in Nigeria in 2001.

Keywords: community activism, gender-based violence, reform of domestic/family roles, environment, feminist conferences

Media: Name Pronunciation Audio, Transcript, Video, YouTube Video

Gao Xiaoxian, born in 1948, is Secretary General of the Shaanxi Research Association for Women and Family. Working as an official in the Shaanxi Provincial Women's Federation, Gao has been a pivotal figure in establishing this influential non-governmental women's organization, and has also been involved in rural development projects.
Keywords: feminist conferences, gender and health, academia and women's studies, education, rural women and land reform
Media: Transcript (English, Mandarin), Video (English, Mandarin), Bibliography, YouTube Video (Mandarin, English Dubbed), Name Pronunciation Audio

He Zhonghua, born in 1937, is a professor of literature from the Naxi ethnic minority. She established a women's studies center in the Academy of Social Sciences and a minority women research center in Yunnan. She has worked on many projects ranging from improving ethnic minority women's health to empowering women to participate in rural development.
Keywords: feminist conferences, environment, academia and women's studies, education, intersectionality, rural women and land reform
Media: Transcript (English, Mandarin), Video (English, Mandarin), Bibliography, YouTube Video (Mandarin, English Dubbed), Name Pronunciation Audio

Mariia Grigor'evna Kotovskaia, born in 1952, is a professor, ethnographer, and anthropologist. She began to research issues related to women and gender in the 1990s and became one of the founders of the Group for Ethno-Gender Research (at the Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology at the Russian Academy of Sciences). She is on several councils and commissions, particularly for issues such as migration and immigration, family and youth, and women in leadership.
Keywords: academia and women's studies, international rights, feminist conferences
Media: Transcript (English, Russian), Video (English, Russian), YouTube Video (English, Russian), Name Pronunciation Audio

Matilde Lindo (1954-2013) was a feminist leader, teacher, sociologist and activist who focused on issues of violence and discrimination against women and racial discrimination within Nicaragua. She was a proud representative of the black population from the Rosita Mines region. She helped to start a radio program that aimed to raise awareness about violence against women as a violation of women's rights and lead the Network of Women Against Violence during the later years of her life. The GFP staff note with sadness the death of Matilde in 2013. A public obituary celebrating her life and detailing her dedication to women's rights can be found here (Spanish).
Keywords: feminist conferences, gender and health, education, intersectionality
Media: Transcript (English), Video, Bibliography, YouTube Video, Name Pronunciation Audio

Mangai is the pseudonym of Padma (born in 1959) who is a theatre director and Professor of English Literature in Stella Mary's College. As a member of the All India Democratic Women's Association and Chennai Kalai Kuzhu, Mangai translates social issues into street theatre and stage plays, becoming the key person in a group called Voicing Silence.
Keywords: feminist conferences, environment, art/writing as activism
Media: Transcript (English), Video, Bibliography, YouTube Video, Name Pronunciation Audio

Joanna Regulska was born in 1951 in Warsaw, Poland. She studied geography at the University of Warsaw in Poland and at the University of Colorado in the United States. In 1989, she co-founded the Foundation for Development of Local Democracy in Poland. She directs the Department for Women and Gender Research at Rutgers University in the USA Regulska has a daughter and divides her life and work between Poland and the United States.
Keywords: feminist conferences, disability rights
Media: Transcript (English, Polish), Video (English, Polish), Bibliography, English YouTube Video, Name Pronunciation Audio

Liubov Vasil'evna Shtyleva, born in 1956, was a teacher of history in public schools before going back to get her doctorate in education. She then taught educational science and psychology at the Murmansk State Pedagogical Institute, worked at the Institute for Social Pedagogy at the Russian Academy of Education, and was the principal research associate at the Institute of Childhood, Family and Upbringing at the Russian Academy of Education. She has worked on issues of education and gender in Russia and internationally.
Keywords: academia and women's studies, reform of domestic/family roles, community activism, feminist conferences
Media: Transcript (English, Russian), YouTube Video (English, Russian), Video (Russian), Name Pronunciation Audio

Virginia Vargas, born in 1945, is sociologist and a leader of the women's movement in Peru. In 1978 Vargas was a founding member of the Flora Tristán Center, a non-governmental Peruvian organization that studies, educates, and lobbies for women's rights. She served as the organization's coordinator and later its director until 1990. She founded the Latin American division of DAWN (Development Alternatives with Women for a New Era). She has long been engaged in the struggle for democracy and was candidate for Congress in 1985 and one of the leading activists in coordinating the organization Women for Democracy (MUDE) in 1997. Vargas was the recipient of a UNIFEM Award during the United Nations' 4th World Conference on Women in Beijing in September 1995. In 2000 she spoke at the UN General Assembly in New York on behalf of Latin American and Caribbean women’s NGOs. Beginning in 2001, Vargas became part of the World Social Forum's International Committee. She is also on the Advisory Council of the National University of San Marcos' Institute for Democracy and Global Transformation. In 2005, at the Millennium Social Summit, she was a speaker representing Civil Society at the UN General Assembly, New York. Vargas has participated in debates and discussions in many countries being internationally recognized as an activist and academic/researcher and is the author of over 40 publications on citizenship, the state, and democracy from a feminist perspective.

Keywords: academia and women's studies, feminist conferences, intersectionality

Media: Transcript (Spanish, English), Video, YouTube Video (Spanish, English Subtitles), Name Pronunciation Audio

Interviewee Photo Credit

Olga Aleksandrovna Voronina, born in 1957, is a writer and philosophy professor at the Institute of Philosophy of the Russian Academy of Sciences. She was one of the first researchers who began to study feminist theory and women’s movements, and from 1987 to 1990 she was a member of an early feminist grassroots group, Lotus. In 1990, with other colleagues, Voronina helped to found the Moscow Center for Gender Studies (MCGS), where she was director from 1994 to 2015.
Keywords: academia and women's studies, reform of domestic/family roles, feminist conferences
Media: Transcript (English, Russian), Video (Russian, English Dubbed), Name Pronunciation Audio