Misogyny and authoritarianism, wrote the scholars Erica Chenoweth and Zoe Marks, are “not just common comorbidities but mutually reinforcing ills.” Gender equality is one of the great achievements of liberalism, while restoring traditional gender hierarchies is the promise of almost all autocratic movements. Anti-feminism was a key component of Trumpism, which is one reason why his election led to an unprecedented mobilization of women all over America. The anti-abortion movement, like Trumpism more broadly, needs minority rule to survive. With the end of Roe v. Wade, the connection between democracy and women’s rights has become particularly explicit. In much of the country, abortion bans are an expression not of the will of the citizenry, but of lawmakers’ insulation from democratic accountability. Michelle Goldberg will discuss the connection between the erosion of democracy in America and the rollback of women's rights.
Michelle Goldberg is a columnist at the New York Times and a contributor to MSNBC. She is the author of three books: Kingdom Coming: The Rise of Christian Nationalism, The Means of Reproduction: Sex, Power, and the Future of the World, and The Goddess Pose: The Audacious Life of Indra Devi, the Woman Who Helped Bring Yoga to the West. Her first book was a finalist for the Helen Bernstein Award for Excellence in Journalism, and her second won the Ernesta Drinker Ballard Book Prize and the J. Anthony Lukas Work-In-Progress Award. Previously she was a columnist at Slate. Her work has appeared in The New Yorker, Newsweek, The Nation, The New Republic, The Guardian and many other publications. She has reported from countries including India, Iraq, Egypt, Uganda, Nicaragua and Argentina. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband and children.
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This event is made possible thanks to the generous support of Professor Emeritus Nathan Cogan the Cogan Family, and Cogan Family Friends.
CO-SPONSORS:
The Sara Glasgow Cogan Endowment
Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education
Oregon Jewish Community Foundation
UBS
State Farm Insurance | John Lokting
Portland State University
Portland State University Foundation
Harold Schnitzer Family Program in Judaic Studies at Portland State University
College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Portland State University
Portland State University Department of History
Portland State University Department of English
Toulan School of Urban Studies and Planning at Portland State University