English
Macedonian
The publication of the reference book Guide to Feminist
and Gender Terminology constitutes a contribution of Akcija Zdruzhenska to
the enrichment of the resources in Macedonia for better information and
upgrading of knowledge related to gender equality and women’s human rights.
The reference book contains definitions and explanations for
part of the general and operational terms used in feminist and gender theory and
practice, a review of the key documents (conventions, declarations, etc.), as
well as key events of the international organizations relevant in the sphere of
gender equality and women’s rights.
This concept of the reference book has been entailed by the
need to gather in one document information that will provide demystification and
promotion of feminism and the gender concept, elaboration of concepts and
overcoming of the inappropriate use of relevant terminology, better information
on the processes that have taken place in the framework of the international
organizations aimed at promoting the status of women and gender equality and the
key documents that support these efforts.
The reference book is primarily designed for women’s
activism; hopefully, the organizations, institutions and individuals that are
active, interested or committed to working on the promotion of women’s status
and attaining gender equality will also benefit from this book.
The Guide to Feminist and Gender Terminology is a text
that aims to provide explanations of the meanings of the terms used in the
current feminist theory and theoretical practices applied in various forms of
activism and policies related to gender equality, as well as definitions of the
notions signified by these terms. The combination of the interpretational and
lexical approach to the meanings of the terms and notions has led to the
creation of a reference book that avoids the rigidity of a dictionary.
The need to make a distinction between feminist and
gender terminology arises from the fact that there are vocabularies that
treat gender and gender equality issues, but they neither stem from nor imply
the feminist perspective. Such terminology, mostly present in the textual
practice of the international organizations, such as the UN, or the vocabulary
of the EU policy, although deeply rooted in the historical emancipation
movements of women, does not coincide with the ideologies of the different forms
of feminism or with the prevailing discourses of the feminist movement in a
specific historic period.
On the other hand, although feminist terminology contains
terms and notions, it does not necessarily mean that their explanations and
meanings are protective of a certain feminist ideology. Neutrality of the
meanings, to the extent allowed by the context, is achieved through the aspect
of critical distance. However, the text itself and the language of creators of
this reference book are not and cannot be neutral. The implicit feminist
position is used as a point of view for interpretation, adaptation and transfer
of terms and notions related to gender discourses.
Despite the fact that this book is not an author work in its
entirety, in the sense that all meanings and definitions are not entirely a
product of the author of this reference book, they nevertheless bear a
characteristic author mark. Although there are numerous reasons for the
incomplete author work of the reference book, the most characteristic is the
urgency for this type of literature. We expect that in the future it will be
supplemented by terms and notions from the spheres treated in this issue, as
well as by terms and notions from the sphere of art, philosophy and other areas
of human life.
The publication is available only on Macedonian.
