EU-Projekt EPESEP
Gender Pay, Gender Show, Gender Pension
EPESEP-Projektstart: 01.01.2024
Das EU-Projekt EPESEP, “Equal Pay, Equal Show, Equal Pension”, zielt darauf ab, das Bewusstsein für sexistische Strukturen im Literaturbetrieb zu schärfen und Maßnahmen zur Verbesserung der Situation von Autorinnen in Österreich, Deutschland, den Niederlanden und Armenien zu entwickeln.
EPESEP thematisiert Einkommens-, Sichtbarkeits- und Pensionsungleichheiten, indem Daten erhoben und ausgewertet sowie Strategien zur Förderung der Chancengleichheit entwickelt werden.
EPESEP-News
English version
The Association of Feminist Authors (IG Feministische Autorinnen, ≠igfem) is committed to a feminist agenda in the literary, political and public sphere. We are currently looking for partner organisations with whom we can launch a small-scale European Cooperation Project within the Creative Europe Programme (CREA) and take this goal to an international level.
≠igfem is a non-profit organisation, founded in 2019 and based in Vienna/Austria.
We consider it our mission to
- represent the concerns and interests of feminist authors
- highlight the inequalities that women are facing in the Austrian literary scene by writing (open) letters, articles and reviews or posting social media content
- facilitate the (inter-)national dialogue of female authors by organising writing, reading and networking groups, workshops, readings and so forth.
While our projects so far have mainly been focusing on Austria and Germany, our goal is to support female authors all over Europe. We are therefore searching for like-minded organisations within the EU with whom we can launch a small-scale cooperation project within the Creative Europe Programme (CREA) in 2023.
The gender pay gap in the Austrian cultural sector amounts to approximately 25%. This is due, on the one hand, to unpaid care work and, on the other hand, to the fact that their writing is regarded as inferior and published, rewarded and promoted less frequently than that of male authors. One argument commonly made to justify this is that it is simply the “literary quality” of a text that is being evaluated. This ignores, however, the sexist structures that have shaped and continue to shape our entire society and thus the cultural landscape as well, and from which some groups are benefitting while others are being discriminated against. Literary criticism is a discourse of power that is not only concerned with literary quality but that negotiates values and positions of power. This is evidenced both in quantitative and qualitative terms: Three quarters of the reviews by Austrian male critics deal with the texts of male authors, while for female critics the ratio is far more balanced, with male authors even given a minimal preference of 2%. Additionally, the works written by women are discussed differently by male critics than those written by men. Not only do these reviews focus more often on extra-literary factors, such as the author’s looks or relationship status, but they are also filled with explicitly misogynistic statements that deny female authors the ability to write, portray subjects the subjects of their works as irrelevant and worthless (for male readers) and categorize their texts inferior literary genres. These practices have profound consequences for female authors, whose works are less often published by prestigious publishing houses, awarded prizes or scholarships, and who are generally poorly studied, rarely make it into literary histories and are subsequently often forgotten by the generations to come.
This is why ≠igfem wants to launch a small-scale European Cooperation Project with 3-5 partner organisations and the goal to publish national reports on the reception and economic standing of female authors, to raise public awareness about sexist structures and practices in the literary field and to propose counter measures to improve the situation for female authors throughout the EU. In addition, a reading list, consisting exclusively of the works of women from the countries of all participating organisations, will be prepared and published in order to increase the visibility of feminist and socio-critical authors in particular. The project also aims to promote international collaboration among feminist/literary organisations and to establish a large support network enabling the exchange of experiences and know-how. Would you like to join us? Then do not hesitate to contact us at support@igfem.at – we would love to set up an online-meeting and talk about ideas and possible partnerships!
IG feministische Autorinnen
Gerlinde Hacker
Dorothea Pointner
Website: https://www.igfem.eu/
E-Mail: world@igfem.at
Frühjahr 2023: Ausgangssituation und Hintergründe:
Die IG Feministische Autorinnen (≠igfem) engagiert sich für eine feministische Agenda in Literatur, Politik und Öffentlichkeit. Wir sind auf der Suche nach Kooperationspartnerschaften, die zur Realisierung dieses Ziels auf EU-Ebene im Rahmen des Creative Europe Programme (CREA) beitragen wollen.
≠igfem ist ein 2019 gegründeter gemeinnütziger Verein mit Sitz in Wien. Als Interessensgemeinschaft von und für feministische(n) und gesellschaftskritische(n) Autorinnen sehen wir unsere Aufgabe darin, die im Literaturbetrieb (re-)produzierten, ungleichen Bedingungen, unter denen Frauen schreiben, aufzuzeigen und aktiv Gegenmaßnahmen zu setzen. Zu diesem Zweck betreiben wir feministische Öffentlichkeitsarbeit und fördern den österreichweiten und internationalen Austausch von Autorinnen im Rahmen von Schreib-, Lektüre- und Vernetzungsgruppen, Workshops, Lesungen u.v.m. Bislang war unser Wirkungsbereich auf Österreich und Deutschland beschränkt. Jedoch sind Maßnahmen zur Gleichstellung der Geschlechter (im Literaturbetrieb und darüber hinaus) auch auf EU-Ebene dringend notwendig. Wir suchen daher nach gleichgesinnten Organisationen, mit denen wir gemeinsam Projekte realisieren und 2024 im Rahmen des Creative Europe-Programms um Förderungen für ein kleines Kooperationsprojekt einreichen können.