26th February (Thursday) 2015 - The Discussion panel about "The Sexual Contract" by Carole Pateman

Gender Center Foundation, the Institute of Literary Research and Czarna Owca [Black Sheep] Publishing House are pleased to invite you to a discussion panel about The Sexual Contract by Carole Pateman
If not the contract, then what?
February 26 (Thursday), 6 pm
Warsaw, Pałac Staszica, ul. Nowy Swiat 72, Room No 144
Speakers:
Dr. Joanna Bednarek (“Boundary Questions” Research Group, Adam Mickiewicz University)
Dr. Magdalena Grabowska (Institute of Philosophy and Sociology, Polish Academy of Sciences)
Dr. Michał Kozłowski (Institute of Philosophy, University of Warsaw)
Chair: Dr. Maciej Gdula (Institute of Sociology, University of Warsaw)


Many obvious rules which once regulated relations between the sexes melt in the air today. The division into the house as an area exclusively feminine and the public sphere as the domain of men become unclear. Men undertake care work and women do not give up career in order to become fulfilled housewives. For conservatives, it means that the world turned upside down, so what they demand is the return to the natural order. The supporters of egalitarian relationships between the sexes do not really believe in the saving power of the return to the nature, but it is difficult to say that they are enthusiastic about the current state of relations between the sexes. This is because the end of the obvious did not eliminate tensions, but revealed them in new areas – the division of domestic duties, reproduction, sex or work. During the discussion, inspired by Carole Pateman’s book The Sexual Contract, we will ask if the contract as a model of agreement between equal sides is able to remove the today’s tensions and what are the alternatives, which will allow to build an egalitarian community of men and women.

The panel is part of a cycle of socio-cultural debates “Feminaria”.
Admission is free.

ul. Nowy Świat 72, 00-330 Warszawa, e-mail: archiwum@ibl.waw.pl