Intersections of Gender, Ethnicity, and Class: History and Future of the Romani Women’s Movement

The incentive to write about the Romani women's movement is a workshop “Intersections of Gender, Ethnicity, and Class: History and Future of the Role of Gender in the Romani Movement”. The Center for Policy Studies (Central European University) and the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung organized the workshop on October 30-31, 2015, at the Central European University, Budapest, Hungary. During the workshop, Romani and non-Romani women scholars and activists, most of whom have played a significant role in shaping Roma related discourses, policies and projects in Europe in the last twenty years, offered critical reflections on the history of their work in this regard. They also initiated debates about the present and future gender politics in relation to the Romani movement.

This paper offers knowledge based on the discussions of the workshop where Romani and non-Romani activists and scholars shared individual and collective experiences on formation and developments of the Romani women’s movement. It addresses the ways categories of difference compose complex structures of inequalities. In addition, it reveals what shapes the current lives of the Romani activists and their organizations, communities, and networks. Finally, the paper draws conclusions from the major debates about the possibilities and limitations of the Romani women’s movement through (re)mobilization and (re)politicization of the most important topics/categories of inequality.