The campus community is invited to a free presentation entitled, “Trad Wives and Tyranny: How Authoritarians Use Gender,” by Sociology Department faculty Dr. Sophia Boutilier.

Recent panics about gender ideology have influenced conversations as far-reaching as international spending or which bathroom a person can use. While seemingly a modern phenomenon, the concept of gender ideology emerged in the 1990s in backlash to the consolidation of women's rights as an international norm.

Today, weaponizing gender can be used by authoritarians to foreclose debate, repress opposition, and romanticize a return to tradition that disenfranchises women and gender-expansive people. This teach-in discusses common ways that cultural and political actors use gender and equality topics to consolidate power and distract, misinform, polarize or mobilize constituents.

Date: Tuesday, April 21
Time: 10 - 11:30 a.m.
Location: Library 2127

For more information, contact sophiaboutilier@mail.fresnostate.edu.

Dr. Sophia Boutilier is an assistant professor of sociology. She began her career in international development, working on gender equality and education projects in Kenya and Ghana. Wanting to better understand the effects of burnout and cynicism she witnessed among development workers, Boutilier earned a Ph.D. in sociology from Stony Brook University in 2023. Her work highlights the sometimes-hidden obstacles to social change shaped by privilege, misogyny, emotions and the institutional structures of development agencies.