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Feminist online magazine and advocacy organisation Feministeerium turned ten in January. As intersectional feminists, they do not only emphasise gender issues, but also raise awareness of the intersectionality of inequalities between different marginalised groups. Their aim is to offer a well-argued diversity of views, welcoming different feminist directions and perspectives.
On the occasion of the anniversary, our volunteer Maribel Uusmaa spoke to Kadi Viik, co-founder and editor of Feministeerium, about Feministeerium’s journey, its achievements, future plans, as well as its concerns and current events in the world.
What was the impulse for the creation of the Feministeerium ten years ago?
The voice of civil society was too silent in the public debate at the time. There were many women’s organisations and many people who were very interested in gender equality issues, but the public voice was mainly that of the state. We saw that the societal debates needed a more feminist perspective and analysis and that this could come from civil society.
Who are those for whom Feminism works? Who are the target groups and how have they changed or expanded over time?
Through articles, podcasts and events, we have wanted to grow the feminist community in Estonia and provide them with a safe space and opportunities to put ideas into practice. From the very beginning, we have tried to engage the community into our work, so that members of the community would also participate in writing and illustrating. Several good opinion leaders have been contributing to our portal content creation.
Later, the organisation of events was added. We worked on the principle that if you had a good feminist idea, you could make it happen with our help. Today we are back to square one, where our main focus is on journalistic content and we do rather less events. But TALFF, the Tallinn Feminist Forum that we started, is still running.
While in the beginning we only addressed Estonian readers, quite soon we opened a Russian-speaking portal and now we actually have a lot of readers from outside Estonia, including Russia, Ukraine and Belarus. They read a lot of educational content, for example how to recognize sexual harassment. We laugh all the time that we should be funded by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for promoting gender equality in the former Soviet Union Member States.
Back in 2015, the word “feminism”/”feminist” had a rather loaded connotation in some circles in Estonia, how was the Feministeerium perceived? What do you think of that time?
I would say that in the late 90s, scepticism about gender equality in Estonia was rather ignorance-based. There was contempt for the idea of equality associated with communist ideology Nowadays, the opposition to certain issues is wicked, ten years ago we were somewhere in between.
How so?
The opposition has become much more informed and precise. Estonian populist conservatives get a lot of ideas and support from elsewhere, there is little original content.
There are politicians who point out that the world has undergone a transformation. They call it a secondary transformation of the WOKE culture (a culture aware of social and political issues), where economic and security issues take precedence over ‘soft issues’ in these turbulent times. How do you see the role of the Feministeerium in such a changing world?
The overall global and political context is now very difficult and challenging. In addition to the wars and conflicts in our neighbourhood, a major challenge for us is the backtracking on climate policy, as the destruction of the living environment is also a factor contributing to the risk of conflict and the disintegration of countries.
I am amazed at the short-sightedness. I understand that, for example, in the event of a military conflict, more money needs to be allocated to certain areas and that it has to be taken from somewhere, but that should not mean neglecting human rights and the environment. I think that in a military situation, the protection of human rights is even more important than in peacetime, because there are so many more violations.
It is therefore the role of the Feministeerium to keep human rights issues even higher on the agenda. I would not call human rights a soft issue either, for example, sexual violence is by no means a soft issue.
On top of that, there are different trends on social media, such as “trad-wife”, “high value man”, “high value woman”, which really have shaped a lot of mindsets… Which thoughts does this give you?
These trends are quite interesting, they constitute rich material for feminist analysis. But the widening values gap among young people does not look good. These upcoming generations of feminists and misogynists need to coexist, and I don’t see that the solution is to meet in the middle ground, where young women who stand up for their own worth will allow themselves to be humiliated a bit more. In fact, it is far worse than humiliation, and misogyny is downright life-threatening for women and minorities.
Getting back on track, what have been the biggest successes and the most important milestones for the organisation over the past decade?
Six years ago, in the wake of #MeToo (a movement focused on combating sexual harassment and violence), we set ourselves one big advocacy goal: for Estonia to move to a law of consent.
Today, we have been working very actively on this issue, communicating a lot with officials and politicians, and bringing relevant expertise to Estonia. We have a very strong competence in this area.
Although the Consent Act is on the government’s work plan and the Ministry of Justice has started drafting, we cannot of course call it a major victory until the law is in force and implemented.
But there are things that have already been done. We are very happy about the legalisation of cohabitation. It was quite unexpected, we thought that the implementing legislation for the Cohabitation Act would not be passed.
There have been other victories. One of them is to leave the right to marry to adults only; previously, it was possible to marry at the age of 15 by way of exception. Also, access for minors to psychiatric help without parental consent has been guaranteed, and the age of sexual self-identification has been raised from 14 to 16.
Tell us if there are any difficulties or concerns that you have not been able to overcome.
It’s unpleasant to see things repeatedly in election manifestos, coalition agreements and the work plan of the government that don’t go through. For example, the amendment of the regulation of hate speech and the harmonisation of protection against discrimination between different groups, which has been dragging on for years. At the moment, it is as if a little more discrimination is allowed on some grounds.
What will 2025 bring?
On the journalistic side, the plan is to undertake a misogyny and explore it from different angles. Among other things, in the context of the development and rise of artificial intelligence, which has led to the proliferation of pornographic deep-links, for example.
We also want to go back to where we started. This is an area where knowledge and perceptions have changed over the last decade.
In May, we will also be launching an international project on violence against women, and more will be available then.
What is your biggest birthday wish?
I’d like to see the kind of fairy dust that is sprinkled in the direction of the misogynistic warriors so that they wake up tomorrow as peaceful people who respect women and minorities. Dust should also cover Russia and the USA.
