"The expansion of rights is now in question."

Within the framework of the International Congress of the Latin American Studies Association (LASA): “Reaction and resistance: Imagining possible futures in the Americas”, held from Wednesday, June 12 to Saturday, June 15, Marcela Schenk, political scientist, professor at the University of the Republic in Uruguay, specialist in “Health Policies, Gender and Public Policies”, and in “Sexual and Gender Diversity and Public Policies”, spoke with CLACSO.tv.

The political scientist explained that feminisms “have played a very important role in bringing to light aspects of the private sphere that were considered absent from the citizenry” and added that “what they implied was expanding equality.”

Referring to the achievements of these movements, Schenk pointed out that “often when we talk about the language of rights or the rights perspective, there is a premise that it is good not to backtrack on those rights that have been won. However, when we look at our political realities, we see that this is not the case. That is, these rights are constantly being contested, the meanings that gave rise to these rights are constantly being contested, and today they are key elements in this advance of extremism.”