Perspectives

Gender and Justice in the Gene Age, an invitational feminist meeting on the social implications of new reproductive and genetic technologies, took place on May 6 and 7 in New York City. This was the first U.S. meeting in many years to ground these issues in the values and commitments of feminists who work from a global social justice and human rights perspective.

Some sixty-five participants from feminist, disability, women's health, social justice and racial justice organizations, including activists and academics, of all ages, attended. Most were from the U.S., but an important several came from Latin America, India, Canada, the UK, and Germany.

Gender and Justice in the Gene Age was co-sponsored by CGS; the Committee on Women, Population and the Environment; and Our Bodies Ourselves. The meeting website, http://www.GJGA.org, is now a public resource.

Update: The conference website now contains an in-depth report [PDF], as of May 2005.

Gender and Justice in the Gene Age closed with discussion about strategies for mobilizing concern among feminists, building stronger bridges among feminist and disability organizations and communities, communicating a social justice feminist perspective on reproductive genetics to other constituencies, working with media to insert that perspective into the larger public and policy debates, and more.

CGS is very pleased to announce that as part of these efforts, we will be establishing a new program, the Project on Gender, Justice and Human Genetics, to focus on the social and political implications of reproductive and genetic technologies. The program will be headed by Sujatha Jesudason, who comes to CGS from her position as Lead Movement Organizer at Asian Communities for Reproductive Justice. A full report on the meeting, and more information about this new CGS project, are forthcoming.