/SAC @ Malmaison

“Why we should all be feminists” is a non-exhaustive, depolarizing plea for a change in the way we respond to old dynamics and build new ones (individual, collective, governing, human-nonhuman, etc.), a shift towards a paradigm of equity, acceptance of diversity and differences, care and sustainability – which are more necessary today than ever before. In 2012, Nigerian author and activist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie gave her million-times-shared talk entitled We Should All Be Feminists at the TEDxEuston innovation conference in London, advocating for a fairer and more equal world for all people regardless of gender and cultural identity. 1 It was a feminist manifesto that went around the world and promised great hope for the ongoing development of equality. More than ten years later, in 2025, we seem to be experiencing an international backlash. Although much has been achieved in terms of legal equality for women, the reality of life is different. The international tradwife trend, as well as discussions about stay-at-home allowances in Austria, propagate a backward-looking worldview and thus oppose actual gender equality. In Austria, one in three women currently experiences violence and the number of femicides is alarmingly high compared to the EU average. Gender still influences social position, resources, rights, economic interests, and perspectives. “Gender matters. Men and women experience the world differently. Gender colors the way we experience the world. But we can change that,” says Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. Feminist artists have achieved a great deal in the fight for equality, but “the achievements of our generation are fragile,” warns Annegret Soltau, one of the most important feminist artists of the 1970s. She makes it clear that the achievements of the international feminist avant-garde formed in 1968 and IntAkt (International Action Group of Female Visual Artists), founded in Austria in 1977, must be reinforced and underpinned on a daily basis. So, where do we stand today, almost 50 years after the IntAkt artists succeeded in questioning/challenging the mechanisms of power in society and gender relations? What kind of society are we longing for?