Global Feminism

Agenda

The agenda of global feminism is to be able to respond to local-level concerns of women while integrating the goals of earlier feminist movements and their philosophies into their mission and actions. Global feminism has given voice to varying feminist thoughts and agendas. These issues include human rights, social justice, the concept of “othering,” acceptance of a universal sisterhood, and the issue of inequality. The conflict between the overarching goals of liberal universalism and local cultural realities are central to this debate. One illustration of this debate is the goal of mainstream/liberal feminism to be recognized as equal by their communities, and identifying the traditional cultural practices that act as a barrier in accomplishing this goal.

There are two major contentions proposed by those practicing or identifying with global feminism. These include those living outside the United States, and the ethnic and cultural minorities residing within the United States and in other Western countries. The first questions gender as a social construct having unilateral primacy, and argues for the recognition of multiple and simultaneous oppressions from various social constructs, such as categorizations of class, caste, and urban/rural living. The second issue is a reflection on women being perceived as oppressive-as a part of developed societies or higher up in institutional-communities.

As an illustration, nationalistic sentiments and their associated movements are central to postcolonial feminist thinking. However, the same nationalism that is valued in postcolonial feminist thinking is perceived as patriarchal in second wave feminism. Also, while global feminism concurs with mainstream feminism that universal rights for women are desirable, global feminists also fear and dispute typologies that use cultural practices as a way of creating a hierarchy of values, and consequently the societies and [Page 628]people within them. Thus, global feminism argues for cultural relativism as an appropriate strategy to approach universalism. The genesis of global feminism occurred because academics from countries like Iran and India dispute the essentialist victimized status ascribed to their national and social identity; similar responses come from women who have formed multicultural identities after migrating to developed countries, and continue to shape global feminism.

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