CRITICALLY EVALUATE THE STRENGTHS AND LIMITATIONS OF A GLOBAL FEMINISM

Critically evaluate the strengths and limitations of a global feminism

Global Feminism

Introduction

Global justice needs a form of feminism that holds in relation various strands of feminism. Others have selected from feminisms around the globe a version of feminism to name and criticize as “global.” In this essay we identify within feminist struggle for justice around the world global feminisms that take those ideas that others may hold in critical tension—tension which suggests dichotomous interpretations of injustice or opposites on the static scales of justice (such as concerns with recognition versus redistribution)—and hold them instead in dynamic relationship.

Global Feminism

Global feminists hold in relation the academic post-modern feminists' concern with “hegemonic meta-narratives” and the women's rights activists' attempts to get global recognition of the violations of women's rights. Global feminists are concerned about the ways in which research is done and the uses to which it is put. Global feminists hold in relation the idea that contexts matter and the idea that the most powerful forces of injustice are embedded in the normative structures of those contexts everyday. In sum, this article looks at global feminisms as a theoretical trend, an ethical approach to research, and an ontological perspective on the relationship between global and local, social, political, and economic values, practices, and norms. Global feminism is a paradoxical posture toward the world that eschews imperialist definitions. It is at once always aware of global connectedness as well as cognizant of the concern that global connectedness can create opportunities for neo-colonial globalism (Mendez, 2002, 121-41).

Global Feminism is a feminist theory closely aligned with postcolonial theory and postcolonial feminism. It concerns itself primarily with the forward movement of women's rights on a global scale. Using different historical lenses from the legacy of colonialism, Global Feminists adopt global causes and start movements which seek to dismantle what they argue are the currently predominant structures of global patriarchy. Global Feminism is also known as Transnational Feminism, World Feminism, and International Feminism. It is part of a larger history dating from World War I, when Western liberal feminist-led international women's organizations began to promote women's involvement in international policy making and governance.

Two historical examples Global Feminists might use to expose patriarchal structures at work in colonized groups or societies are medieval Spain (late eleventh to thirteenth centuries) and nineteenth-century Cuba. The former example concerns women of the Mudejar communities of Islamic Spain and the strict sexual codes through which their social activity was regulated. Mudejar women could be sold into slavery as a result of sexual activity with Christian man; this was to escape the deemed punishment accorded by the Sunna, or Islamic law. Because of their simultaneous roles as upholding one's family honor and one of “conquered status and gender,” “Mudejar women suffered double jeopardy in their sexual contact with Christians [in Spain].” (Feldman, 2001, 1108)

Nineteenth-century Cuba can be looked at as an example of colonialism and neocolonialism working together in a slave-based society to affect women's ...