Global Feminisms: Theory and Ethics for Studying Gendered Injustice*

Abstract

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 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.

Notes

¹ Eric Neumayer and Thomas Plümper, “The Gendered Nature of Natural Disasters: The Impact of Catastrophic Events on the Gender Gap in Life Expectancy, 1981–2002,” Annals of the Association of American Geographers 97:3 (2007), pp. 551–566.

^*This paper grew out of conversations that took place in Vanderbilt University's Global Feminisms Collaborative between 2006 and 2009. This group has served as a source of resistance, support, and collaboration and reinforced to us the importance of “doing feminism” in community, for the sake of greater critical reflection on and awareness of the diversity within these feminist spaces. This article focuses on the theory, ethics, and questions of global feminisms; our group also works on global feminism as a subject, teaching ethic, and pedagogy.

² We are grateful to Srilatha Batliwala for raising this issue and for sharing important bibliography on the topic. See Sarita Bahl et al., “Women and Health: The Overburdened Ones” (Jacaranda, India Habitat Centre, New Delhi: Centre for Science and the Environment, 2006), available online at: < http://www.cseindia.org/programme/health/content.htm>; Chakrabartty Arupkumar, “Understanding Gender Issues in Utero-Vaginal Prolapse: A Review from Qualitative Studies,” (review paper), available online at: < http://www.hvr.org.in/.../Uterovaginal%20Prolapse-a%20Gender%20Analysis.pdf> .

³ Gapminder was founded in Stockholm by Ola Rosling, Anna Rosling Rönnlund, and Hans Rosling on February 25, 2005. See: < http://www.gapminder.org/>

⁴ Anna M. Agathangelou and L.H.M. Ling, “Power, Borders, Security, Wealth: Lessons of Violence and Desire from September 11,” International Studies Quarterly 48:3 (2004), pp. 517–538; Laura Sjoberg, Gender, Justice, and the Wars in Iraq: A Feminist Reformulation of Just War Theory (Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2006); Sally Baden with Heike Wach. “Gender, HIV/AIDS transmission and impacts: a review of issues and evidence.” A briefing prepared for the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency. (Brighton: Institute of Development Studies at University of Sussex, 1998), available online at: < http://www.bridge.ids.ac.uk/reports/re47c.pdf>; S.M. Jacobs and R. Jacobson, States of Conflict: Gender, Violence and Resistance (London: Zed Books, 2000); Eleonore Kofman, “Female ‘Birds of Passage’ a Decade Later: Gender and Immigration in the European Union,” International Migration Review 33:2 (1999), pp. 269–299; C.O.N. Moser and F.C. Clark, Victims, Perpetrators or Actors?: Gender, Armed Conflict and Political Violence (London: Zed Books, 2001).

⁵ Breny Mendoza, “Transnational Feminisms in Question,” Feminist Theory 3:3 (2002), pp. 295–314; Amy Farrell and Patrice McDermott, “Claiming Afghan Women: The Challenge of Human Rights Discourse for Transnational Feminism,” in Wendy S. Hesford and Wendy Kozol (eds), Just Advocacy?: Women's Human Rights, Transnational Feminisms, and the Politics of Representation, (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2005), pp. 33–55; cf. Elora Halim Chowdhury, “Locating Global Feminisms Elsewhere: Braiding US Women of Color and Transnational Feminisms,” Cultural Dynamics 21:1 (2009), pp. 51–78.

⁶ Sonia Alvarez, “Advocating Feminism: The Latin American Feminist NGO ‘Boom,’” International Feminist Journal of Politics 1:2 (1999), pp. 181–209.

⁷ Brooke A. Ackerly, Political Theory and Feminist Social Criticism (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000) and Universal Human Rights in a World of Difference (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008).

⁸ It is also a subject, a teaching ethic, a pedagogy, and a way of conceiving of one's activism.

⁹ Chowdhury, “Locating Global Feminisms Elsewhere,” op. cit.; Bonnie G. Smith, Global Feminisms since 1945: A Survey of Issues and Controversies (London: New York: Routledge, 2000); Valerie Sperling, Myra Marx Ferree, and Barbara Risman, “Constructing Global Feminisms: Transnational Advocacy Networks and Russian Women's Activism,” Signs 26:4 (2001), pp. 1155–1186. For more on “difference” see Ackerly, Universal Human Rights in a World of Difference, op. cit.

¹⁰ Rosemarie Tong, Feminist Thought: A More Comprehensive Introduction, 2nd ed. (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1998); Alison M. Jaggar, Feminist Politics and Human Nature, Philosophy and Society (Totowa, NJ: Rowman & Allanheld, 1983). Donovan gives us a broader historical view of these intellectual trajectories; see Josephine Donovan, Feminist Theory: The Intellectual Traditions of American Feminism (New York: F. Ungar, 1985).

¹¹ Judith Butler, “Contingent Foundations: Feminism and the Question of Postmodernism,” in Judith Butler, Seyla Benhabib, Nancy Fraser, and Drucilla Cornell (eds), Feminist Contentions: A Philosophical Exchange (New York: Routledge, 1995), pp. 35–57; Inderpal Grewal and Caren Kaplan, Scattered Hegemonies: Postmodernity and Transnational Feminist Practices (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1994); Christine Sylvester, Feminist Theory and International Relations in a Postmodern Era, Cambridge Studies in International Relations, no. 32 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994).

¹² Iris Marion Young, Justice and the Politics of Difference (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1990) and “Unruly Categories: A Critique of Nancy Fraser's Dual Systems Theory,” New Left Review 222, March-April (1997), pp. 147–160; Nancy Fraser, “From Redistribution to Recognition? Dilemmas of Justice in a ‘Post-Socialist’ Age,” New Left Review 212 (1995), pp. 68–93.

¹³ Uma Narayan, Dislocating Cultures: Identities, Traditions, and Third-World Feminism (New York: Routledge, 1997).

¹⁴ Ackerly, Political Theory and Feminist Social Criticism, op. cit. and Universal Human Rights in a World of Difference, op. cit.; Mary G. Dietz, “Current Controversies in Feminist Theory,” Annual Review of Political Science 6 (2003), pp. 399–431.

¹⁵ See Patricia Hill Collins, Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of Empowerment (Boston, MA: Unwin Hyman, [1990] 1991); Isabelle Gunning, “Arrogant Perception, World Traveling and Multicultural Feminism: The Case of Female Genital Surgeries,” Columbia Human Rights Law Review 23:2 (1992), pp. 189–248.

¹⁶ Ackerly, Political Theory and Feminist Social Criticism, op. cit.

¹⁷ Chandra Talpade Mohanty, “Under Western Eyes: Feminist Scholarship and Colonial Discourses,” in Chandra Talpade Mohanty, Ann Russo and Lourdes Torres (eds) Third World Women and the Politics of Feminism (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, [1984] 1991), pp. 51–80; Amartya Sen, “More Than 100 Million Women Are Missing,” The New York Review of Books 37:20 (1990), pp. 61–66 and “Gender and Cooperative Conflicts,” in Irene Tinker (ed.), Persistent Inequalities: Women and World Development (New York: Oxford University Press, 1990), pp. 123–149; Gita Sen and Caren Grown, Development, Crises, and Alternative Visions: Third World Women's Perspectives (New York: Monthly Review Press, 1987); Lourdes Beneria Sen and Gita Sen, “Accumulation, Reproduction, and Women's Role in Economic Development: Boserup Revisited,” Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 7:2 (1981), pp. 279–298; Kumari Jayawardena, Feminism and Nationalism in the Third World (London: Zed Books, 1986); and Martha Alter Chen, A Quiet Revolution: Women in Transition in Rural Bangladesh (Cambridge, MA: Schenkman, 1983).

¹⁸ Nancy A. Naples and Manisha Desai (eds), Women's Activism and Globalization: Linking Local Struggles and Transnational Politics (New York: Routledge, 2002); Rosalind Pollack Petchesky, Global Prescriptions: Gendering Health and Human Rights (New York: Zed Books, 2003); Charlotte Bunch, “A Feminist Human Rights Lens,” Peace Review 16:1 (2004), pp. 29–34, and “Feminism, Peace, Human Rights and Human Security,” Canadian Woman Studies 22:2 (2003), pp. 6–11; Hilary Charlesworth, “Not Waving but Drowning: Gender Mainstreaming and Human Rights in the United Nations,” Harvard Human Rights Journal 18, (Spring 2005), pp. 1–18; Kelly Dawn Askin and Dorean M. Koenig (eds), Women and International Human Rights Law, vol. 2 (Ardsley, NY: Transnational, [1999] 2000); Aili Marie Tripp, “Why So Slow? The Challenges of Gendering Comparative Politics,” Politics & Gender 2:2 (2006), pp. 249–263, and “The Evolution of Transnational Feminisms: Consensus, Conflict, and New Dynamics,” in Myra Marx Ferree and Aili Mari Tripp (eds), Global Feminism: Transnational Women's Activism, Organizing, and Human Rights (New York: New York University Press, 2006), pp. 51–75; Jacqui True and Michael Mintrom, “Transnational Networks and Policy Diffusion: The Case of Gender Mainstreaming,” International Studies Quarterly 45:1 (2001), pp. 27–57; Mary E. Hawkesworth, Globalization and Feminist Activism (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2006); Valentine M. Moghadam, Globalizing Women: Transnational Feminist Networks (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2005); Margaret E. Keck and Kathryn Sikkink, Activists Beyond Borders: Advocacy Networks in International Politics (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1998); Myra Marx Ferree and Aili Mari Tripp (eds), Global Feminism: Transnational Women's Activism, Organizing, and Human Rights (New York and London: New York University Press, 2006); Elisabeth Jay Friedman, “Gendering the Agenda: The Impact of the Transnational Women's Rights Movement at the UN Conferences of the 1990s,” Women's Studies International Forum 26:4 (2003), pp. 313–331; and Smith, Global Feminisms since 1945, op. cit.

¹⁹ Naples and Desai, op. cit. On the distinction between practical and strategic interests see: Caroline O.N. Moser, Gender Planning and Development: Theory, Practice and Training (London: Routledge, 1993).

²⁰ Inderpal Grewal, Transnational America: Feminisms, Diasporas, Neoliberalisms (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2005), p. 34.

²¹ Grewal and Kaplan, op. cit., pp. 17–18.

²² Ackerly, Political Theory and Feminist Social Criticism, op. cit.; Brooke A. Ackerly and Jacqui True, “Studying the Struggles and Wishes of the Age: Feminist Theoretical Methodology and Feminist Theoretical Methods,” in Brooke A. Ackerly, Maria Stern, and Jacqui True (eds), Feminist Methodologies for International Relations (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006), pp. 241–260.

²³ Susan Moller Okin, “Poverty, Well-Being, and Gender: What Counts, Who's Heard?” Philosophy and Public Affairs 31:3 (2003), pp. 280–316, “Gender Inequality and Cultural Differences,” Political Theory 22:1 (1994), pp. 5–24, and “Response to Jane Flax,” Political Theory 23:3 (1995), pp. 511–516; Martha Craven Nussbaum, Women and Human Development: The Capabilities Approach, The John Robert Seeley Lectures (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000).

²⁴ Ackerly, Political Theory and Feminist Social Criticism, op. cit, and Universal Human Rights in a World of Difference, op. cit; Katy Attanasi, "Complex realities: Black South African Women, HIV/AIDS, and Pentecostalism" PhD dissertation (Vanderbilt University, 2009).

²⁵ Brooke A. Ackerly and Jacqui True, “Reflexivity in Practice: Power and Ethics in Feminist Research on International Relations,” International Studies Review 10 (2008) pp. 693–707.

²⁶ Brooke A. Ackerly and Jacqui True, Doing Feminist Research in Social and Political Science (Palgrave, forthcoming).

²⁷ Sarah VanHooser and Brooke A. Ackerly, “Global Feminisms Collaborative Statement of Ethics in Research,” (forthcoming); Sonalini Sapra, “Participatory Democracy and Social Justice: The Politics of Women's Environmental Action in India” (dissertation, Vanderbilt University, 2009).

²⁸ Richa Nagar, “Footloose Researchers, ‘Traveling’ Theories, and the Politics of Transnational Feminist Praxis,” Gender, Place and Culture 9:2 (2002), pp. 179–186.

²⁹ Bina D'Costa, “Marginalized Identity: New Frontiers of Research for IR?” in Brooke Ackerly, Maria Stern, and Jacqui True (eds), Feminist Methodologies for International Relations (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006), pp. 129–152 and “The Gendered Construction of Nationalism: From Partition to Creation” (PhD dissertation, Australian National University, 2003).

³⁰ Mike Kesby, “Retheorizing Empowerment-through-Participation as a Performance in Space: Beyond Tyranny to Transformation,” Signs 30:4 (2005), pp. 2037–2065; Jane L. Parpart, “The Participatory Empowerment Approach to Gender and Development in Africa: Panacea or Illusion?” (Copenhagen: Center for African Studies, University of Copenhagen, 2000); Irene Guijt and Meera Kaul Shah (eds), The Myth of Community: Gender Issues in Participatory Development (New Delhi: Vistaar Publications, [1998] 1999); Gerry Salole, “Participatory Development: The Taxation of the Beneficiary?,” Journal of Social Development in Africa 6:2 (1991), pp. 5–16.

³¹ Koni Benson and Richa Nagar, “Collaboration as Resistance? Reconsidering the Processes, Products, and Possibilities of Feminist Oral History and Ethnography,” Gender, Place and Culture 13:5 (2006), pp. 581–592; Richa Nagar, “Collaboration across Borders: Moving Beyond Positionality,” Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography 24:3 (2003), pp. 356–372.

³² Tami Jacoby, “From the Trenches: Dilemmas of Feminist IR Fieldwork,” in Brooke Ackerly, Maria Stern, and Jacqui True (eds), Feminist Methodologies for International Relations (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006), pp. 153–173; Diane L. Wolf, “Situating Feminist Dilemmas in Fieldwork,” in Diane L. Wolf (ed.), Feminist Dilemmas in Fieldwork (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1996), pp. 1–55.

³³ Jacoby, “From the Trenches: Dilemmas of Feminist IR Fieldwork,” op. cit.

³⁴ Margaret Snyder, “Unlikely Godmother: The United Nations and the Global Women's Movement,” in Myra Marx Ferree and Aili Mari Tripp (eds), Global Feminism: Transnational Women's Activism, Organizing, and Human Rights (New York: New York University Press, 2006), pp. 24–50.

³⁵ Marysia Zalewski, “Do We Understand Each Other Yet? Troubling Feminist Encounters with(in) International Relations,” The British Journal of Politics and International Relations 9:2 (2007), pp. 302–312.

³⁶ R.C. Carpenter, “Gender Theory in World Politics: Contributions of a Non-Feminist Standpoint,” International Studies Review 4:3 (2002), pp. 153–165.

³⁷ Maria Stern, Naming Security—Constructing Identity: ‘Mayan Women’ in Guatemala on the Eve of “Peace” (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2005), and “Racism, Sexism, Classism and Much More: Reading Security-Identity in Marginalized Sites,” in Brooke Ackerly, Maria Stern, and Jacqui True (eds), Feminist Methodologies for International Relations (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006), pp. 174–197.

³⁸ Stern, “Racism, Sexism, Classism and Much More,” op. cit.

³⁹ Niamh Reilly, “Cosmopolitan Feminism and Human Rights,” Hypatia 22:4 (2007), pp. 180–198.

⁴⁰ Vandana Shiva, Earth Democracy: Justice, Sustainability, and Peace (Cambridge, MA: South End Press, 2005); Maria Mies and Vandana Shiva, Ecofeminism (London: Zed Books, 1993).

⁴¹ Eric Neumayer, “Is Respect for Human Rights Rewarded? An Analysis of Total Bilateral and Multilateral Aid Flows,” Human Rights Quarterly 25:2 (2003), pp. 510–527.