Overview

1. Overview • Definition of Terms • Postcolonial Feminist Theories • Chandra Mohanty

2. Terms • Colonialism- control by one power over a dependent area • Imperialism- the policy, practice, or advocacy of extending the power and dominion of a nation by direct territorial acquisition or indirect control over the political or economic life of other areas • Hegemony-The predominant influence, as of a state, region, or group, over another or others

3. Terms • Ethnocentrism- based on the attitude that one’s own group is superior • Third World- specific geographical areas and “imaginary spaces” • Latin America, the Caribbean, African, Southeast Asia, China, Oceania • Also includes people of color in the US, Europe and Australia- black, indigenous, Latino, Asian

4. Postcolonial Feminist Theories • Thinkers: Trinh T. Minh-Ha, Gayatri Spivak, Chandra Mohanty, Maria Fernandez-Kelly, Maria Mies, Ester Boserup, Uma Narayan • Description of Problem: • Undercutting of women’s traditional economic base by colonialism • Exploitation of women workers in the post-colonial economy • Lack of education for girls • Inadequate maternal and child health care

5. Postcolonial Feminist Theories • Analysis: • Sexism, racism, imperialism, capitalism, colonialism • Patriarchal family structures • Traditional cultural practices that are harmful to women • Remedies: • Protection of women’s economic resources in modernization • Education, health care, family planning • Community women’s organizing • Eradication of practices such as female genital mutilation

6. Postcolonial Feminist Theories • Contributions: • Gender analyses of modernization and economic restructuring • Data on exploitation of women and children workers • Women’s rights as human rights • Understanding of connection between 1st and 3rd world • Shortcomings: • Western ideas of women’s independence can undercut community • Cultural diversity vs. universal women’s rights (micro vs. macro change)

7. Chandra Mohanty • “Feminism Without Borders: Decolonizing Theory, Practicing Solidarity” • “Discursive colonization” of much Western feminist theory and scholarship • Global hegemony of western scholarship • She provides: • A critique of how Western feminists construct the 3rd world and 3rd world women • Creation of feminisms that are historically and culturally grounded

8. Chandra Mohanty • Critique of Western Feminist Theory about 3rd world women • Western feminists have created a binary of Western vs. non-western • Produced work that has created a monolithic, singular, universal 3rd world woman • This 3rd world woman is uneducated, traditional, powerless, family-oriented, outside history, evolutionarily backward, and has no choices • This conception limits knowledge of women globally and limits coalition-building

9. Chandra Mohanty • Invisibility of 3rd world feminism in literature • Creation of new types of feminisms and feminist theories that include: • Local, cross-national, cross-cultural analyses • Race, class, state, liberation struggles • Examples/immigration laws, multinational companies and labor forces participation • Imagined community- horizontal comradeship • Political alliances rather than biological or cultural