Feminism and It’s Many Forms
Most might not know that there are many different types of feminist theory and thought. Certain types of feminism are concerned with certain topics, and some believe that certain issues are deemed as more important than others. It is because of this that we must acknowledge that some theories can be critiqued for how its thought process can fail to help a certain group of people or be exclusive, resulting in them looking down on some people. The contrast between global and transnational feminism is a good example of how feminist theory can be critiqued and reimagined to be more inclusive.
Global Feminism
Global feminism is a feminist theory that aligns itself with postcolonial theory and post colonial feminism. It concerns itself with forwarding the women’s rights movement on a global level. This theory also adopts global issues as causes and aims to stop the most concerning issue, which is a global patriarchy. This type of feminism pertains itself towards providing a set of common goals for women across the world and, in the process, creating a global sisterhood.
Critique
The effects of globalization on women is not taken into account under global feminism, such as the problems faced by migrant mothers and women. One of these problems would be having to leave overseas to give their child a chance at better care, then having to perform their gender role, and having to be deported to be the breadwinner. This restructures care under the effects of globalization and from neoliberalism. Since globalization is constantly changing it supports the idea that women from the global south should serve domestic labourers.
Transnational Feminism
Transnational feminism allows for an examination into global issues while also seeing how they intersect with experiences in the western world. A problem with global feminism is that it minimizes individual experiences. Transnational feminism critiques this thinking because it challenges the thought process of viewing women in the global south as weaker against the forces of patriarchy in their respective countries, thereby making it appear that women from the west are more civilized. This supports a saviour complex in people from the west.
Image is courtesy of Feminism in India.
Mothering in a neoliberal spectrum affects the exploitation of women through deprivations of citizen rights, taking away the benefits of their labor by taking away obligations to the society which migrant women are not from. Transnational mothering is seen as between both classes. Motherhood, like reproductive freedom and marriage, is a fundamental right for women, but it is restricted in countries that accept imported domestic services and see immigrant women as a danger to their nationalism.
Women of various national and racial identities encounter varying degrees of integration within a culture as a result of the racial development process. Natives assume that third-world migrants can’t make it and dread a generation, which contributes to citizenship hierarchies in connection to social Darwinism. As a result, governments use methods like as sterilizing to filter out people who do not fit into upper or middle class society.
Transnational feminism also critiques the way migrants have been used to perform a first world country’s temporary labor needs in order to help their own economy which has been tampered with through western colonial incursions.
Article Author: Idil Gure
Article Editors: Victoria Huang, Sherilyn Wen