Essay On Third World Feminist Theory

Within much of western feminist discourse there is a tendency to classify women from the “third world” as exploited, powerless victims. In Chandra Mohatny’s essay ‘Under Western Eyes’ we learn that classifying the experiences of third world women, as a homogenous group is problematic in that it centralizes their experiences even though their histories, oppressions, and interests are different. Third world women are a diverse group with different interests and struggles based on their colonial, political, racial, and ethnic histories. In an attempt to overcome the misrepresentation of third-world women, third-world feminist theory was developed. Although both western and third world feminist theory focus on women’s issues, I would argue that third world feminist theory use an intersectional approach taking into account colonization, race, ethnicity, and class by localizing and contextualizing concepts like reproduction, marriage, family, patriarchy and the division of labor.

Intersectionality is important in analyzing women’s issues within third world feminist theory in that it reveals the interlocking hierarchies of identity, which classify the experiences of individual women. For example by saying women are oppressed because of their gender then we are not considering intersectionality to analyze the oppression of women. If we say that women’s oppression not only depends on their gender, but also depends on their race, class, and historical contexts, then we are applying the theory of intersectionality to analyze the issue of women’s oppression.

Western feminist discourses on third world women categorize third world women as a homogenous group regardless of the diversity in their struggles against racism, sexism and colonialism....

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... Western counterparts. Although postcolonial feminism may have intensified the fragmentation of feminism, it has opened up areas and topics for research that provide a more enhanced picture of women’s lives from around the world.

To understand the characteristics of third world feminism, the abovementioned tenets are crucial. Third world feminism focuses on the uniqueness, diversities and differences among third world women. The emergence of third world feminism was important to prevent the misrepresentation and misconception of third world women classifying them as a unitary group. To come up with solutions of the issues that third world women face, accurate comprehension and representation of third world women’s histories, struggles, experiences and interests are necessary, which might be possible by the writings, theories, and discourses of third world feminism.