In "The White Women's Burden,” Josephine Butler Campaign Against Contagious Disease is dissected throughout this reading as a means of exemplifying the rise of imperial feminism and the attitudes of the early British suffragist who bore its “imaginative, no no less hegemonic feminist world order” (301). In this way, Burton uses Butlers campaign and its intersection with the British Empires agenda for India to show how integral Indian women were for British women’s progress. While, Burton sights that the intensions of Butler’s ideologies and purpose for working “behalf of Indian women” came from genuine misperspections about what women were robbed of in Indian cultures, just as we saw in last weeks reading there were an ulterior benefits to …show more content…
While this work reflects much more on the European women who found themselves in British India with the vigor to bring political and social change to women in what is now modern day India, pakestan and shri lanka, Jayawardena widens our scope of the women who we identify as western feminist as a development in 19th and 20th century South Asia. I appreciated the detailed accounts of that these readings brought to Josephine Butler, as well as early Christian missionaries, and utilitarian activist such as Mary Carpenter and Annette Ackroyds. Through these specific examples, a the concept of a "global sisterhood" is commonly supported, but distinguishably executed. This is still true today when looking at contemporary missionary and feminist quest to improve the lives of women, globally. However, this concept of a "global sisterhood" to suggest the formation of an international feminist platform, finds its roots in imperialism and western ideologies that cannot be escaped. These readings, in conversation provide light on the history of global feminism and the empire as of way helping us understand the historical issues that keep the formation of solidarity between women around the world in a singular movement hard to
Throughout the course of history, nations have invested time and manpower into the colonizing and modernizing of more rural governments. Imperialism has spread across the globe, from the British East India Company to France’s occupation of Northern Africa. After their founding in 1776, the United States of America largely stayed out of this trend until The Spanish-American War of 1898. Following the war, the annexation and colonization of Guam, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines ultimately set a precedent for a foreign policy of U.S. imperialism.
Lugones, María C. and Elizabeth V. Spelman (1983) “Have We Got a Theory for You! Feminist Theory, Cultural Imperialism and the Demand for ‘The Woman’s Voice’.” Women’s Studies International Forum, 6 (6): 573-581..
Good intentions do not beget positive results. Indeed what may seem to be good from one perspective may be seen as the complete opposite from another. Case in point: Western Feminism. To prove my point I will analyze the work of Ruth Frances Woodsmall, Women and the New East, written in 1960 as a feminist work, from a post-modern feminist perspective, and using works from Coco Fusco (English Broken Here) and Trinh Minh-ha (Women Native Other).
In her essay, Lauren Onkey reveals how colonialism and nationalism victimize women in the past. Traditionally, woman is considered inferior and weaker whereas man is superior and powerful. This sexist characterization of gender is based on the assumption of sexual dominance. During the period of colonization, Colonial power deliberately describes the colonies as feminine “to justify its ‘civilizing’ mission” (160). Since then, woman becomes the symbol and property of nation. Thence, the nation assumes the right to ‘supervise’ her behavior. Richard Kearney suggests “the symbol of woman as nation as a somewhat benevolent response to colonial conquest” (160). The ‘elevation’ of woman as a symbol and property of nation is problematic at least to women because it makes self-determination inapplicable to women. In Ireland specifically, women’s issues are defined as trivial compared to the more important issues of nationalism. The Field Day group which is supposed to “rethink ideas about the nation, literature, politics and culture” fails to include the issues of women in its agenda. Onkey argues that Field Day simply ignores the creative works produced by women and topics of women, sexuality and gender are absent in most literary discourse. Female writers are also marginalized since “of over 300 writers included covering 1500 years, only 39 are women” (162).
Mohanty, Chandra Talpade, Ann Russo, and Lourdes Torres. Third World Women and the Politics of Feminism. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1991.
Ihara Saikaku’s Life of a Sensuous Woman written in the 17th century and Mary Woolstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of Woman written in the 18th century are powerful literary works that advocated feminism during the time when women were oppressed members of our societies. These two works have a century old age difference and the authors of both works have made a distinctive attempt to shed a light towards the issues that nobody considered significant during that time. Despite these differences between the two texts, they both skillfully manage to present revolutionary ways women can liberate themselves from oppression laden upon them by the society since the beginning of humanity.
Lee, H. & Shimizu, C. (2004). Sex acts: Two meditations on race and sexuality. Signs: Journal
Feminists are accused of taking the perspective of a woman who is a product of Western ideology. Which is to say that feminists ‘assume that all women have similar attributes and experiences and ignore the impact of other variables such as race, class, wealth, and sexual preferences on the position of women’(Chalesworth in Nayak 2013, 86). That in doing so, they have effectively excluded other women of different culture, class, and religion. What I would like to emphasize here is that in pursuing equality, feminists have become the very ‘”elite” they criticizes. Feminists’ claims for human rights are Western based, as simultaneously feminists are claiming that human rights are
The Colonial era spans nearly two hundred years with each settlement in the New World containing distinctive characteristics. Location in the new world is one factor that shaped women’s lives but religion and economics also played a massive role. These roles however were constantly changing and often contradicting. Since there is numerous factors that contributed to the shaping of women’s private and public roles in the seventeenth and eighteenth century it is impossible to categories all colonial woman in one group. Some historians refer to this period as the golden age of women; however, I tend to see this period as oppressive, with only few examples of women exercising social and public powers.
History accounts for the great contributions of women in promoting social justice, particularly in uplifting the morale and functions of women in the society. From being the oppressed gender, various women managed to change the traditional roles of women by fighting for their rights to be heard and for them to given equal opportunities. These women boldly stood against gender stereotypes of women and proved the entire world that they could defy conventions. Particularly at the turn of the 20th century, women battled against the oppressions brought by patriarchy in different ways. These activist women had crusaded for the promotion of their civil rights, sexual freedom, and pursued careers which were once forbidden to them.
When it comes to post-colonial literature, most initially think about the colonization of other countries and how it has affected the natives. Though it is the most well known form of post-colonial literature, it is not the most wide-spread. By slightly altering the framing in which one looks at it, the idea that feminist literature by women from a patriarchal society is post-colonial literature begins to make sense.
10) Smith, Bonnie G., ed. Oxford Encyclopedia of Women in World History. Vol. 4. N.p.: Xford UP, 2008. Print. 2710 Pages.
Lugones, Maria C. and Elizabeth V. Spelman. Have We Got a Theory for You! Feminist Theory, Cultural Imperialism and the Demand for “The Woman’s Voice.” Women and Values: Readings in Recent Feminist Philosophy. Edited by Marilyn Pearsall. Wadsworth Publishing Company: California. 1986. 19-31.
In the analysis of the issue in question, I have considered Mary Wollstonecraft’s Text, Vindication of the Rights of Woman. As an equivocal for liberties for humanity, Wollstonecraft was a feminist who championed for women rights of her time. Having witnessed devastating results or men’s improvidence, Wollstonecraft embraced an independent life, educated herself, and ultimately earned a living as a writer, teacher, and governess. In her book, “A Vindication of the Rights of Woman,” she created a scandal perhaps to her unconventional lifestyle. The book is a manifesto of women rights arguing passionately for educating women. Sensualist and tyrants appear right in their endeavor to hold women in darkness to serve as slaves and their plaything. Anyone with a keen interest in women rights movement will surely welcome her inexpensive edition, a landmark documen...
This essay will aim to discuss the relationship between Western Feminisms and International Feminisms as explored by various non-Western Feminists. It will aim to investigate the origins of this 'relationship ', the complexities/complications within it, evaluate how effective both paradigms are in the third wave and ultimately what is still needed to be done to create a transnational, intersectional feminist movement irrespective of the backgrounds of all women.