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 neocolonial globalism.
Author notes
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.
