Gender a výzkum / Gender and Research 2010, 11 (1): 30-40

From Global Sisterhood to Transnational Feminism: Challenges to the Women's Movement in the Form of Cultural Differences and Inequalities among Women

Marta Kolářová

Transnational feminism has become a significant global actor in recent decades, but it is not unanimous. Imperial tendencies of western feminists to influence women in other cultures have already appeared in the history of the feminist movement. Criticism of white Euro-American feminism, especially in the form of global sisterhood, has reached a peak in the past three decades, especially in international fora. Anti-colonial feminists have complained about the racist and orientalist practices of American feminists. Black and latino women, Eastern European post-communist women, and Islamic feminists have voiced protest against the universalisation of feminism and western forms of emancipation. This article presents these challenges to the feminist movement and the recent shift to the concept of transnational feminism that includes intersectional analysis and transversal politics. The author argues that in the 1990s post-socialist feminists were critical of the West in the same way that third-world feminists have been. Today this problem is beginning to twist as the post-socialist feminists became the part of the dominant subject and they need to take into account the criticisms of marginalised women from developing countries.

Keywords: transnational feminism, third world women, global sisterhood

Published: March 1, 2010Show citation