Western Feminism

Western Feminism is systematically shown to have imperialist tendencies through the many problematic practices that Mohanty lays out. The premise of Mohanty’s argument can be laid down in the homogenization and simplification of third world women, local nuances and complexities. She states:

What is problematical, then, about this kind of use of “women” as a group, as a stable category of analysis, is that it assumes an ahistorical, universal unity between women based on a generalized notion of their subordination. Instead of analytically demonstrating the production of women as socio-economic political groups within particular local contexts, this move limits the definition of the female subject to gender identity, completely bypassing social class and ethnic identities

This wide and strictly segmented analysis is what Mohanty has contentions with; Western Feminists do not ground their work in the “women” (i.e. the real material subjects) and instead focus on the “Woman” (i.e. a cultural and ideological composite other).

We will focus on these two criticisms and further this analysis to illustrate how neglecting these factors can lead to an implicit simplification of colonization.

The variety of the colonization mission presented many different programs, systems and levels of exploitation around the world. The causes of differences are many and just a few examples include the complexities that arose out of what country was colonizing which country, and in what time period. It is safe to say the complexity in the variations and histories of the colonized are vast.

By detaching the histories, politics and economics from their analysis, alongside the imposition of strictly gendered sexual-political explanations, which operates in identity binaries, western feminism simplifies the phenomena of colonization. Western feminism creates neat boxes of homogenized women in the third world who suffer in the hands of oppressive men, religions and even past colonial practices, but in the tacitly represented uniform third world. The pervasiveness of colonization’s impact alongside the multiplicity of its manifestations is entirely ignored by western feminism. This plays a role in mainstream discourse as it ignores the nuances and devastation of differing colonial practices by ignoring local complexities that arose from differing colonial repercussions. The impression that a reader of western feminism may get is that the consequences of colonization are also homogenous, that it can be traced along vast territories, just like the “oppression” of the veil or Islam on the “homogenous” third world woman. Ignoring history and context means that the impacts of colonization is reduced to stereotypical qualities, without the important qualification being made that they are color blind to the multiple shades of red that was spilt during colonization.

The demarcation of neat categories with a prioritization for non-contexualised gender politics also absolves much blame from colonial impositions. Mohanty cites the change in marriage ritual of the Bemba in Women of Africa because this is evidence for her of a western feminists explanation of change in the “structure of the marriage contract” rather than the “political implications of its effects”. This is a good example of direct colonial interference in the lives of women, which in current western feminism merits exploration and assigns potential fault with the colonizer. However many impacts and legacies that are not a result of direct interference but nonetheless can be assigned to the vast economic and political effects of colonization, will not be given due weight because of the neglect of localized intersectional factors. The macro-lens with which western feminism views the world will glance past the culpability of wider colonial practices that heavily influence current day economies, politics and societies, which in turn impacts the position of women.

Mohanty stresses on the need for contextual analysis based on heterogeneity of women and the conditions of the land from where they are from. Without this there will be a continuation of the impunity that imperialism and colonization faces in today’s ahistorical analysis. Mohanty shows us how western feminism is imperialist to third class women, but such discourse can also be imperialist to third class histories.