Author: Ada Azodo

Publisher:

Published: 2019-01-10

Total Pages:

ISBN-13: 9781938598326

With the fracture of the notion of one unitary global sisterhood of every woman in any corner of the globe and irrespective of status, the recent trend in feminist scholarship has been for indigenous feminists to retreat to the comfort of their regions or communities to find a workable theory for issues and problems of women they actually know. As a result, some subjects that used to be popular - sisterhood is global, black feminism, Western feminism, etc. - have fallen into oblivion. On the contrary, indigenous feminisms have become popular as pockets of feminist theorists attempt to found a feminism that speaks to women of their particular locality in terms of gender and sex issues, class, development, politics, economics and the list goes on. Between these two poles is the struggle for social justice, including human rights, ethnic and racial justice, political and economic justice, power and authority, and the fight against oppression and subordination of women and females. Obviously, patriarchy and racism are two sides of the same coin; they work against feminist ideals. Hence, recent feminist consciousness is taking cognizance of issues of race and feminism together, both at the local and the global arena.This anthology argues that indigenous feminist theorists should expand their local vision into the global context. First, one good result is that feminist will get a better grip on the subjects of their protest, which are not always clear from one theorist or activist to the other. When experiences of local women are expanded onto the world level, one begins to see how the female condition is similar or different, barring local color. Second, one can see why feminism should go beyond women's issues only to fight for equal opportunities for all peoples all over the world. A fight for intersectionality in feminist scholarship, for example, demonstrates that a fight against ethnicity and racism is also a fight against kyriarchy. This is because issues of power, repression and subordination are not only for dignity, respect and regard for women, but for all citizens irrespective of gender.