SUB Hamburg

II II II 1111 II II II
A 2008/ 3307

Chandra Talpade Mohanty

FEMINISM WITHOUT BORDERS

Decolonizing Theory, Practicing Solidarity

DUKE UNIVERSITY PRESS DURHAM & LONDON 2003

 CONTENTS

Acknowledgments, vii

Introduction: Decolonization, Anticapitalist

Critique, and Feminist Commitments,

Part One. Decolonizing Feminism

1. Under Western Eyes: Feminist Scholarship
and Colonial Discourses, 17
2. Cartographies of Struggle: Third World Women and
the Politics of Feminism, 43
3. What's Home Got to Do with It? (with Biddy Martin), 85
4. Sisterhood, Coalition, and the Politics of Experience, to6
5. Genealogies of Community, Home, and Nation, 124

Part Two. Demystifying Capitalism

6. Women Workers and the Politics of Solidarity, 139 -
7. Privatized Citizenship, Corporate Academies,
and Feminist Projects, 169
8. Race, Multiculturalism, and Pedagogies of Dissent, 190
5th printing, zoo6
Part Three. Reorienting Feminism
© 2003 Duke University Press All rights reserved
9. "Under Western Eyes" Revisited: Feminist Solidarity
Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper
through Anticapitalist Struggles, 221
Designed by Rebecca Giménez Typeset in Quad raat by Tseng
Notes, 253
Information Systems, Inc. Library of Congress Cataloging-in- Bibliography, 275
Publication Data appear on the last printed page of this book.
Index, 295
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This book has been a long time in the making, and it would not have
been possible without the community of feminist, social justice activists
and scholars to whom I am profoundly indebted. For their integrity, friend-
ship, and generosity in walking this path with me, I thank Jacqui Alexander,
Zillah Eisenstein, Ayesha Kagal, Elizabeth Minnich, Satya Mohanty, Margo
Okazawa-Rey, and Susan Sanchez Casal. Affection, support, and conversa-
tions over the years with numerous disparate individuals played a significant
role in my thinking in this volume. I have learned much from Ann Russo,
Ella Shohat, Avtar Brah, Gail Lewis, Liliane Landor, Leslie Hill, Paula Rothen-
berg, Audre Lorde, Rhoda Linton, Papusa Molina, Linda Carty, Piya Chatter-
jee, Gloria Joseph, Si Kahn, Minnie Bruce Pratt, Norman Rosenberg, Gwyn
Kirk, Melanie Kaye-Kantrówitz, Lisa Lowe, Gloria Watkins (bell hooks), Biddy
Martin, Risa Lieberwitz, Leslie Roman, Paula Moya, Nancy Rabinowitz, Mar-
garet Gentry, Wendy Jones, Shelley Haley, Amie Macdonald, Angela Davis,
Amber Hollibaugh, Beverly Guy-Sheftall, Saraswati Sunindyo, Vivyan Adair,
and Leila Farrah.
Sue Kim was a wonderful early reader of my essays, and I thank her, Amy
Gowans, Nick Davis, and Mag Melvin for their invaluable help with sections
of the manuscript. The many, many students I have taught and learned from
over these two decades at Oberlin College and Hamilton College occupy a
special place in my heart— they always challenged me to greater clarity. My
dear friend Zillah Eisenstein read, reread, and offered feedback on numerous
drafts of these chapters — I thank her for her boundless heart and spirit as well
as hard work on my behalf. Thanks to Wendy Jones and Amie Macdonald for
their generous and perceptive responses to parts of this book.
My family has nurtured and sustained me in their own unique ways and
in multiple languages and foods over the years—my parents, Pramila and
Madhukar; my brother, Sali!; sister-in-law, Medha, my cousins Ela, Roopa,
and Sonali; my mother-in-law, Kamala, and the entire Mohanty clan in Bhu-
baneswar and Cuttack; and Lal, Tilu, and the kids. I thank them all for their
unwavering affection and presence in my life. Last, but certainly not least, I
thank Satya Mohanty for over two decades of love, companionship, challenge,
and superb vacation planning. He remains my truest and most valuable reader
and critic. My daughter, Uma Talpade Mohanty, brings enormous joy, curi-
osity, and unanswerable questions and conundrums into my life— I thank her INTRODUCTION

for the gift of parenting. And of course Shakti, our chocolate lab, who brings Decolonization, Anticapitalist Critique, and Feminist Commitments
boundless energy and affection into our life at home—he too sustains me in
his own way.
This volume is the product of almost two decades of engagement with
feminist struggles. It is based on a deep belief in the power and significance
of feminist thinking in struggles for economic and social justice. And it owes
whatever clarity and insight the reader may find in these pages to a commu-
nity of sisters and comrades in struggle from whom I have learned the mean-
ing, joy, and necessity of political thinking. While many of the ideas I explore
here are viewed through my own particular lenses, all the ideas belong collec-
tively to the various feminist, antiracist, and anti-imperialist communities in
which I have been privileged to be involved. In the end, I think and write in
conversation with scholars, teachers, and activists involved in social justice
struggles. My search for emancipatory knowledge over the years has made me
realize that ideas are always communally wrought, not privately owned. All
faults however, are mine, for seeking the kind of knowledge that emerges in
these pages brings with it its own gaps, faults, opacities. These I accept in the
hope that they too prove useful to the reader.

Feminist Commitments

Why "feminism without borders?" First, because it recalls "doctors with-

out borders," an enterprise and project that embodies the urgency, as well as
the internationalist commitmentl that I see in the best feminist praxis. Sec-
ond, because growing up as part of the postindependence generation in India
meant an acute awareness of the borders, boundaries, and traces of British
colonialism on the one hand, and of the unbounded promise of decoloniza-
tion on the other. It also meant living the contradiction of the promise of
nationalism and its various limits and failures in postcolonial India. Borders
suggest both containment and safety, and women often pay a price for daring

viii Acknowledgments
to claim the integrity, security, and safety of our bodies and our living spaces.
ist, and religious fundamentalist movements and nation-states. Thus, while
I choose "feminism without borders," then, to stress that our most expan- feminist ideas and movements may have grown and matured, the backlash
sive and inclusive visions of feminism need to be attentive to borders while and challenges to feminism have also grown exponentially.
learning to transcend them. So in this political/economic context, what would an economically and so-
Feminism without borders is not the same as "border-less" feminism. It cially just feminist politics look like? It would require a clear understanding
acknowledges the fault lines, conflicts, differences, fears, and containment that being a woman has political consequences in the world we live in; that
that borders represent. It acknowledges that there is no one sense of a border, there can be unjust and unfair effects on women depending on our economic
that the lines between and through nations, races, classes, sexualities, reli- and social marginality and/or privilege. It would require recognizing that sex-
gions, and disabilities, are real—and that a feminism without borders must ism, racism, misogyny, and heterosexism underlie and fuel social and politi-
envision change and social justice work across these lines of demarcation and cal institutions of rule and thus often lead to hatred of women and (suppos-
division. I want to speak of feminism without silences and exclusions in order edly justified) violence against women. The interwoven processes of sexism,
to draw attention to the tension between the simultaneous plurality and nar- racism, misogyny, and heterosexism are an integral part of our social fab-
rowness of borders and the emancipatory potential of crossing through, with, ric, wherever in the world we happen to be. We need to be aware that these
and over these borders in our everyday lives. ideologies, in conjunction with the regressive politics of ethnic nationalism
In my own life, borders have come in many guises, and I live with them and capitalist consumerism, are differentially constitutive of all of our lives
inside as well as across racialized women's communities. I grew up in Mum- in the early twenty-first century. Besides recognizing all this and formulat-
bai (Bombay), where the visible demarcations between India and Pakistan, ing a clear analysis and critique of the behaviors, attitudes, institutions, and
Hindu and Muslim, rich and poor, British and Indian, women and men, Dalit relational politics that these interwoven systems entail, a just and inclusive
and Brahmin were a fact of everyday life. This was the same Mumbai where I feminist politics for the present needs to also have a vision for transformation
learned multiple languages and negotiated multiple cultures in the company and strategies for realizing this vision.
of friends and neighbors, a Mumbai where I went to church services —not just Hence decolonization, anticapitalist critique, and solidarity.4 I firmly be-
Hindu temples —and where! learned about the religious practices of Muslims lieve an antiracist feminist framework, anchored in decolonization and com-
and Parsees. In the last two decades, my life in the United States has exposed mitted to an anticapitalist critique, is necessary at this time. In the chapters
some new fault-lines — those of race and sexuality in particular. Urbana, Illi- that follow I develop antiracist feminist frameworks or ways of seeing, inter-
nois, Clinton, New York, and Ithaca, New York, have been my home places in preting, and making connections between the many levels of social reality we
the United States, and in all three sites I have learned to read and live in relation experience. I outline a notion of feminist solidarity, as opposed to vague as-
to the racial, class, sexual, and national scripts embedded in North American sumptions of sisterhood or images of complete identification with the other.
culture. The presence of borders in my life has been both exclusionary and For me, such solidarity is a political as well as ethical goal.
enabling, and I strive to envision a critically transnational (internationalist) Here is a bare-bones description of my own feminist vision: this is a vision
feminist praxis moving through these borders. of the world that is pro-sex and -woman, a world where women and men are
I see myself as an antiracist feminist. Why does antiracist feminism 2 mat- free to live creative lives, in security and with bodily health and integrity, where
ter in struggles for economic and social justice in the early twenty-first cen- they are free to choose whom they love, and whom they set up house with, and
tury? The last century was clearly the century of the maturing of feminist ideas, whether they want to have or not have children; a world where pleasure rather
sensibilities, and movements. The twentieth century was also the century of than just duty and drudgery determine our choices, where free and imaginative
the decolonization of the Third World/South,3 the rise and splintering of the exploration of the mind is a fundamental right; a vision in which economic
communist Second World, the triumphal rise and recolonization of almost stability, ecological sustainability, racial equality, and the redistribution of
the entire globe by capitalism, and of the consolidation of ethnic, national- wealth form the material basis of people's well-being. Finally, my vision is

2 Feminism without Borders 3 Introduction

 one in which democratic and socialist practices and institutions provide the
the work of these U.S. feminists of color. The Barnard Conference in the early
conditions for public participation and decision making for people regard- 19805 inaugurated the so-called sex wars, which brought the contradictions of
less of economic and social location. In strategic terms, this vision entails sex, sexuality, erotica, pornography, and such marginalized sexual practices
putting in place antiracist feminist and democratic principles of participa- as sadomasochism to the forefront of feminist debate.7
tion and relationality, and it means working on many fronts, in many different The tg8os also saw the rise of standpoint epistemology, especially through
kinds of collectivities in order to organize against repressive systems of rule. the work of Nancy Hartsock, Dorothy Smith, and Sandra Harding. This
It also means being attentive to small as well as large struggles and processes work defined the link between social location, women's experiences, and
that lead to radical change—not just working (or waiting) for a revolution. their epistemic perspectives. And then there were the feminists from Third
Thus everyday feminist, antiracist, anticapitalist practices are as important World/South nations who had a profound influence on my own understand-
as larger, organized political movements. ing of the relationship of feminism and nationalism, and of the centrality of
While I have no formulas or easy answers, lama firm believer in the politics struggles for decolonization in feminist thought. Kumari Jayawardena, Nawal
of solidarity, which I discuss in some depth in the chapters that follow. But no el Saadawi, Fatima Mernissi, Isabel Letelier, and Achola Pala all theorized the
vision stands alone, and mine owes much to the work of numerous feminist specific place of Asian, Middle Eastern, Latin American, and African women
scholars and activists around the world. A brief and very partial genealogy of in national struggles for liberation, and in the economic development and
feminist theoretical frames that have influenced my own thinking illustrates democratization of previously colonized countries.8
this debt to a vital and challenging transnational feminist community. More contemporaneously, the work of feminist theorists Ella Shohat,
In the 1970s and 198os, socialist feminist thinkers including Michelle Angela Davis, Jacqui Alexander, Linda Alcoff, Lisa Lowe, Avtar Brah, bell
Barrett, Mary McIntosh, Zillah Eisenstein, Dorothy Smith, and Maria Mies hooks, Zillah Eisenstein, Himani Bannerji, Patricia Bell Scott, Vandana Shiva,
pointed out the theoretical limitations of an implicitly masculinist Marxism. Kumkum Sangari, Ruth Frankenberg, Inderpal Grewal, Caren Kaplan, Kim-
These scholars clarified the intricate relationship between production and re- berle Crenshaw, Elizabeth Minnich, Leslie Roman, Lata Mani, Uma Narayan,
production, the place of the "family" and the "household" in the economic Minnie Bruce Pratt, and Leila Ahmed, among many others, has charted new
and social relations of capitalist society, and the relation of capitalism to patri- ground in the theorization of feminism and racism, immigration, Eurocen-
archy (Zillah Eisenstein coined the term "capitalist patriarchy").5 At the same trism, critical white studies, heterosexism, and imperialism.9 While there are
time, scholars such as Gloria Joseph and Jill Lewis theorized the racializa- many scholars and activists who remain unnamed in this brief genealogy, I
tion of gender and class in their early work entitled Common Differences: Con- offer this partial history of ideas to anchor, in part, my own feminist thinking
flicts in Black and White Feminist Perspectives. And in the United Kingdom, Kum- and to clarify the deeply collective nature of feminist thought as I see it. Let
kum Bhavnani and Margaret Coulson critiqued the theoretical limitations of me now turn briefly to the limits and pitfalls of feminist practice as I see them
such socialist feminist concepts as "family" and "household" on Eurocentric in my own context and then move on to a discussion of decolonization and
grounds. Similarly, Valerie Amos and Pratibha Parmar wrote eloquently about feminist anticapitalist critique. Finally, a road map introduces the reader to
the race blindness of "imperial feminism" — socialist, radical, and liberal. the organization of the book.
In the United States, lesbians of color such as Audre Lorde, Barbara Smith, Feminist practice as I understand it operates at a number of levels: at the
Cherrie Moraga, Merle Woo, Paula Gunn Allen, and Gloria Anzaldúa faced level of daily life through the everyday acts that constitute our identities and
head-on the profound racism and heterosexism of the women's movement, relational communities; at the level of collective action in groups, networks,
and of U.S. radical and liberal feminist theory of the second wave of femi- and movements constituted around feminist visions of social transformation;
nism.6 Arguments about the race, color, class, and sexual dimensions of gen- and at the levels of theory, pedagogy, and textual creativity in the scholarly and
der in the building of feminist analysis and community took center stage in writing practices of feminists engaged in the production of knowledge. While

4 Feminism without Borders 5 Introduction

the last few decades have produced a theoretically complex feminist practice On Solidarity, Decolonization, and Anticapitalist Critique
(I refer to examples of these throughout the book), they have also spawned
some problematic ideologies and practices under the label "feminist." I define solidarity in terms of mutuality, accountability, and the recogni-
tion of common interests as the basis for relationships among diverse com-
In my own context I would identify three particular problematic directions
munities. Rather than assuming an enforced commonality of oppression, the
within U.S.-based feminisms. First, the increasing, predominantly class-
practice of solidarity foregrounds communities of people who have chosen to
based gap between a vital women's movement and feminist theorizing in the
work and fight together. Diversity and difference are central values here—to
U.S. academy has led in part to a kind of careerist academic feminism whereby
be acknowledged and respected, not erased in the building of alliances. Jodi
the boundaries of the academy stand in for the entire world and feminism
Dean (1996) develops a notion of "reflective solidarity" that I find particularly
becomes a way to advance academic careers rather than a call for fundamen-
useful. She argues that reflective solidarity is crafted by an interaction involv-
tal and collective social and economic transformation. This gap between an
ing three persons: "I ask you to stand by me over and against a third" (3). This
individualized and narrowly professional understanding of feminism and a
involves thematizing the third voice "to reconstruct solidarity as an inclusive
collective, theoretical feminist vision that focuses on the radical transforma-
ideal," rather than as an "us vs. them" notion. Dean's notion of a commu-
tion of the everyday lives of women and men is one I actively work to address.
nicative, in-process understanding of the "we" is useful, given that solidarity
Second, the increasing corporatization of U.S. culture and naturalization of
is always an achievement, the result of active struggle to construct the uni-
capitalist values has had its own profound influence in engendering a neolib-
versal on the basis of particulars/differences. It is the praxis-oriented, active
eral, consumerist (protocapitalist) feminism concerned with "women's ad-
political struggle embodied in this notion of solidarity that is important to my
vancement" up the corporate and nation-state ladder. This is a feminism that
thinking—and the reason I prefer to focus attention on solidarity rather than
focuses on financial "equality" between men and women and is grounded in
on the concept of "sisterhood." Thus, decolonization, anticapitalist critique,
the capitalist values of profit, competition, and accumulation."0 A protocapi-
and the politics of solidarity are the central themes of this book. Each concept
talist or "free-market" feminism is symptomatic of the "Americanization" of
foregrounds my own commitments and emerges as a necessarycomponent of
definitions of feminism—the unstated assumption that U.S. corporate cul-
an antiracist and internationalist feminism —without borders. In particular,
ture is the norm and ideal that feminists around the world strive for. Another
I believe feminist solidarity as defined here constitutes the most principled
characteristic ofprotocapitalist feminism is its unstated and profoundly indi- way to cross borders—to decolonize knowledge and practice anticapitalist
vidualist character. Finally, the critique of essentialist identity politics and the
critique.
hegemony of postmodernist skepticism about identity has led to a narrowing In what is one of the classic texts on colonization, Franz Fanon (1963)
of feminist politics and theory whereby either exclusionary and self-serving argues that the success of decolonization lies in a "whole social structure
understandings of identity rule the day or identity (racial, class, sexual, na- being changed from the bottom up"; that this change is "willed, called for,
tional, etc.) is seen as unstable and thus merely "strategic." Thus, identity is demanded" by the colonized; that it is a historical process that can only be
seen as either naive or irrelevant, rather than as a source of knowledge and a
understood in the context of the "movements which give it historical form
basis for progressive mobilization?' Colonizing, U.S.- and Eurocentric privi- and content"; that it is marked by violence and never "takes place unnoticed,
leged feminisms, then, constitute some of the limits of feminist thinking that for it influences individuals and modifies them fundamentally"; and finally
I believe need to be addressed at this time. And some of these problems, in that "decolonization is the veritable creation of new men." In other words,
conjunction with the feminist possibilities and vision discussed earlier, form decolonization involves profound transformations of self, community, and
the immediate backdrop to my own thinking in the chapters that follow. governance structures. It can only be engaged through active withdrawal of
consent and resistance to structures of psychic and social domination. It is a
historical and collective process, and as such can only be understood within

6 Feminism without Borders 7 Introduction

these contexts. The end result of decolonization is not only the creation ofnew tention to the specificities of global capitalism and to name and demystify its
kinds of self-governance but also "the creation of new men" (and women). effects in everyday life—that is, to draw attention to the anticapitalist prac-
While Fanon's theorization is elaborated through masculine metaphors (and tices we have to actively engage in within feminist communities. And second,
his formulation of resistance is also profoundly gendered),11 the framework to suggest that capitalism is seriously incompatible with feminist visions of
of decolonization that Fanon elaborates is useful in formulating a feminist social and economic justice. In many ways, an anticapitalist feminist critique
decolonizing project. If processes of sexism, heterosexism, and misogyny are has much in common with earlier formulations of socialist feminism. But
central to the social fabric of the world we live in; if indeed these processes this is a racialized socialist feminism, attentive to the specific operations and
are interwoven with racial, national, and capitalist domination and exploita- discourses ofcontemporary global capitalism: a socialist feminist critique, at-
tion such that the lives of women and men, girls and boys, are profoundly tentive to nation and sexuality—and to the globalized economic, ideological,
affected, then decolonization at all the levels (as described by Fanon) becomes and cultural interweaving of masculinities, femininities, and heterosexuali-
fundamental to a radical feminist transformative project. Decolonization has ties in capital's search for profit, accumulation, and domination.
always been central to the project of Third World feminist theorizing—and To specify further, an anticapitalist critique fundamentally entails a cri-
much of my own work has been inspired by these particular feminist gene- tique of the operation, discourse, and values of capitalism and of their natu-
alogies. ralization through neoliberal ideology and corporate culture. This means de-
Jacqui Alexander and I have written about the significance of decoloniza- mystifying discourses of consumerism, ownership, profit, and privatization
tion to feminist anticolonial, anticapitalist struggle 13 and I want to draw on —of the collapse of notions of public and private good, and the refashion-
this analysis here. At that time we defined decolonization as central to the ing of social into consumer identities within corporate culture. It entails an
practice of democracy, and to the reenvisioning of democracy outside free- anti-imperialist understanding of feminist praxis, and a critique of the way
market, procedural conceptions of individual agency and state governance. global capitalism facilitates U.S.- and Eurocentrism as well as nativism and
We discussed the centrality of self-reflexive collective practice in the trans- anti-immigrant sentiment. This analysis involves decolonizing and actively
formation of the self, reconceptualizations of identity, and political mobili- combating the naturalization of corporate citizenship such that democratic,
zation as necessary elements of the practice of decolonization.14 Finally, we socialist, antiracist feminist values of justice, participation, redistribution of
argued that history, memory, emotion, and affectional ties are significant cog- wealth and resources, commitment to individual and collective human rights
nitive elements of the construction of critical, self-reflective, feminist selves and to public welfare and services, and accountability to and responsibility
and that in the crafting of oppositional selves and identities, "decolonization for the collective (as opposed to merely personal) good become the mainstay
coupled with emancipatory collective practice leads to a rethinking of patri- of transformed local, national, and transnational cultures. In this frame, dif-
archal, heterosexual, colonial, racial, and capitalist legacies in the project of ference and plurality emerge as genuinely complex and often contradictory,
feminism and, thus, toward envisioning democracy and democratic collec- rather than as commodified variations on Eurocentric themes.Chapters 6, 7,
tive practice such that issues of sexual politics in governance are fundamen- 8, and 9 develop these ideas in some detail.
tal to thinking through questions of resistance anchored in the daily lives of
women, that these issues are an integral aspect of the epistemology of anti- Feminism without Borders: A Road Map
colonial feminist struggle" (xxxviii). The chapters that follow draw on these
particular formulations of decolonization in the context of feminist struggle. The book is organized around two interlocking themes, which form the
A formulation of decolonization in which autonomy and self-determination first two parts of the book: decolonizing feminism and demystifying capital-
ism. The questions of experience, identity, and solidarity run centrally though
are central to the process of liberation and can only be achieved through "self-
reflexive collective practice." both parts. While they are also more or less chronologically organized in terms
of my own engagement with the vicissitudes of feminist struggle, together
I use the term "anticapitalist critique" for two reasons. First, to draw at-

8 Feminism without Borders 9 Introduction

the two parts take up some of the most urgent questions facing a transna- Western Eyes," engages Western feminist discourses on women in the Third
tional feminist praxis today. A third and final part, "Reorienting Feminism," World, calling for a radical decolonization of feminist cross-cultural scholar-
picks up the issues explored in chapter 1, "Under Western Eyes," and reori- ship. This chapter appears in its original 1986 version and is the occasion
ents them in the context of feminist scholarship, pedagogy, and politics in for the reflections in part 3, "Reorienting Feminism." Chapter 2, "Cartog-
the early years of this century. My intellectual preoccupations in the 198os fo- raphies of Struggle," was originally written as a companion piece to chap-
cused on the way the "West" colonizes gender, in particular, its colored, racial, ter i, and provides an account of the emergence and consolidation of Third
and class dimensions. Now, almost two decades later, I am concerned with World women's feminist politics in the late twentieth century. It examines
the way that gender matters in the racial, class, and national formations of issues of definition and context in the emergence of Third World feminisms,
globalization. The three parts of this book, "Decolonizing Feminism," "De- and explores the notion of "common interests" and a "common context of
mystifying Capitalism," and "Reorienting Feminism," mark this movement struggle" in crafting feminist solidarities. Chapter 2 has an organic relation
in my own thinking. The chapters themselves encourage both a personal and to chapter i in that it is the critique of Eurocentrism within feminist theory
a larger, collective genealogy of feminist practice, which moves through the that allows me to move toward the specification of Third World feminism
enforced boundaries of race, color, nation, and class. I write in conversation and toward a vision of common contexts of struggle. Chapter 3, "What's
with and for progressive, left, feminist, and anti-imperialist scholars, intel- Home Got To Do with It?," written with Biddy Martin, offers a close read-
lectuals, and activists around the world. A few intellectual themes emerge in ing of Minnie Bruce Pratt's autobiographical narrative "Identity: Skin, Blood,
these chapters: Heart" (Pratt 1984a). It poses questions dealing with the configuration of
home, identity, and community in the construction of whiteness and hetero-
- the politics of difference and the challenge of solidarity
sexuality. Questions of racialized and sexualized difference and the ethics
- the demystification of the workings of power and strategies of resistance in
and politics of crossing borders are refracted through the lens of experience,
scholarship, pedagogy, grassroots movements, and academic institutions
history, and struggle for community. Chapter 4, "Sisterhood, Coalition, and
- the decolonizing and politicizing of knowledge by rethinking self and
the Politics of Location," continues the discussion of experience, identity,
community through the practice of emancipatory education
and difference, this time staging a dialogue between texts written by Robin
- the building of an ethics of crossing cultural, sexual, national, class, and
Morgan and Bernice Johnson Reagon, which address directly the question of
racial borders
cross-cultural, cross-national differences among women and the politics of
- and finally, theorizing and practicing anticapitalist and democratic cri-
sisterhood and solidarity. A third, more recent text on the challenge of local
tique in education, and through collective struggle.
feminisms by Amrita Basu (1995) serves as a counterpoint to these earlier dis-
cussions of "global sisterhood." Finally, in chapter 5, "Genealogies of Com-
PART I: DECOLONIZING FEMINISM
munity, Home, and Nation" I return to the issues of home, identity, and com-
The practice of feminism across national and cultural divisions is the pri-
munity, but this time through a more individual, personal lens. Here I craft
mary focus of this part of the book. The five chapters that comprise it together
my own personal/political genealogy through feminism and the borders of
stage various dialogues between "Western," First World/North and Third
nation-states, class, race, and religion. Location, community, and collective
World/South feminisms. These chapters offer a critique of Eurocentrism and
struggle all emerge as fundamental in this analysis. Thus decolonizing femi-
of Western developmentalist discourses of modernity, especially through the
nism involves a careful critique of the ethics and politics of Eurocentrism,
lens of the racial, sexual, and class-based assumptions of Western feminist
and a corresponding analysis of the difficulties and joys of crossing cultural,
scholarship. Simultaneously, these chapters foreground genealogies of Third
national, racial, and class boundaries in the search for feminist communities
World/South feminisms, exploring the histories, experiences, and politics of
anchored in justice and equality.
identity embedded in nonhegemonic feminist practice. Chapter 1, "Under

to Feminism without Borders II Introduction

 PART 2: DEMYSTIFYING CAPITALISM examining feminist pedagogies and scholarship on globalization and by ex-
Part 2 revolves around the analysis of global capitalist relations of rule and ploring the implications of the absence of racialized genderand feminist poli-
the ideal of transnational feminist solidarity. Chapter 6, "Women Workers tics in antiglobalization movements. This section weaves together numerous
and the Politics of Solidarity," is anchored in the conceptual framework of a strands that run through the book: the politics of difference and solidarity,
common context of struggle, and offers a comparative feminist analysis of the crossing of borders, the relation of feminist knowledges and scholarship
women workers at different ends of the global assembly line. It develops a to organizing and social movements, crafting a transnational feminist anti-
vision of anticapitalist feminist solidarity based on the theorization of the capitalist critique, decolonizing knowledge, and theorizing agency, identity,
common interests, historical location, and social identity of women workers and resistance in the context of feminist solidarity. Rather than providing a
under global capitalism. Chapters 7 and 8 turn to the U.S. academy and focus conclusion, "Reorienting Feminism" opens outward to new possibilities and
on the issues of multiculturalism, globalization, and corporatization. Chap- maps new beginnings.
ter 7, "Privatized Citizenship, Corporate Academies, and Feminist Projects,"
focuses on the landscape of the U.S. academy and analyzes the commodifica- The book has a spiral structure, since chapters move in and out of similar
tion of knowledge and the complex racial and gendered effects of global eco- queries, but at many different levels. I look again at genealogies and commit-
nomic and political restructuring on the North American academy. It engages ments of feminism defined in the closing decades of the last century. And I
questions of experience, power, knowledge, and democracy and develops a return time and again to the ideas, politics, and genealogies of feminism that
feminist anticapitalist critique of the academy and the ethics and politics of have inspired me over the years. Whereas my concerns remain the same, my
knowledge production. Finally, chapter 8, "Race, Multiculturalism, and Peda- vision, my experiences, and my communities, have in part changed because
gogies of Dissent," examines the challenges posed to U.S. higher education of shifts in my own location, and in the post-1989 global political and eco-
by a "race industry" anchored in a corporate model of conflict management nomic landscape. It is this shifting and changing that I wish to share in the
rather than in the values of social justice. It analyzes the genealogies of inter- hope that the questions that have preoccupied me (and many other feminist
disciplinary programs such as women's studies and race and ethnic studies comrades in struggle) over the last two decades emerge clearly and powerfully
and explores pedagogies of decolonization and dissent as a counter to multi- in these pages—and that my journeys through various feminist narratives,
culturalist discourses and practices of accommodation. The chapter delves projects, and agendas prove useful to others engaged in similar struggles for
deeper into the politics of knowledge, curricular and pedagogical practices, social justice.is
and their effects on marginalized communities in the academy.

PART 3: REORIENTING FEMINISM

Part 3 consists of one chapter, "'Under Western Eyes' Revisited," which
reexamines the ideas in chapter 1, "Under Western Eyes," to deepen, widen,
and move through a different, albeit related, landscape of transnational femi-
nist struggle. Here I recast the cross-cultural feminist project I explored al-
most twenty years ago, by reengaging with its concerns. While I focused
then on the Eurocentric assumptions of Western feminist practice and its
too easy claiming of sisterhood across national, cultural, and racial differ-
ences, my concerns now focus on antiracist feminist engagement with the
multiple effects of globalization and on building solidarities. I suggest that
we reorient transnational feminist practice toward anticapitalist struggles, by
13 Introduction
12 Feminism without Borders
PA RT ONE

Decolonizing Feminism
 CHAPTER ONE

Under Western Eyes: Feminist

Scholarship and Colonial Discourses

Any discussion of the intellectual and political construction of "Third

World feminisms" must address itself to two simultaneous projects: the in-
ternal critique of hegemonic "Western" feminisms and the formulation of
autonomous feminist concerns and strategies that are geographically, his-
torically, and culturally grounded. The first project is one of deconstructing
and dismantling; the second is one of building and constructing. While these
projects appear to be contradictory, the one working negatively and the other
positively, unless these two tasks are addressed simultaneously, Third World
feminisms run the risk of marginalization or ghettoization from both main-
stream (right and left) and Western feminist discourses.
It is to the first project that! address myself here. What! wish to analyze is
specifically the production of the "Third World woman" as a singular, mono-
lithic subject in some (Western) feminist texts. The definition of colonization
I wish to invoke here is a predominantly discursive one, focusing on a certain
mode of appropriation and codification of scholarship and knowledge about
women in the Third World through the use of particular analytic categories
employed in specific writings on the subject that take as their referent femi-
nist interests as they have been articulated in the United States and Western
Europe. If one of the tasks of formulating and understanding the locus of
Third World feminisms is delineating the way in which they resist and work
against what Iam referring to as "Western feminist discourse," then an analy-
sis of the discursive construction of Third World women in Western feminism
is an important first step.
Clearly, neither Western feminist discourse nor Western feminist political
practice is singular or homogeneous in its goals, interests, or analyses. How-
ever, it is possible to trace a coherence of effects resulting from the implicit
assumption of "the West" (in all its complexities and contradictions) as the termines the significance and status of Western feminist writings on women
primary referent in theory and praxis. My reference to "Western feminism" is in the Third World, for feminist scholarship, like most other kinds of scholar-
by no means intended to imply that it is a monolith. Rather, I am attempting ship, is not the mere production of knowledge about a certain subject. It is
to draw attention to the similar effects of various textual strategies used by a directly political and discursive practice in that it is purposeful and ideo-
writers that codify others as non-Western and hence themselves as (implicitly) logical. It is best seen as a mode of intervention into particular hegemonic
Western. It is in this sense that I use the term "Western feminist." Similar discourses (e.g., traditional anthropology, sociology, and literary criticism);
arguments can be made about middle-class, urban African or Asian schol- it is a political praxis that counters and resists the totalizing imperative of age-
ars who write about their rural or working-class sisters and assume their own old "legitimate" and "scientific" bodies of knowledge. Thus, feminist schol-
middle-class cultures at the norm and codify working class histories and cul- arly practices (reading, writing, critiquing, etc.) are inscribed in relations of
tures as other. Thus, while this chapter focuses specifically on what! refer to power— relations that they counter, resist, or even perhaps implicitly support.
as "Western feminist" discourse on women in the Third World, the critiques! There can, of course, be no apolitical scholarship.
offer also pertain to Third World scholars who write about their own cultures The relationship between "Woman" (a cultural and ideological composite
and employ identical strategies. other constructed through diverse representational discourses—scientific,
It ought to be of some political significance that the term "colonization" literary, juridical, linguistic, cinematic, etc.) and "women" (real, material sub-
has come to denote a variety of phenomena in recent feminist and left writ- jects of their collective histories) is one of the central questions the practice
ings in general. From its analytic value as a category of exploitative economic of feminist scholarship seeks to address. This connection between women
exchange in both traditional and contemporary Marxisms (see, in particular, as historical subjects and the representation of Woman produced by hege-
Amin 1977, Baran 1962, and Gunder-Frank 1967) to its use by feminist women monic discourses is not a relation of direct identity or a relation of correspon-
of color in the United States to describe the appropriation of their experiences dence or simple implication.2 It is an arbitrary relation set up by particular
and struggles by hegemonic white women's movements (see especially Joseph cultures. I would like to suggest that the feminist writings I analyze here dis-
and Lewis 1981, Moraga 1984, Moraga and Anzald6a 1981, and Smith 1983), cursively colonize the material and historical heterogeneities of the lives of
colonization has been used to characterize everything from the most evident women in the Third World, thereby producing/representing a composite, sin-
economic and political hierarchies to the production of a particular cultural gular "Third World woman" — an image that appears arbitrarily constructed
discourse about what is called the Third World.1 However sophisticated or but nevertheless carries with it the authorizing signature of Western human-
problematical its use as an explanatory construct, colonization almost invari- ist discourse.3
ably implies a relation of structural domination and a suppression—often I argue that assumptions of privilege and ethnocentric universality, on
violent—of the heterogeneity of the subject(s) in question. the one hand, and inadequate self-consciousness about the effect of Western
My concern about such writings derives from my own implication and in- scholarship on the Third World in the context of a world system dominated by
vestment in contemporary debates in feminist theory and the urgent politi- the West, on the other, characterize a sizable extent of Western feminist work
cal necessity of forming strategic coalitions across class, race, and national on women in the Third World. An analysis of "sexual difference" in the form
boundaries. The analytic principles discussed below serve to distort West- of a cross-culturally singular, monolithic notion of patriarchy or male domi-
ern feminist political practices and limit the possibility of coalitions among nance leads to the construction of a similarly reductive and homogeneous
(usually white) Western feminists, working-class feminists, and feminists notion of what I call the "Third World difference" — that stable, ahistorical
of color around the world. These limitations are evident in the construction something that apparently oppresses most if not all the women in these coun-
of the (implicitly consensual) priority of issues around which apparently all tries. And it is in the production of this Third World difference that Western
women are expected to organize. The necessary and integral connection be- feminisms appropriate and colonize the constitutive complexities that char-
tween feminist scholarship and feminist political practice and organizing de- acterize the lives of women in these countries. It is in this process ofdiscursive

18 Feminism without Borders 19 Under Western Eyes

homogenization and systematization of the oppression ofwomen in theThird and absolutely essential. However, I want to draw attention here both to the
World that power is exercised in much of recent Western feminist discourse, explanatory potential of particular analytic strategies employed by such writ-
and this power needs to be defined and named. ing and to their political effect in the context of the hegemony of Western
In the context of the West's hegemonic position today—the context of scholarship. While feminist writing in the United States is still marginalized
what Anouar Abdel-Malek (1981) calls a struggle for "control over the orien- (except from the point of view of women of color addressing privileged white
tation, regulation and decision of the process of world development on the women), Western feminist writing on women in the Third World must be con-
basis of the advanced sector's monopoly of scientific knowledge and ideal sidered in the context of the global hegemony of Western scholarship— that
creativity" (145) —Western feminist scholarship on the Third World must be is, the production, publication, distribution, and consumption of informa-
seen and examined precisely in terms of its inscription in these particular tion and ideas. Marginal or not, this writing has political effects and impli-
relations of power and struggle. There is, it should be evident, no universal cations beyond the immediate feminist or disciplinary audience. One such
patriarchal framework that this scholarship attempts to counter and resist- significant effect of the dominant "representations" of Western feminism is
unless one posits an international male conspiracy or a monolithic, ahistori- its conflation with imperialism in the eyes of particular Third World women.4
cal power structure. There is, however, a particular world balance of power Hence the urgent need to examine the political implications of our analytic
within which any analysis of culture, ideology, and socioeconomic conditions strategies and principles.
necessarily has to be situated. Abdel-Malek is useful here, again, in reminding My critique is directed at three basic analytic principles that are present in
us about the inherence of politics in the discourses of "culture": (Western) feminist discourse on women in the Third World. Since I focus pri-
marily on the Zed Press Women in the Third World series, my comments on
Contemporary imperialism is, in a real sense, a hegemonic imperialism,
Western feminist discourse are circumscribed by my analysis of the texts in
exercising to a maximum degree a rationalized violence taken to a higher
this series.5 This is a way of focusing my critique. However, even though lam
level than ever before—through fire and sword, but also through the at-
dealing with feminists who identify themselves as culturally or geographically
tempt to control hearts and minds. For its content is defined by the com-
from the West, what I say about these presuppositions or implicit principles
bined action of the military-industrial complex and the hegemonic cultural
holds for anyone who uses these methods, whether Third World women in the
centers of the West, all of them founded on the advanced levels of devel-
West or Third World women in the Third World writing on these issues and
opment attained by monopoly and finance capital, and supported by the
publishing in the West. Thus I am not making a culturalist argument about
benefits of both the scientific and technological revolution and the second
ethnocentrism; rather, I am trying to uncover how ethnocentric universalism
industrial revolution itself. (145-46)
is produced in certain analyses. As a matter of fact, my argument holds for
Western feminist scholarship cannot avoid the challenge of situating itself any discourse that sets up its own authorial subjects as the implicit referent,
and examining its role in such a global economic and political framework. To that is, the yardstick by which to encode and represent cultural others. It is in
do any less would be to ignore the complex interconnections between First this move that power is exercised in discourse.
and Third World economies and the profound effect of this on the lives of The first analytic presupposition I focus on is involved in the strategic loca-
women in all countries. Ido not question the descriptive and informative value tion of the category "women" vis-à-vis the context ofanalysis. The assumption
of most Western feminist writings on women in the Third World. I also do of women as an already constituted, coherent group with identical interests
not question the existence of excellent work that does not fall into the ana- and desires, regardless of class, ethnic, or racial location, or contradictions,
lytic traps with which I am concerned. In fact, I deal with an example of such implies a notion of gender or sexual difference or even patriarchy that can be
work later on. In the context of an overwhelming silence about the experi- applied universally and cross-culturally. (The context of analysis can be any-
ence of women in these countries, as well as the need to forge international thing from kinship structures and the organization of labor to media repre-
links between women's political struggles, such work is both pathbreaking sentations.) The second analytical presupposition is evident on the method-

20 Feminism without Borders 21 Under Western Eyes

ological level, in the uncritical way "proof" of universality and cross-cultural pression. It is at this point that an elision takes place between "women" as a
validity are provided. The third is a more specifically political presupposition discursively constructed group and "women" as material subjects of their own
underlying the methodologies and the analytic strategies, that is, the model history. Thus, the discursively consensual homogeneity of women as a group
of power and struggle they imply and suggest. I argue that as a result of the is mistaken for the historically specific material reality of groups of women.
two modes— or, rather, frames — of analysis described above, a homogeneous This results in an assumption of women as an always already constituted
notion of the oppression of women as a group is assumed, which, in turn, group, one that has been labeled powerless, exploited, sexually harassed, and
produces the image of an "average Third World woman." This average Third so on, by feminist scientific, economic, legal, and sociological discourses.
World woman leads an essentially truncated life based on her feminine gen- (Notice that this is quite similar to sexist discourse labeling women as weak,
der (read: sexually constrained) and her being "Third World" (read: igno- emotional, having math anxiety, etc.) This focus is not on uncovering the ma-
rant, poor, uneducated, tradition-bound, domestic, family-oriented, victim- terial and ideological specificities that constitute a particular group of women
ized, etc.). This, I suggest, is in contrast to the (implicit) self-representation as "powerless" in a particular context. It is, rather, on finding a variety of cases
of Western women as educated, as modern, as having control over their own of powerless groups of women to prove the general point that women as a
bodies and sexualities and the freedom to make their own decisions. group are powerless.
The distinction between Western feminist representation of women in the In this section I focus on six specific ways in which "women" as a cate-
Third World and Western feminist self-presentation is a distinction of the gory of analysis is used in Western feminist discourse on women in the Third
same order as that made by some Marxists between the "maintenance" func- World. Each of these examples illustrates the construction of "Third World
tion of the housewife and the real "productive" role of wage labor, or the women" as a homogeneous "powerless" group often located as implicit vic-
characterization by developmentalists of the Third World as being engaged tims of particular socioeconomic systems. I have chosen to deal with a variety
in the lesser production of "raw materials" in contrast to the "real" produc- of writers—from Fran Hosken, who writes primarily about female genital
tive activity of the First World. These distinctions are made on the basis of the mutilation, to writers from the Women in International Development (wiD)
privileging of a particular group as the norm or referent. Men involved in wage school, who write about the effect of development policies on Third World
labor, First World producers, and, I suggest, Western feminists who some- women for both Western and Third World audiences. The similarity of as-
times cast Third World women in terms of "ourselves undressed" (Rosaldo sumptions about Third World women in all these texts forms the basis of my
198o), all construct themselves as the normative referent in such a binaty discussion. This is not to equate all the texts that I analyze, nor is it to equal-
analytic. ize their strengths and weaknesses. The authors Ideal with write with varying
degrees of care and complexity; however, the effect of their representation of
Third World women is a coherent one. In these texts women are defined as vic-
Women as a Category of Analysis; or, We Are All Sisters in Struggle tims of male violence (Fran Hosken); as universal dependents (Beverly Lind-
The phrase "women as a category of analysis" refers to the crucial assump- say and Maria Cutrufelli); victims of the colonial process (Maria Cutnifelli);
tion that all women, across classes and cultures, are somehow socially con- victims of the Arab familial system (Juliette Minces); victims of the Islamic
stituted as a homogeneous group identified prior to the process of analysis. code (Patricia Jeffery); and, finally, victims of the economic development pro-
This is an assumption that characterizes much feminist discourse. The homo- cess (Beverley Lindsay and the (liberal] wr D school). This mode of defining
geneity of women as a group is produced not on the basis of biological es- women primarily in terms of their object status (the way in which they are
sentials but rather on the basis of secondary sociological and anthropological affected or not affected by certain institutions and systems) is what character-
universals. Thus, for instance, in any given piece of feminist analysis, women izes this particular form of the use of "women" as a category of analysis. In the
are characterized as a singular group on the basis of a shared oppression. What context of Western women writing/studying women in the Third World, such
binds women together is a sociological notion of the "sameness" of their op- objectification (however benevolently motivated) needs to be both named

22 Feminism without Borders 23 Under Western Eyes

and challenged. As Valerie Amos and Pratibha Parmar argue quite eloquently, World women together as a group, they would always be seen as an apolitical
"Feminist theories which examine our cultural practices as 'feudal residues' group with no subject status. Instead, if anything, it is the common context
or label us 'traditional,' also portray us as politically immature women who of political struggle against class, race, gender, and imperialist hierarchies
need to be versed and schooled in the ethos of Western feminism. They need that may constitute Third World women as a strategic group at this histori-
to be continually challenged" (1984, 7).6 cal juncture. Lindsay also states that linguistic and cultural differences exist
between Vietnamese and black American women, but "both groups are vic-
WOMEN AS VICTIMS OF MALE VIOLENCE tims of race, sex, and class" (306). Again, black and Vietnamese women are
Fran Hosken, in writing about the relationship between human rights and characterized by their victim status.
female genital mutilation in Africa and the Middle East, bases her whole dis- Similarly, examine statements such as "My analysis will start by stating
cussion/condemnation of genital mutilation on one privileged premise: that that all African women are politically and economically dependent" (Cutru-
the goal of this practice is to "mutilate the sexual pleasure and satisfaction felli 1983,13); "Nevertheless, either overtly or covertly, prostitution is still the
of woman" (1981, ri). This, in turn, leads her to claim that woman's sexuality main if not the only source of work for African women" (Cutrufelli 1983, 33).
is controlled, as is her reproductive potential. According to Hosken, "male All African women are dependent. Prostitution is the only work option for
sexual politics" in Africa and around the world shares "the same political goal: African women as a group. Both statements are illustrative of generalizations
to assure female dependence and subservience by any and all means" (4). sprinkled liberally through Maria Cutrufelli's book Women ofAfrica: Roots of Op-
Physical violence against women (rape, sexual assault, excision, infibulation, pression. On the cover of the book, Cutrufelli is described as an Italian writer,
etc.) is thus carried out "with an astonishing consensus among men in the sociologist, Marxist, and feminist. Today, is it possible to imagine writing a
world" (4). Here, women are defined consistently as the victim of male con- book entitled Women of Europe: Roots of Oppression? I am not objecting to the use
trol—as the "sexually oppressed." 7 Although it is true that the potential of of universal groupings for descriptive purposes. Women from the continent
male violence against women circumscribes and elucidates their social posi- of Africa can be descriptively characterized as "women of Africa." It is when
tion to a certain extent, defining women as archetypal victims freezes them "women of Africa" becomes a homogeneous sociological grouping charac-
into "objects-who-defend-themselves," men into "subjects-who-perpetrate- terized by common dependencies or powerlessness (or even strengths) that
violence," and (every) society into powerless (read: women) and powerful problems arise—we say too little and too much at the same time.
(read: men) groups of people. Male violence must be theorized and inter- This is because descriptive gender differences are transformed into the
preted within specific societies in order both to understand it better and to division between men and women. Women are constituted as a group via de-
organize effectively to change it. Sisterhood cannot be assumed on the basis pendency relationships vis-à-vis men, who are implicitly held responsible for
of gender; it must be forged in concrete historical and political practice and these relationships. When "women of Africa" as a group (versus "men of
analysis. Africa" as a group?) are seen as a group precisely because theyare generally de-
pendent and oppressed, the analysis of specific historical differences becomes
WOMEN AS UNIVERSAL DEPENDENTS impossible, because reality is always apparently structured by divisions—two
Beverly Lindsay's conclusion to the book Comparative Perspectives of Third mutually exclusive and jointly exhaustive groups, the victims and the oppres-
World Women: The Impact of Race, Sex, and Class (1983) states that "dependency sors. Here the sociological is substituted for the biological, in order, however,
relationships, based upon race, sex, and class, are being perpetuated through to create the same— a unity of women. Thus it is not the descriptive potential
social, educational, and economic institutions. These are the linkages among of gender difference but the privileged positioning and explanatory poten-
Third World Women." Here, as in other places, Lindsay implies that Third tial of gender difference as the origin of oppression that I question. In using
World women constitute an identifiable group purely on the basis of shared "women of Africa" (as an already constituted group of oppressed peoples) as a
dependencies. If shared dependencies were all that was needed to bind Third category of analysis, Cutrufelli denies any historical specificity to the location

24 Feminism without Borders 25 Under Western Eyes

of women as subordinate, powerful, marginal, central, or otherwise, vis-à-vis he takes up residence with them and gives his services in return for food and
particular social and power networks. Women are taken as a unified "power- maintenance" (43). This ritual extends over many years, and the sexual re-
less" group prior to the analysis in question. Thus it is merely a matter of lationship varies according to the degree of the girl's physical maturity. It is
specifying the context after the fact. "Women" are now placed in the context only after she undergoes an initiation ceremony at puberty that intercourse
of the family or in the workplace or within religious networks, almost as if is sanctioned and the man acquires legal rights over her. This initiation cere-
these systems existed outside the relations of women with other women, and mony is the more important act of the consecration of women's reproduc-
women with men. tive power, so that the abduction of an uninitiated girl is of no consequence,
The problem with this analytic strategy is that it assumes men and women while heavy penalty is levied for the seduction of an initiated girl. Cutrufelli
are already constituted as sexual-political subjects prior to their entry into the asserts that European colonization has changed the whole marriage system.
arena of social relations. Only if we subscribe to this assumption is it possible Now the young man is entitled to take his wife away from her people in return
to undertake analysis that looks at the "effects" of kinship structures, colo- for money. The implication is that Bemba women have now lost the protec-
nialism, organization of labor, and so on, on "women," defined in advanceasa tion of tribal laws. The problem here is that while it is possible to see how the
group. The crucial point that is forgotten is that women are produced through structure of the traditional marriage contract (versus the postcolonial mar-
these very relations as well as being implicated in forming these relations. As riage contract) offered women a certain amount of control over their marital
Michelle Rosaldo argues, "[W] oman's place in human social life is not in any relations, only an analysis of the political significance of the actual practice
direct sense a product of the things she does (or even less, a function of what, that privileges an initiated girl over an uninitiated one, indicating a shift in
biologically, she is) but the meaning her activities acquire through concrete female power relations as a result of this ceremony, can provide an accurate
social interactions" (1980, 400). That women mother in a variety of societies account of whether Bemba women were indeed protected by tribal laws at
is not as significant as the value attached to mothering in these societies. The all times.
distinction between the act of mothering and the status attached to it is a very It is not possible, however, to talk about Bemba women as a homogeneous
important one—one that needs to be stated and analyzed contextually. group within the traditional marriage structure. Bemba women before the ini-
tiation are constituted within a different set of social relations compared to
MARRIED WOMEN AS VICTIMS OF THE COLONIAL PROCESS Bemba women after the initiation. To treat them as a unified group character-
In Claude Lévi-Strauss's theory of kinship structure as a system of the ex- ized by the fact of their "exchange" between male kin is to deny the sociohis-
change of women, what is significant is that exchange itself is not constitu- torical and cultural specificities of their existence and the differential value
tive of the subordination of women; women are not subordinate because of attached to their exchange before and after their initiation. It is to treat the
the fact of exchange but because of the modes of exchange instituted and the initiation ceremony as a ritual with no political implications or effects. It is
values attached to these modes. However, in discussing the marriage ritual of also to assume that in merely describing the structure of the marriage con-
the Bemba, a Zambian matrilocal, matrilineal people, Cutrufelli in Women of tract, the situation of women is exposed. Women as a group are positioned
Africa focuses on the fact of the marital exchange of women before and after within a given structure, but no attempt is made to trace the effect of the mar-
Western colonization, rather than the value attached to this exchange in this riage practice in constituting women within an obviously changing network
particular context. This leads to her definition of Bemba women as a coherent of power relations. Thus women are assumed to be sexual-political subjects
group affected in a particular way by colonization. Here again, Bemba women prior to entry into kinship structures.
are constituted rather unilaterally as victims of the effects of Western coloni-
zation. WOMEN AND FAMILIAL SYSTEMS

Cutrufelli cites the marriage ritual of the Bemba as a multistage event Elizabeth Cowie (1978), in another context, points out the implications of
"whereby a young man becomes incorporated into his wife's family group as this sort of analysis when she emphasizes the specifically political nature of

26 Feminism without Borders 27 Under Western Eyes

kinship structures that must be analyzed as ideological practices that desit otherwise informative work on Pirzada women in purdah considers Islamic
nate men and women as father, husband, wife, mother, sister, and so on.Thus, ideology a partial explanation for the status of women in that it provides a jus-
Cowie suggests, women as women are not located within the family. Rather, tification for purdah. Here, Islamic ideology is reduced to a set of ideas whose
it is in the family, as an effect of kinship structures, that women as women internalization by Pirzada women contributes to the stability of the system.
are constructed, defined within and by the group. Thus, for instance, when However, the primary explanation for purdah is located in the control that
Juliette Minces (1980) cites the patriarchal family as the basis for "an almost Pirzada men have over economic resources and the personal security purdah
identical vision of women" that Arab and Muslim societies have, she falls into gives to Pirzada women.
this very trap (see esp. 23). Not only is it problematical to speak of a vision of By taking a specific version of Islam as the Islam, Jeffery attributes a singu-
women shared by Arab and Muslim societies (i.e., over twenty different coun- larity and coherence to it. Modares notes: " 'Islamic Theology' then becomes
tries) without addressing the particular historical, material, and ideological imposed on a separate and given entity called 'women.' A further unification
power structures that construct such images, but to speak of the patriarchal is reached: Women (meaning all women), regardless of their differing posi-
family or the tribal kinship structure as the origin of the socioeconomic status tions within societies, come to be affected or not affected by Islam. These
of women is to assume again that women are sexual-political subjects prior conceptions provide the right ingredients for an unproblematic possibility of
to their entry into the family. So while, on the one hand, women attain value a cross-cultural study of women" (63).
or status within the family, the assumption of a singular patriarchal kinship Marnia Lazreg (1988) makes a similar argument when she addresses the
system (common to all Arab and Muslim societies) is what apparently struc- reductionism inherent in scholarship on women in the Middle East and North
tures women as an oppressed group in these societies! This singular, coher- Africa:
ent kinship system presumably influences another separate and given entity,
A ritual is established whereby the writer appeals to religion as the cause
"women." Thus, all women, regardless of class and cultural differences, are
of gender inequality just as it is made the source of underdevelopment in
affected by this system. Not only are all Arab and Muslim women seen to con-
much of modernization theory in an uncanny way, feminist discourse on
stitute a homogeneous oppressed group, but there is no discussion of the
women from the Middle East and North Africa mirrors that of theologians'
specific practices within the family that constitute women as mothers, wives,
own interpretation of women in Islam. The overall effect of this paradigm
sisters, and so on. Arabs and Muslims, it appears, don't change at all. Their
is to deprive women of self-presence, of being. Because women are sub-
patriarchal family is carried over from the times of the prophet Muhammad.
sumed under religion presented in fundamental terms, they are inevitably
They exist, as it were, outside history.
seen as evolving in nonhistorical time. They virtually have no history. Any
analysis of change is therefore foreclosed. (87)
WOMEN AND RELIGIOUS IDEOLOGIES

A further example of the use of "women" as a category of analysis is found While Jeffery's analysis does not quite succumb to this kind of unitary
in cross-cultural analyses that subscribe to a certain economic reductionism notion of religion (Islam), it does collapse all ideological specificities into
in describing the relationship between the economy and factors such as poli- economic relations and universalizes on the basis of this comparison.
tics and ideology. Here, in reducing the level of comparison to the economic
relations between "developed and developing" countries, any specificity to WOMEN AND THE DEVELOPMENT PROCESS

the question of women is denied. Mina Modares (1981), in a careful analysis of The best examples of universalization on the basis of economic reduc-
women and Shiism in Iran, focuses on this very problem when she criticizes tionism can be found in the liberal literature about women in international
feminist writings that treat Islam as an ideology separate from and outside development. Proponents of this school seek to examine the effect of devel-
social relations and practices, rather than as a discourse that includes rules for opment on Third World women, sometimes from self-designated feminist
economic, social, and power relations within society. Patricia Jeffery's (1979) perspectives. At the very least, there is an evident interest in and commitment

28 Feminism without Borders 29 Under Western Eyes

to improving the lives of women in "developing" countries. Scholars such as World, one that is significant in suggesting a latent self-presentation of West-
Irene Tinker and Michelle Bo Bramsen (1972), Ester Boserup (1970), and Per- ern women that bears looking at. She writes, "What surprised and moved
dita Huston (1979) have all written about the effect of development policies me most as I listened to women in such very different cultural settings was
on women in the Third World.9 All four women assume "development" is syn- the striking commonality— whether they were educated or illiterate, urban or
onymous with "economic development" or "economic progress." As in the rural—of their most basic values: the importance they assign to family, dig-
case of Minces's patriarchal family, Hosken's male sexual control, and Cutru- nity, and service to others" (115). Would Huston consider such values unusual
felli's Western colonization, development here becomes the all-time equal- for women in the West?
izer. Women are affected positively or negatively by economic development What is problematical about this kind of use of "women" as a group, as a
policies, and this is the basis for cross-cultural comparison. stable category of analysis, is that it assumes an ahistorical, universal unity be-
For instance, Huston (1979) states that the purpose of her study is to de- tween women based on a generalized notion of their subordination. Instead
scribe the effect of the development process on the "family unit and its indi- ofanalytically demonstrating the production ofwomen as socioeconomic po-
vidual members" in Egypt, Kenya, Sudan, Tunisia, Sri Lanka, and Mexico. She litical groups within particular local contexts, this analytical move limits the
states that the "problems" and "needs" expressed by rural and urban women definition of the female subject to gender identity, completely bypassing so-
in these countries all center around education and training, work and wages, cial class and ethnic identities. What characterizes women as a group is their
access to health and other services, political participation, and legal rights gender (sociologically, not necessarily biologically, defined) over and above
(ri6). Huston relates all these "needs" to insensitive development policies that everything else, indicating a monolithic notion of sexual difference. Because
exclude women as a group or category. For her, the solution is simple: im- women are thus constituted as a coherent group, sexual difference becomes
plement improved development policies that emphasize training for women coterminous with female subordination and power is automatically defined
field-workers; use women trainees and women rural development officers; in binary terms: people who have it (read: men) and people who do not (read:
encourage women's cooperatives; and so on (i19-22). Here again, women are women). Men exploit, women are exploited. Such simplistic formulations
assumed to be a coherent group or category prior to their entry into "the devel- are historically reductive; they are also ineffectual in designing strategies to
opment process." Huston assumes that all Third World women have similar combat oppressions. All they do is reinforce binary divisions between men
problems and needs. Thus, they must have similar interests and goals. How- and women.
ever, the interests of urban, middle-class, educated Egyptian housewives, to What would an analysis that did not do this look like? Maria Mies's work
take only one instance, could surely not be seen as being the same as those illustrates the strength of Western feminist work on women in the Third
of their uneducated, poor maids. Development policies do not affect both World that does not fall into the traps discussed above. Mies's study (1982)
groups of women in the same way. Practices that characterize women's status of the lace-makers of Narsapur, India, attempts to analyze carefully a sub-
and roles vary according to class. Women are constituted as women through stantial household industry in which "housewives" produce lace doilies for
the complex interaction between class, culture, religion, and other ideologi- consumption in the world market. Through a detailed analysis of the struc-
cal institutions and frameworks. They are not "women" — a coherent group— ture of the lace industry, production and reproduction relations, the sexual
solely on the basis of a particular economic system or policy. Such reductive division of labor, profits and exploitation, and the overall consequences of
cross-cultural comparisons result in the colonization of the specifics of daily defining women as "nonworking housewives" and their work as "leisure-
existence and the complexities of political interests that women of different time activity," Mies demonstrates the levels of exploitation in this industry
social classes and cultures represent and mobilize. and the impact of this production system on the work and living conditions
It is revealing that for Huston, women in the Third World countries she of the women involved in it. In addition, she is able to analyze the "ideology of
writes about have "needs" and "problems" but few ifany have "choices" or the the housewife," the notion of a woman sitting in the house, as providing the
freedom to act. This is an interesting representation of women in the Third necessary subjective and sociocultural elements for the creation and mainte-

30 Feminism without Borders 31 Under Western Eyes

nance of a production system that contributes to the increasing pauperiza- sciousness. Thus, although they looked down with contempt upon women
tion of women and keeps them totally atomized and disorganized as workers. who were able to work outside the house—like the untouchable Mala and
Mies's analysis shows the effect of a certain historically and culturally specific Madiga women or women of other lower castes— they could not ignore the
mode of patriarchal organization, an organization constructed on the basis of fact that these women were earning more money precisely because they
the definition of the lace-makers as nonworking housewives at familial, local, were not respectable housewives but workers. At one discussion, they even
regional, statewide, and international levels. The intricacies and the effects admitted that it would be better if they could also go out and do coolie
of particular power networks not only are emphasized but form the basis of work. And when they were asked whether they would be ready to come out
Mies's analysis of how this particular group of women is situated at the center of their houses and work—in one place in some sort of a factory—they
of a hegemonic, exploitative world market. said they would do that. This shows that the purdah and housewife ideol-
Mies's study is a good example of what careful, politically focused, local ogy, although still fully internalized, already had some cracks, because it
analyses can accomplish. It illustrates how the category of women is con- has been confronted with several contradictory realities. (157)
structed in a variety of political contexts that often exist simultaneously and It is only by understanding the contradictions inherent in women's loca-
overlaid on top of one another. There is no easy generalization in the direc- tion within various structures that effective political action and challenges can
tion of "women in India" or "women in the Third World"; nor is there a re- be devised. Mies's study goes a long way toward offering such analysis. While
duction of the political construction of the exploitation of the lace-makers there are now an increasing number of Western feminist writings in this tra-
to cultural explanations about the passivity or obedience that might charac- dition,10 there is also, unfortunately, a large block of writing that succumbs
terize these women and their situation. Finally, this mode of local, politi- to the cultural reductionism discussed earlier.
cal analysis, which generates theoretical categories from within the situation
and context being analyzed, also suggests corresponding effective strategies
for organizing against the exploitation faced by the lace-makers. Narsapur Methodological Universalisms;
women are not mere victims of the production process, because they resist, or, Women's Oppression As a Global Phenomenon
challenge, and subvert the process at various junctures. Here is one instance Western feminist writings on women in the Third World subscribe to a
of how Mies delineates the connections between the housewife ideology, the variety of methodologies to demonstrate the universal cross-cultural opera-
self-consciousness of the lace-makers, and their interrelationships as con- tion of male dominance and female exploitation. I summarize and critique
tributing to the latent resistances she perceives among the women: three such methods below, moving from the simplest to the most complex.
The persistence of the housewife ideology, the self-perception of the lace- First, proof of universalism is provided through the use of an arithmetic
makers as petty commodity producers rather than as workers, is not only method. The argument goes like this: the greater the number of women who
upheld by the structure of the industry as such but also by the deliberate wear the veil, the more universal is the sexual segregation and control of
propagation and reinforcement ofreactionary patriarchal norms and insti- women (Deardon 1975, 4-5). Similarly, a large number of different, frag-
tutions. Thus, most of the lace-makers voiced the same opinion about the mented examples from a variety of countries also apparently add up to a uni-
rules of purdah and seclusion in their communities which were also propa- versal fact. For instance, Muslim women in Saudi Arabia, Iran, Pakistan, India,
gated by the lace exporters. In particular; the Kapu women said that they and Egypt all wear some sort of a veil. Hence, the argument goes, sexual con-
had never gone out of their houses, that women of their community could trol of women is a universal fact in those countries (Deardon 1975, 7, io). Fran
not do any other work than housework and lace work etc., but in spite of Hosken writes, "Rape, forced prostitution, polygamy, genital mutilation, por-
the fact that most of them still subscribed fully to the patriarchal norms nography, the beating of girls and women, purdah (segregation of women)
of the gosha women, there were also contradictory elements in their con- are all violations of basic human rights" (1981, 15). By equating purdah with

32 Feminism without Borders 33 Under Western Eyes

rape, domestic violence, and forced prostitution, Hosken asserts that pur- changes radically from one environment to the next and from one historical
dah's "sexual control" function is the primary explanation for its existence, juncture to another? At its most abstract level, it is the fact of the differen-
whatever the context. Institutions of purdah are thus denied any cultural and tial assignation of tasks according to sex that is significant; however, this is
historical specificity and contradictions, and potentially subversive aspects quite different from the meaning or value that the content of this sexual divi-
are totally ruled out. sion of labor assumes in different contexts. In most cases the assigning of
In both these examples, the problem is not in asserting that the practice of tasks on the basis of sex has an ideological origin. There is no question that
wearing a veil is widespread. This assertion can be made on the basis of num- a claim such as "Women are concentrated in service-oriented occupations in
bers. It is a descriptive generalization. However, it is the analytic leap from a large number of countries around the world" is descriptively valid. Descrip-
the practice of veiling to an assertion of its general significance in control- tively, then, perhaps the existence of a similar sexual division of labor (where
ling women that must be questioned. While there may be a physical similarity women work in service occupations such as nursing, social work, etc., and
in the veils worn by women in Saudi Arabia and Iran, the specific meaning men in other kinds of occupations) in a variety of different countries can be
attached to this practice varies according to the cultural and ideological con- asserted. However, the concept of the "sexual division of labor" is more than
text. In addition, the symbolic space occupied by the practice of purdah may just a descriptive category. It indicates the differential value placed on men's
be similar in certain contexts, but this does not automatically indicate that work versus women's work.
the practices themselves have identical significance in the social realm. For Often the mere existence of a sexual division of labor is taken to be proof
example, as is well known. Iranian middle-class women veiled themselves of the oppression of women in various societies. This results from a con-
during the 1979 revolution to indicate solidarity with their veiled, working- fusion between and collapsing together of the descriptive and explanatory
class sisters, while in contemporary Iran, mandatory Islamic laws dictate that potential of the concept of the sexual division of labor. Superficially similar
all Iranian women wear veils. While in both these instances, similar reasons situations may have radically different, historically specific explanations and
might be offered for the veil (opposition to the Shah and Western cultural cannot be treated as identical. For instance, the rise of female-headed house-
colonization in the first case and the true Islamization of Iran in the second), holds in middle-class America might be construed as a sign of great indepen-
the concrete meanings attached to Iranian women wearing the veil are clearly dence and feminist progress, the assumption being that this increase has to
different in both historical contexts. In the first case, wearing the veil is both do with women choosing to be single parents, with an increasing number of
an oppositional and a revolutionary gesture on the part of Iranian middle- lesbian mothers, and so on. However, the recent increase in female-headed
class women; in the second case, it is a coercive, institutional mandate (see households in Latin America," which might at first be seen as indicating that
Tabari 1980 for detailed discussion). It is on the basis of such context specific women are acquiring more decision-making power, is concentrated among
differentiated analysis that effective political strategies can be generated. To the poorest strata, where life choices are the most constrained economically.
assume that the mere practice of veiling women in a number of Muslim coun- A similar argument can be made for the rise of female-headed families among
tries indicates the universal oppression ofwomen through sexual segregation black and Chicana women in the United States. The positive correlation be-
not only is analytically reductive but also proves quite useless when it comes tween this and the level of poverty among women of color and white working-
to the elaboration of oppositional political strategy. class women in the United States has now even acquired a name: the femi-
Second, concepts such as reproduction, the sexual division of labor, the nization of poverty. Thus, while it is possible to state that there is a rise in
family, marriage, household, patriarchy, and so on are often used without female-headed households in the United States and in Latin America, this
their specification in local cultural and historical contexts. Feminists use rise cannot be discussed as a universal indicator of women's independence,
these concepts in providing explanations for women's subordination, appar- nor can it be discussed as a universal indicator of women's impoverishment.
ently assuming their universal applicability. For instance, how is it possible The meaning of and explanations for the rise obviously vary according to the
to refer to "the" sexual division of labor when the content of this division sociohistorical context.

34 Feminism without Borders 35 Under Western Eyes

 Similarly, the existence of a sexual division of labor in most contexts can- eventually ends up constructing monolithic images of "Third World women"
not be sufficient explanation for the universal subjugation of women in the by ignoring the complex and mobile relationships between their historical
workforce. That the sexual division of labor does indicate a devaluation of materiality on the level of specific oppressions and political choices, on the
women's work must be shown through analysis of particular local contexts. In one hand, and their general discursive representations, on the other.
addition, devaluation of women must also be shown through careful analysis. To summarize: I have discussed three methodological moves identifiable
In other words, the "sexual division of labor" and "women" are not commen- in feminist (and other academic) cross-cultural work that seeks to uncover
surate analytical categories. Concepts such as the sexual division of laborcan a universality in women's subordinate position in society. The next and final
be useful only if they are generated through local, contextual analyses (see section pulls together the previous ones, attempting to outline the political
Eldhom, Harris, and Young 1977). If such concepts are assumed to be uni- effects of the analytical strategies in the context of Western feminist writing
versally applicable, the resultant homogenization of class, race, religion, and on women in the Third World. These arguments are not against generalization
daily material practices ofwomen in theThird World can create a false senseof as much as they are for careful, historically specific generalizations responsive
the commonality of oppressions, interests, and struggles between and among to complex realities. Nor do these arguments deny the necessity of forming
women globally. Beyond sisterhood there are still racism, colonialism, and strategic political identities and affinities. Thus, while Indian women of dif-
imperialism. ferent religions, castes, and classes might forge a political unity on the basis
Finally, some writers confuse the use of gender as a superordinate category of organizing against police brutality toward women (see Kishwar and Vanita
of analysis with the universalistic proof and instantiation of this category. In 1984), any analysis of police brutality must be contextual. Strategic coalitions
other words, empirical studies of gender differences are confused with the that construct oppositional political identities for themselves are based on
analytical organization of cross-cultural work. Beverly Brown's (1983) review generalization and provisional unities, but the analysis of these group iden-
of the book Nature, Culture and Gender (Strathern and McCormack 1980) best tities cannot be based on universalistic, ahistorical categories.
illustrates this point. Brown suggests that nature:culture and female:maleare
superordinate categories that organize and locate lesser categories (such as
The Subject(s) of Power
wild:domestic and biology:technology) within their logic. These categories
are universal in the sense that they organize the universe of a system of rep- This section returns to my earlier discussion of the inherently political na-
resentations. This relation is totally independent of the universal substantia- ture of feminist scholarship and attempts to clarify my point about the pos-
tion of any particular category. Brown's critique hinges on the fact that rather sibility of detecting a colonialist move in the case of a hegemonic connec-
than clarify the generalizability of nature:culture :: female:male as superordi- tion between the First and Third Worlds in scholarship. The nine texts in Zed
nate organization categories, Nature, Culture and Gender construes the univer- Press's Women in the Third World series that I have discussed 12 focused on the
sality of this equation to lie at the level of empirical truth, which can be in- following common areas in examining women's "status" within various soci-
vestigated through fieldwork. Thus, the usefulness of the nature:culture:: eties: religion, family/kinship structures, the legal system, the sexual division
female:male paradigm as a universal mode of the organization of representa- of labor, education, and, finally, political resistance. A large number of West-
tion within any particular sociohistorical system is lost. Here, methodological ern feminist writings on women in the Third World focus on these themes. Of
universalism is assumed on the basis of the reduction of the nature:culture:: course the Zed texts have varying emphases. For instance, two of the studies,
female:male analytic categories to a demand for empirical proof of its exis- We Shall Return: Women of Palestine (Bendt and Downing 1982) and We Will Smash
tence in different cultures. Discourses of representation are confused with This Prison: Indian Women in Struggle (Omvedt 1980), focus explicitly on female
material realities, and the distinction made earlier between "Woman" and militancy and political involvement, while The House of Obedience: Women in Arab
"women" is lost. Feminist work that blurs this distinction (which is, interest- Society (Minces 1980) deals with Arab women's legal, religious, and familial
ingly enough, often present in certain Western feminists' self-representation) status. In addition, each text evidences a variety of methodologies and de-

36 Feminism without Borders 37 Under Western Eyes

 grees of care in making generalizations. Interestingly enough, however, al- cumulative reaction to power. Opposition is a generalized phenomenon cre-
most all the texts assume "women" as a category of analysis in the manner ated as a response to power—which, in turn, is possessed by certain groups
designated above. of people.
Clearly this is an analytical strategy that is neither limited to these Zed The major problem with such a definition of power is that it locks all revo-
Press publications nor symptomatic of Zed Press publications in general. lutionary struggles into binary structures—possessing power versus being
However, each of the texts in question assumes that "women" have a coherent powerless. Women are powerless, unified groups. If the struggle for a just
group identity within the different cultures discussed, prior to theirentry into society is seen in terms of the move from powerlessness to power for women
social relations. Thus Gail Omvedt can talk about "Indian women" while re- as a group, and this is the implication in feminist discourse that structures
ferring to a particular group of women in the state of Maharashtra; Cutrufelli sexual difference in terms of the division between the sexes, then the new
can discuss "women of Africa," and Minces can talk about "Arab women"– society would be structurally identical to the existing organization of power
all as if these groups of women have some sort of obvious cultural coherence, relations, constituting itself as a simple inversion of what exists. If relations
distinct from men in these societies. The "status" or "position" of women is of domination and exploitation are defined in terms of binary divisions—
assumed to be self-evident because women as an already constituted group groups that dominate and groups that are dominated—then surely the im-
are placed within religious, economic, familial, and legal structures. How- plication is that the accession to power of women as a group is sufficient to
ever, this focus whereby women are seen as a coherent group across con- dismantle the existing organization of relations. But women as a group are
texts, regardless of class or ethnicity, structures the world in ultimately bi- not in some sense essentially superior or infallible. The crux of the problem
nary, dichotomous terms, where women are always seen in opposition tomen, lies in that initial assumption of women as a homogeneous group or cate-
patriarchy is always necessarily male dominance, and the religious, legal, eco- gory ("the oppressed"), a familiar assumption in Western radical and liberal
nomic, and familial systems are implicitly assumed to be constructed by men. feminism s.13
Thus, both men and women are always apparently constituted whole popula- What happens when this assumption of "women as an oppressed group"
tions, and relations of dominance and exploitation are also posited in terms is situated in the context of Western feminist writing about Third World
of whole peoples—wholes coming into exploitative relations. It is only when women? It is here that I locate the colonialist move. By contrasting the rep-
men and women are seen as different categories or groups possessing differ- resentation of women in the Third World with what I referred to earlier as
ent already constituted categories of experience, cognition, and interests as Western feminisms' self-presentation in the same context, we see how West-
groups that such a simplistic dichotomy is possible. ern feminists alone become the true "subjects" of this counterhistory. Third
What does this imply about the structure and functioning of power rela- World women, in contrast, never rise above the debilitating generality of their
tions? The setting up of the commonality of Third World women's struggles "object" status.
across classes and cultures against a general notion of oppression (rooted While radical and liberal feminist assumptions of women as a sex class
primarily in the group in power—i.e., men) necessitates the assumption of might elucidate (however inadequately) the autonomy of particular women's
what Michel Foucault (198o, 135-45) calls the "juridico-discursive" model struggles in the West, the application of the notion of women as a homo-
of power, the principal features of which are "a negative relation" (limit and geneous category to women in the Third World colonizes and appropriates
lack), an "insistence on the rule" (which forms a binary system), a "cycle of the pluralities of the simultaneous location of different groups of women in
prohibition," the "logic of censorship," and a "uniformity" of the apparatus social class and ethnic frameworks; in doing so it ultimately robs them of
functioning at different levels. Feminist discourse on the Third World that as- their historical and political agency. Similarly, many Zed Press authors who
sumes a homogeneous category—or group—called women necessarily oper- ground themselves in the basic analytic strategies of traditional Marxism also
ates through the setting up of originary power divisions. Power relations are implicitly create a "unity" of women by substituting "women's activity" for
structured in terms of a unilateral and undifferentiated source of power anda "labor" as the primary theoretical determinant of women's situation. Here

38 Feminism without Borders 39 Under western Eyes

,
again, women are constituted as a coherent group not on the basis of "natu- giflai and resistant modes and experiences.15 It is significant that none of the
ral" qualities or needs but on the basis of the sociological "unity" of their role texts I reviewed in the Zed Press series focuses on lesbian politics or the poli-
in domestic production and wage labor (see Haraway 1985, esp. 76). In other tics of ethnic and religious marginal organizations in Third World women's
words, Western feminist discourse, by assuming women as a coherent, al- groups. Resistance can thus be defined only as cumulatively reactive, not as
ready constituted group that is placed in kinship, legal, and other structures, something inherent in the operation of power. If power, as Michel Foucault
defines Third World women as subjects outside social relations, instead of has argued, can be understood only in the context of resistance,16 this mis-
looking at the way women are constituted through these very structures. conceptualization is both analytically and strategically problematical. It limits
Legal, economic, religious, and familial structures are treated as phe- theoretical analysis as well as reinforces Western cultural imperialism. For in
nomena to be judged by Western standards. It is here that ethnocentric univer- the context of a First/Third World balance of power, feminist analyses that
sality comes into play. When these structures are defined as "underdeveloped" perpetrate and sustain the hegemony of the idea of the superiority of the West
or "developing" and women are placed within them, an implicit image of the produce a corresponding set of universal images of the Third World woman,
"average Third World woman" is produced. This is the transformation of the images such as the veiled woman, the powerful mother, the chaste virgin, the
(implicitly Western) "oppressed woman" into the "oppressed Third World obedient wife, and so on. These images exist in universal, ahistorical splendor,
woman." While the category of "oppressed woman" is generated through an setting in motion a colonialist discourse that exercises a very specific power
exclusive focus on gender difference, "the oppressed Third World woman" in defining, coding, and maintaining existing First/Third World connections.
category has an additional attribute — the "Third World difference." The Third To conclude, let me suggest some disconcerting similarities between the
World difference includes a paternalistic attitude toward women in the Third typically authorizing signature of such Western feminist writings on women
World.14 Since discussions of the various themes I identified earlier (kinship, in the Third World and the authorizing signature of the project of humanism
education, religion, etc.) are conducted in the context of the relative "under- in general — humanism as a Western ideological and political project that in-
development" of the Third World (a move that constitutes nothing less than volves the necessary recuperation of the "East" and "Woman" as others. Many
unjustifiably confusing development with the separate path taken by the West contemporary thinkers, including Michel Foucault (1978, 1980), Jacques Der-
in its development, as well as ignoring the directionality of the power relation- rida (1974), Julia Kristeva (1980), Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari (i977), and
ship between the First and Third Worlds), Third World women as a group or Edward Said (1978), have written at length about the underlying anthropo-
category are automatically and necessarily defined as religious (read: not pro- morphism and ethnocentrism that constitute a hegemonic humanistic prob-
gressive), family-oriented (read: traditional), legally unsophisticated (read: lematic that repeatedly confirms and legitimates (Western) man's centrality.
they are still not conscious of their lights), illiterate (read: ignorant), domes- Feminist theorists such as Luce Irigaray (1981), Sarah Kofman (see Berg 1982),
tic (read: backward), and sometimes revolutionary (read: their country is in and Helene Cixous (1981) have also written about the recuperation and ab-
a state of war; they must fight!). This is how the "Third World difference" is sence of woman/women within Western humanism. The focus of the work
produced. of all these thinkers can be stated simply as an uncovering of the political
When the category of "sexually oppressed women" is located within par- interests that underlie the binary logic of humanistic discourse and ideology,
ticular systems in the Third World that are defined on a scale that is normed whereby, as a valuable essay puts it, "the first (majority) term (Identity, Univer-
through Eurocentric assumptions, not only are Third World women defined in sality, Culture, Disinterestedness, Truth, Sanity, Justice, etc.), which is, in fact,
a particular way prior to their entry into social relations, but, since no connec- secondary and derivative (a construction), is privileged over and colonizes
the second (minority) term (difference, temporality, anarchy, error, interest-
tions are made between First and Third World power shifts, the assumption is
reinforced that the Third World just has not evolved to the extent that the West
/ edness, insanity, deviance, etc.), which is, in fact, primary and originative"
has. This mode of feminist analysis, by homogenizing and systematizing the (Spanos 1984). In other words, it is only insofar as "woman/women" and "the
experiences of different groups of women in these countries, erases all mar- East" are defined as others, or as peripheral, that (Western) man/humanism

40 Feminism without Borders 41 Under Western Eyes

can represent him/itself as the center. It is not the center that determines the
periphery, but the periphery that, in its boundedness, determines the center.
Just as feminists such as Kristeva and Cixous deconstruct the latent anthropo-
morphism in Western discourse, I have suggested a parallel strategy in this in
uncovering a latent ethnocentrism in particular feminist writings on women
in the Third World.17 CHAPTER TWO
As discussed earlier, a comparison between Western feminist self-
presentation and Western feminist representation of women in the Third
Cartographies of Struggle: Third World
World yields significant results. Universal images of the Third World woman Women and the Politics of Feminism
(the veiled woman, chaste virgin, etc.), images constructed from adding the
"Third World difference" to "sexual difference," are predicated upon (and
hence obviously bring into sharper focus) assumptions about Western women The US and the USSR are the most
as secular, liberated, and having control over their own lives. This is not to powerful countries
suggest that Western women are secular, liberated, and in control of their in the world
own lives. Iam referring to a discursive self-presentation, not necessarily to but only 1/8 of the world's population.
material reality. If this were material reality, there would be no need for po- African people are also i/8 of the world's
litical movements in the West. Similarly, only from the vantage point of the population.
West is it possible to define the Third World as underdeveloped and economi- of that, 1/4 is Nigerian.
cally dependent. Without the overdetermined discourse that creates the Third i/z of the world's population is Asian.
World, there would be no (singular and privileged) First World. Without the 1/2 of that is Chinese.
"Third World woman," the particular self-presentation of Western women There are 22 nations in the middle east.
mentioned above would be problematical. lam suggesting, then, that the one Most people in the world are Yellow, Black, Brown, Poor, Female, Non-Christian
enables and sustains the other. This is not to say that the signature of Western and do not speak English.
feminist writings on the Third World has the same authority as the project of By the year z000 the 20 largest cities in the world will have one thing in common
Western humanism. However, in the context of the hegemony of the Western none of them will be in Europe none in the United States.
scholarly establishment in the production and dissemination of texts, and in —Audre Lorde, January 1, 1989
the context of the legitimating imperative of humanistic and scientific dis-
course, the definition of "the Third World woman" as a monolith might well I begin this essay with Audre Lorde's words as a tribute to her courage in
tie into the larger econom ic and ideological praxis of "disinterested" scientific consistently engaging the very institutional power structures that define and
inquiry and pluralism that are the surface manifestations ofa latent economic circumscribe the lives of Third World women.1 The poem also has deep per-
and cultural colonization of the "non-Western" world. It is time to move be- sonal significance for me: Lorde read it as part of her commencement remarks
yond the Marx who found it possible to say: they cannot represent themselves; at Oberlin College, where I used to teach, in May 1989. Her words provide
they must be represented. a poetic cartography of the historical and political location of Third World
peoples and document the urgency of ou r predicament in a Eurocentric world.
Lorde's language suggests with a precise force and poignancy the contours of
the world we occupy now: a world that is definable only in relational terms, a
world traversed with intersecting lines of power and resistance, a world that

42 Feminism without Borders

can be understood only in terms of its destructive divisions of gender, color, feminisms in the Third World? Who produces knowledge about colonized
class, sexuality, and nation, a world that must be transformed through a nec- peoples and from what space/ location? What are the politics of the produc-
essary process of "pivoting the center" (to use Bettina Aptheker's words), tion of this particular knowledge? What are the disciplinary parameters of
for the assumed center (Europe and the United States) will no longer hold. this knowledge? What are the methods used to locate and chart Third World
But it is also a world with powerful histories of resistance and revolution in women's self and agency? Clearly, questions of definition and context over-
daily life and as organized liberation movements. And it is these contours lap; in fact, as we develop more complex, nuanced modes of asking questions
that define the complex ground for the emergence and consolidation of Third and as scholarship in a number of relevant fields begins to address histories of
World women's feminist politics. (I use the term "Third World" to designate colonialism, capitalism, race, and gender as inextricably interrelated, our very
geographical location and sociohistorical conjunctures. It thus incorporates conceptual maps are redrawn and transformed. How we conceive of defini-
so-called minority peoples or people of color in the United States.) tions and contexts, on what basis we foreground certain contexts over others,
In fact, one of the distinctive features of contemporary societies is the and how we understand the ongoing shifts in our conceptual cartographies —
internationalization of economies and labor forces. In industrial societies, the these are all questions of great importance in this particular cartography of
international division of economic production consisted in the geographical Third World feminisms.
separation of raw material extraction (in primarily the Third World) from fac- I write this cartography from my own particular political, historical, and
tory production (in the colonial capitals). With the rise of transnational cor- intellectual location, as a Third World feminist trained in the United States,
porations that dominate and organize the contemporary economic system, interested in questions of culture, knowledge production, and activism in an
however, factories have migrated in search of cheap labor, and the nation- international context. The maps I draw are necessarily anchored in my own
state is no longer an appropriate socioeconomic unit for analysis. In addition, discontinuous locations. In this chapter, then, I attempt to formulate an ini-
the massive migration of excolonial populations to the industrial metropo- tial and necessarily noncomprehensive response to the above questions. Thus
lises of Europe to fill the need for cheap labor has created new kinds of multi- this chapter offers a very partial conceptual map: it touches upon certain con-
ethnic and multiracial social formations similar to those in the United States. texts and foregrounds particular definitions and strategies. I see this as a map
Contemporary postindustrial societies, thus, invite cross-national and cross- that will of necessity have to be redrawn as our analytic and conceptual skills
cultural analyses for explanation of their own internal features and socioeco- and knowledge develop and transform the way we understand questions of
nomic constitution. Moreover, contemporary definitions of the Third World history, consciousness, and agency. This chapter will also suggest significant
can no longer have the same geographical contours and boundaries they had questions and directions for feminist analysis—an analysis that is made pos-
for industrial societies. In the postindustrial world, systemic socioeconomic sible by the precise challenges posed by "race" and postcolonial studies to the
and ideological processes position the peoples of Africa, Asia, Latin America, second wave of white Western feminisms, and by feminist anticapitalist cri-
and the Middle East, as well as "minority" populations (people of color) in tique to economic globalization and neoliberalism. I believe that these chal-
the United States and Europe, in similar relationships to the state. lenges suggest new questions for feminist historiography and epistemology,
Thus, charting the ground for an analysis of Third World women and the as well as point toward necessary reconceptualizations of ideas of resistance,
politics of feminism is no easy task. First, there are the questions of definition: community, and agency in daily life.
Who/what is the Third World? Do Third World women make up any kind of a
constituency? On what basis? Can we assume that Third World women's po- Definitions: Third World Women and Feminism
litical struggles are necessarily "feminist"? How do we/they define feminism?
And second, there are the questions about context: Which/whose history do Unlike the history of Western (white, middle-class) feminisms, which has
we draw on to chart this map of Third World women's engagement with femi- been explored in great detail over the last few decades, histories of Third
nism? How do questions of gender, race, and nation intersect in determining World women's engagement with feminism are in short supply. There is a

44 Feminism without Borders 45 Cartographies of Struggle

large body of work on "women in developing countries," but this does not histories and social locations, woven together by the political threads of oppo-
necessarily engage feminist questions. A substantial amount of scholarship sition to forms of domination that are not only pervasive but also systemic.
has accumulated on women in liberation movements, or on the role and status An example of a similar construct is the notion of "communities of resis-
of women in individual cultures. However, this scholarship also does not tance," which refers to the broad-based opposition of refugee, migrant, and
necessarily engage questions of feminist historiography. Constructing such black groups in Britain to the idea of a common nation: Europe 1992 (now
histories often requires reading against the grain of a number of intersect- the European Union). "Communities of resistance," like "imagined commu-
ing progressive discourses (e.g., white feminist, Third World nationalist, and nities," is a political definition, not an essentialist one. It is not based on any
socialist), as well as the politically regressive racist, imperialist, sexist dis- ahistorical notion of the inherent resistance and resilience of Third World
courses of slavery, colonialism, and contemporary capitalism. The very notion peoples. It is, however, based on a historical, material analysis of the con-
of addressing what are often internally conflictual histories of Third World crete disenfranchising effects of Europe 1992 on Third World communities
women's feminisms under a single rubric, in one chapter, may seem ludi- in Britain and the necessity of forming "resistant/oppositional" communi-
crous—especially since the very meaning of the term "feminism" is continu- ties that fight this. However, while such imagined communities are histori-
ally contested. For, it can be argued, there are no simple ways of representing cally and geographically concrete, their boundaries are necessarily fluid. They
these diverse struggles and histories. Just as it is difficult to speak of a singu- have to be, since the operation of power is always fluid and changing. Thus
lar entity called "Western feminism," it is difficult to generalize about "Third I do not posit any homogeneous configuration of Third World women who
World feminisms." But in much of my scholarship, I have chosen to fore- form communities because they share a "gender" or a "race" or a "nation."
ground "Third World women" as an analytical and political category; thus! As history (and recent feminist scholarship) teaches us, "races" and "nations"
want to recognize and analytically explore the links among the histories and haven't been defined on the basis of inherent, natural characteristics; nor can
struggles of Third World women against racism, sexism, colonialism, im- we define "gender" in any transhistorical, unitary way.3 So where does this
perialism, and monopoly capital. I am suggesting, then, an "imagined com- leave us?
munity" of Third World oppositional struggles — "imagined" not because it Geographically, the nation-states of Latin America, the Caribbean, sub-
is not "real" but because it suggests potential alliances and collaborations Saharan Africa, South and Southeast Asia, China, South Africa, and Oceania
across divisive boundaries, and "community" because in spite of internal hier- constitute the parameters of the non-European Third World. In addition,
archies within Third World contexts, it nevertheless suggests a significant, black, Latino, Asian, and indigenous peoples in the United States, Europe,
deep commitment to what Benedict Anderson, in referring to the idea of the and Australia, some of whom have historic links with the geographically de-
nation, calls "horizontal comradeship."2 fined Third World, also refer to themselves as Third World peoples. With such
The idea of imagined community is useful because it leads us away from a broad canvas, racial, sexual, national, economic, and cultural borders are
essentialist notions of Third World feminist struggles, suggesting political difficult to demarcate, shaped politicallyas they are in individual and collective
rather than biological or cultural bases for alliance. It is not color or sex that practice.
constructs the ground for these struggles. Rather, it is the way we think about
race, class, and gender—the political links we choose to make among and
Third World Women as Social Category
between struggles. Thus, potentially, women of all colors (including white
women) can align themselves with and participate in these imagined commu- As I argue in chapter 1, scholars often locate "Third World women" in
nities. However, clearly our relation to and centrality in particular struggles terms of the underdevelopment, oppressive traditions, high illiteracy, rural
depend on our different, often conflictual, locations and histories. This, then, and urban poverty, religious fanaticism, and "overpopulation" of particular
is what indelibly marks this discussion of Third World women and the poli- Asian, African, Middle Eastern, and Latin American countries. Correspond-
tics of feminism together: imagined communities of women with divergent ing analyses of "matriarchal" black women on welfare, "illiterate" Chicana

46 Feminism without Borders 47 Cartographies of Struggle

farmworkers, and "docile" Asian domestic workers also abound in the con- pretations of women's lives, on what basis do Third World women form any
text of the United States. Besides being normed on a white, Western (read: constituency? First, just as Western women or white women cannot be de-
progressive/modern) or non-Western (read: backward/traditional) hierarchy, fined as coherent interest groups, Third World women also do not constitute
these analyses freeze Third World women in time, space, and history. For any automatic unitary group. Alliances and divisions of class, religion, sexu-
example, in analyzing indicators of Third World women's status and roles, ality, and history, for instance, are necessarily internal to each of the above
Momsen and Townsend (1987) designate the following categories of analy- groups. Second, ideological differences in understandings of the social me-
sis: life expectancy, sex ratio, nutrition, fertility, income-generating activi- diate any assumption of a natural bond between women. After all, there is no
ties, education, and the new international division of labor. Of these, fertility logical and necessary connection between being female and becoming femi-
issues and Third World women's incorporation into multinational factoryem- nist.4 Finally, defining Third World women in terms of their "problems" or
ployment are identified as two of the most significant aspects of "women's their "achievements" in relation to an imagined free white liberal democracy
worlds" in Third World countries. effectively removes them (and the liberal democracy) from history, freezing
While such descriptive information is useful and necessary, these presum- them in time and space.
ably "objective" indicators by no means exhaust the meaning ofwomen's day- A number of scholars in the United States have written about the inher-
to-day lives. The everyday, fluid, fundamentally historical and dynamic nature ently political definition of the term "women of color" (a term often used
of the lives of Third World women is here collapsed into a few frozen "indi- interchangeably with "Third World women," as Iam doing here).5 This term
cators" of their well-being. Momsen and Townsend (1987) state that in fact designates a political constituency, not a biological or even sociological one.
fertility is the most studied aspect of women's lives in the Third World (36). It is a sociopolitical designation for people of African, Caribbean, Asian, and
This particular fact speaks volumes about the predominant representations Latin American descent, and native peoples of the United States. It also refers
of Third World women in social-scientific knowledge production. And our to "new immigrants" to the United States in the last three decades: Arab,
representations of Third World women circumscribe our understanding and Korean, Thai, Laotian, and so on. What seems to constitute "women of color"
analysis of feminism as well as of the daily struggles women engage in these or "Third World women" as a viable oppositional alliance is a common con-
circumstances. text of struggle rather than color or racial identifications. Similarly, it is Third
For instance, compare the analysis of fertility offered by Momsen and World women's oppositional political relation to sexist, racist, and imperial-
Townsend (as a social indicator of women's status) with the analysis of popu- ist structures that constitutes our potential commonality. Thus it is the com-
lation policy and discussions on sexuality among poor Brazilian women of- mon context of struggles against specific exploitative structures and systems
fered by Barroso and Bruschini (t 99 i). By analyzing the politics of family plan- that determines our potential political alliances. It is this common context of
ning in the context of the Brazilian women's movement, and examining the struggle, both historical and contemporary, that the next section charts and
way poor women build collective knowledge about sex education and sex- defines.
uality, Barroso and Bruschini link state policy and social movements with the
politics of everyday life, thus presenting us with a dynamic, historically spe-
Why Feminism?
cific view of the struggles of Brazilian women in the barrios. I address some
of these methodological questions in more detail later on. For the present, Before proceeding to consider the structural, historical parameters that
however, suffice it to say that our definitions, descriptions, and interpreta- lead to Third World women's particular politics, we should understand how
tions of Third World women's engagement with feminism must necessarily women in different sociocultural and historical locations formulate their re-
be simultaneously historically specific and dynamic, not frozen in time in the lation to feminism. The term "feminism" is itself questioned by many Third
form of a spectacle. World women. Feminist movements have been challenged on the grounds
Thus if the above "social indicators" are inadequate descriptions/inter- of cultural imperialism and of shortsightedness in defining the meaning of
48 Feminism without Borders 49 Cartographies of Struggle
gender in terms of middle-class, white experiences, internal racism, class. - how visibility/invisibility as women of color forms our radicalism;
ism, and homophobia. All of these factors, as well as the falsely homogeneous - the ways in which Third World women derive a feminist political theory
representation of the movement by the media, have led to a very real suspi- specifically from our racial/cultural background and experience;
cion of "feminism" as a productive ground for struggle. Nevertheless, Third - the destructive and demoralizing effects of racism in the women's move-
World women have always engaged with feminism, even if the label has been ment;
rejected in a number of instances. In the introduction to a collection of writ- - the cultural, class, and sexuality differences that divide women of color;
ings by black and Third World women in Britain (Charting the Journey, 1988), - Third World women's writing as a tool for self-preservation and revolu-
the editors are careful to focus on the contradictions, conflicts, and differ- tion; and
ences among black women, while emphasizing that the starting point for all - the ways and means of a Third World feminist future. (Moraga and Anzal-
contributors has been "the historical link between us of colonialism and im- dúa 1983, xxiv)
perialism" (Grewal et al. 1988, 6). The editors maintain that this book, the
A number of ideas central to Third World feminisms emerge from these two
first publication of its kind, is about the "idea of Blackness" in contemporary
passages. Aida Hurtado (1989) adds a further layer: in discussing the signifi-
Britain:
cance of the idea "the personal is political" to communities of white women
An idea as yet unmatured and inadequately defined, but proceeding along and women of color in the United States, she distinguishes between the rele-
its path in both "real" social life and in the collective awareness of many of vance of the public/private distinction for American white middle- and upper-
its subjects. Both as an idea and a process it is, inevitably, contradictory. class women, and working-class women and women of color who have always
Contradictory in its conceptualization because its linguistic expression is been subject to state intervention in their domestic lives:
defined in terms of colour, yet it is an idea transcendent of colour. Contra-
Women of Color have not had the benefit of the economic conditions that
dictory in its material movements because the unity of action, conscious
underlie the public/private distinction. Instead the political consciousness
or otherwise, of Asians, Latin Americans and Arabs, Caribbeans and Afri-
of women of Color stems from an awareness that the public is personally
cans, gives political expression to a common "colour," even as the State-
political. Welfare programs and policies have discouraged family life, ster-
created fissures ofethnicity threaten to engulf and overwhelm us in islands
ilization programs have restricted reproduction rights, government has
of cultural exclusivity. (i)
drafted and armed disproportionate numbers of people of Color to fight
This definition of the idea of "Blackness" in Britain, and of "the unity of its wars overseas, and locally, police forces and the criminal justice system
action" as the basis for black and Third World women's engagement with arrest and incarcerate disproportionate numbers of people of Color. There
feminist politics, echoes the idea of a common context of struggle. British is no such thing as a private sphere for people of Color except that which
colonialism and the migration of colonized populations to the "home coun- they manage to create and protect in an otherwise hostile environment.
try" form the common historical context for British Third World women, (Hurtado 1989, 849)
as do, for instance, contemporary struggles against racist immigration and
Hurtado introduces the contemporary liberal, capitalist state as a major actor
naturalization laws.6
and focus of activity for women of color in the United States. Her discus-
The text that corresponds to Charting the Journey in the U.S. context was
sion suggests that in fact, the politics of "personal life" may be differently
published a few years earlier, in 1981: This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radi-
defined for middle-class whites and for people of color!' Finally, Kumari Jaya-
cal Women of Color? In the introduction to this groundbreaking book, Cherrie
wardena, writing about feminist movements in Asia in the late nineteenth
Moraga and Gloria Anzaldúa delineate the major areas of concern fora broad-
and early twentieth centuries, defines feminism as "embracing movements
based political movement of U.S. Third World women:
for equality within the current system and significant struggles that have at-

5o Feminism without Borders 51 Cartographies of Struggle

tempted to change the system" (Jayawardena 1986, 2). She goes on to assert extend the freedoms in civil society through a politics of hegemony, those
that these movements arose in the context of the formulation and consolida- who stand at the intersection of consent and coercion should surely be our
tion of national identities that mobilized anti-imperialist movements during first constituency and guide— a yardstick to measure our politics by. How
independence struggles and the remaking of precapitalist religious and feu- do you extend a "politics of food" to the hungry, a "politics of the body"
dal structures in attempts to "modernize" Third World societies. Here again, to the homeless, a "politics of the family" for those without an income?
the common link between political struggles of women in India, Indonesia, How do any of these politics connect up with the Third World?. . . Class
and Korea, for instance, is the fight against racist, colonialist states and for cannot just be a matter of identity, it has to be the focus of commitment.
national independence. (Sivanandan 1990, 18-19)
To sum up, Third World women's writings on feminism have consistently
In foregrounding the need to build our politics around the struggles of the
focused on the idea of the simultaneity of oppressions as fundamental to the
most exploited peoples of the world, and in drawing attention to the impor-
experience of social and political marginality and the grounding of feminist
tance of a materialist definition of class in opposition to identity based social
politics in the histories of racism and imperialism; the crucial role of a hege-
movements and discourses, Sivanandan underscores both the significance
monic state in circumscribing their/our daily lives and survival struggles; the
and the difficulty of rewriting counterhegemonic histories. His analysis ques-
significance of memory and writing in the creation of oppositional agency;
tions the contemporary identity-based philosophy of social movements that
and the differences, conflicts, and contradictions internal to Third World
define "discourse" as an adequate terrain of struggle. While discursive cate-
women's organizations and communities. In addition, they have insisted on gories are clearly central sites of political contestation, they must be grounded
the complex interrelationships between feminist, antiracist, and nationalist in and informed by the material politics of everyday life, especially the daily
struggles. In fact, the challenge of Third World feminisms to white, West- life struggles for survival of poor people—those written out of history.
ern feminisms has been precisely this inescapable link between feminist and But how do we attempt such a history based on our limited knowledges?
political liberation movements. In fact, black, white, and other Third World After all, it is primarily in the last two or three decades that Third World his-
women have very different histories with respect to the particular inheri- torians have begun to reexamine and rewrite the history of slavery and colo-
tance of post-fifteenth-century Euro-American hegemony: the inheritance of nialism from oppositional locations. The next section sketches preliminary
slavery, enforced migration, plantation and indentured labor, colonialism, contexts for feminist analysis within the framework of the intersecting histo-
imperial conquest, and genocide. Thus, Third World feminists have argued ries of race, colonialism, and capitalism. It offers methodological suggestions
for the rewriting of history based on the specific locations and histories of for feminist analysis, without attempting definitive answers or even a com-
struggle of people of color and postcolonial peoples, and on the day-to-day prehensive accounting of the emergence of Third World women's struggles.
strategies of survival utilized by such peoples. It also addresses, very briefly, issues of experience, identity, and agency, focus-
The urgency of rewriting and rethinking these histories and struggles is ing especially on the significance of writing for Third World feminists—the
suggested by A. Sivanandan in his searing critique of the identity politics of significance of producing knowledge for ourselves.
the 198os social movements in Britain, which, he argues, leads to a flight
from class:
History, the State, and Relations of Rule
For [the poor, the black, the unemployed] the distinction between the
mailed fist and the velvet glove is a stylistic abstraction, the defining limit Do Third World feminisms share a history? Surely the rise of the post-
between consent and force a middle-class fabrication. Black youth in the independence women's movement in India is historically different from the
inner cities know only the blunt force of the state, those on income support emerging feminist politics in the United Kingdom or the United States. The
have it translated for them in a thousand not so subtle ways. If we are to major analytic difference in the writings on the emergence of white, Western,

52 Feminism without Borders 53 Cartographies of Struggle

middle-class liberal feminism and the feminist politics of women of color struggle (the feminist part) and omit any discussion of the racial consolida-
in the United States is the contrast between a singular focus on gender asa tion of the struggle (the white part). The best histories and analyses of the
basis for sexual rights and a focus on gender in relation to race and/or class as second wave of U.S. white feminism address the construction of whiteness
part of a broader liberation struggle. Often the singular focus of the former in relation to the construction of a politicized gender consciousness.9 Thus,
takes the form of definitions of femininity and sexuality in relation to men it is not just Third World women who are or should be concerned about race,
(specifically white privileged men). Hurtado's (1989) analysis of the effects just as feminism is not just the purview of women (but of women and men).
of the different relationships of white middle- and upper-class women and Above all, gender and race are relational terms: they foreground a relation-
working-class women and women of color to privileged white men is rele- ship (and often a hierarchy) between races and genders. To define feminism
vant here in understanding the conditions of possibility of this singular focus purely in gendered terms assumes that our consciousness of being "women"
on gender. Hurtado argues that it is the (familial) closeness of white (hetero- has nothing to do with race, class, nation, or sexuality, just with gender. But no
sexual) women to white men and the corresponding social distance ofwomen one "becomes a woman" (in Simone de Beauvoir's sense) purely because she
of color from white men that lead to the particular historical focus of white is female. Ideologies of womanhood have as much to do with class and race
women's feminist movements. Since the relationships of women of color to as they have to do with sex. Thus, during the period of American slavery, con-
white men are usually mediated by state institutions, they can never define structions of white womanhood as chaste, domesticated, and morally pure
feminist politics without accounting for this mediation. For example, in the had everything to do with corresponding constructions of black slave women
arena of reproductive rights, because of the race- and class-based history of as promiscuous, available plantation workers. It is the intersections of the
population control and sterilization abuse, women of color have a clearly am- various systemic networks of class, race, (hetero)sexuality, and nation, then,
bivalent relation to the abortion rights platform. For poor women of color, the that position us as "women." Herein lies a fundamental challenge for femi-
notion of a "woman's right to choose" to bear children has always been me- nist analysis once it takes seriously the location and struggles of Third World
diated by a coercive, racist state. Thus, abortion rights defined as a woman's women, and this challenge has implications for the rewriting ofall hegemonic
right versus men's familial control can never be the only basis of feminist history, not just the history of people of color.
coalitions across race and class lines. For many women of color, reproduc- The notion of an interdependent relationship between theory, history, and
tive rights conceived in its broadest form, in terms of familial male/female struggle is not new. What I want to emphasize, however, is the urgent need
relationships, but also, more significantly, in terms of institutional relation- for us to appreciate and understand the complex relationality that shapes
ships and state policies, must be the basis for such coalitions. Thus, in this our social and political lives. First and foremost this suggests relations of
instance, gender defined as male/female domestic relations cannot be a sin- power, which anchor the "common differences" between and among the
gular focus for feminists of color. However, while Hurtado's suggestion may feminist politics of different constituencies of women and men. The relations
explain partially the exclusive focus on gender relationships in (heterosexual) of power I am referring to are not reducible to binary oppositions or oppres-
white women's movements, this still does not mean that this unitary concep- sor/oppressed relations. I want to suggest that it is possible to retain the idea
tualization of gender is an adequate ground for struggle for white middle- of multiple, fluid structures of domination that intersect to locate women dif-
and upper-class feminists. ferently at particular historical conjunctures, while insisting on the dynamic
In fact, in terms of context, the history of white feminism is not very dif- oppositional agency of individuals and collectives and their engagement in
ferent from the history of the feminisms of Third World women: all of these "daily life." It is this focus on dynamic oppositional agency that clarifies the
varied histories emerge in relation to other struggles. Rich, layered histories intricate connection between systemic relationships and the directionality of
of the second wave of white feminism in the United States incorporate its power. In other words, systems of racial, class, and gender domination do not
origins in the civil rights and new left movements. However, often in discuss- have identical effects on women in Third World contexts. However, systems
ing such origins, feminist historians focus on "gender" as the sole basis of of domination operate through the setting up of (in Dorothy Smith's terms)

54 Feminism without Borders 55 Cartographies of Struggle

particular, historically specific "relations of ruling" (Smith 1987, 2). It is aube possible an analysis that examines, for instance, the very forms of colonial-
intersections of these relations of ruling that Third World feminist struggles ism and racism, rather than one that assumes or posits unitary definitions of
are positioned. ft is also by understanding these intersections that we can at- them. I think this concept could lead us out of the binary, often ahistorical
tempt to explore questions of consciousness and agency without naturalizing binds of gender, race, and class analyses.
either individuals or structures. Thus I use Dorothy Smith's definition of relations of rule to suggest
Dorothy Smith introduces the concept of relations of ruling while arguing multiple contexts for the emergence of contemporary Third World feminist
fora feminist sociology that challenges the assumed coincidence of the stand- struggles. I discuss the following socioeconomic, political, and discursive
point of men and the standpoint of ruling by positing "the everyday worlds configurations: (i) colonialism, class, and gender, (2) the state, citizenship,
problematic": and racial formation, (3) multinational production and social agency, (4) an-
thropology and the Third World woman as "native," and (5) consciousness,
"Relations of ruling" is a concept that grasps power, organization, direc-
identity, and writing. The first three configurations focus on state rule at par-
tion, and regulation as more pervasively structured than can be expressed
ticular historical junctures, identifying historically specific political and eco-
in traditional concepts provided by the discourses of power. I have come
nomic shifts such as decolonization and the rise of national liberation move-
to see a specific interrelation between the dynamic advance of the distinc-
ments; the constitution of white, capitalist states through a liberal gender
tive forms of organizing and ruling contemporary capitalist society and
regime and racialized immigration and naturalization laws; and the consoli-
the patriarchal forms of our contemporary experience. When I write of
dation of a multinational economy as both continuous and discontinuous
"ruling" in this context Iam identifying a complex of organized practices,
with territorial colonization. I want to suggest that these shifts, in part, consti-
including government, law, business and financial management, profes-
tute the conditions of possibility for Third World women's engagement with
sional organization, and educational institutions as well as discourses in
feminism. The fourth configuration identifies one hegemonic mode of dis-
texts that interpenetrate the multiple sites of power. (Smith 1987, 3)
cursive colonization of Third World women, anthropology, and outlines the
Although Smith's analysis pertains specifically to Western (white) capitalist contours ofacademic, disciplinary knowledge practices as a particular form of
patriarchies, I find her conceptualization of "relations of ruling" a significant rule which scholarly Third World feminist praxis attempts to understand and
theoretical and methodological development, which can be used to advan- take apart. The last configuration briefly introduces the question of opposi-
tage in specifying the relations between the organization and experience of tional practice, memory, and writing as a crucial aspect of the creation of self-
sexual politics and the concrete historical and political forms of colonialism, knowledges for Third World feminists. The first two are developed in more
imperialism, racism, and capitalism. Smith's concept of relations of ruling detail than the last three, and all the configurations are intentionally provi-
foregrounds forms of knowledge and organized practices and institutions, as sional. My aim is to suggest ways of making connections and asking better
well as questions of consciousness, and agency. Rather than posit any simple questions rather than to provide a complete theory or history of Third World
relation of colonizer and colonized, or capitalist and worker, the concept "re- women's engagement with feminisms.
lations of ruling" posits multiple intersections of structures of power and em-
phasizes the process or form of ruling, not the frozen embodiment of it (as, COLONIALISM, CLASS, GENDER

for instance, in the notion of "social indicators" ofwomen's status), as a focus

The case might be argued that imperial culture exercised its power not so much
for feminist analysis. In fact, I think this concept makes possible an analy-
through physical coercion, which was relatively minimal though always a threat,
sis that takes seriously the idea of simultaneous and historicized exploitation
but through its cognitive dimension: its comprehensive symbolic order which con-
of Third World women without suggesting an arithmetic or even a geomet-
stituted permissible thinking and action and prevented other worlds from emerg-
ric analysis of gender, race, sexuality, and class (which are inadequate in the
ing.—Helen Callaway, Gender, Culture, and Empire
long run). By emphasizing the practices of ruling (or domination), it makes

56 Feminism without Borders 57 Cartographies of Struggle

 The history of feminism in India . . . is inseparable from the history of antifemi- as integral to the maintenance of colonial rule, the British defined authority
nism. — Kumkum Sangari and Sudesh vaid, Recasting Women and legitimacy through the difference rather than commonality of rulers
and "natives." This, in turn, consolidated a particular, historically specific
Colonial states and imperial cultures in the nineteenth century were con-
notion of the imperial ruler as a white, masculine, self-disciplined protector
solidated through specific relations of ruling involving forms of knowledge
of women and morals.
and institutions of sexual, racial, and caste/class regulation —institutions,
In recent years, feminist scholars have examined the constitution of this
which, in turn, solicited their own modes of individual and collective resis-
imperial (white) masculine self in the project of Western colonialism. The in-
tance. Here, I briefly discuss the following symptomatic aspects of the opera-
stitutions of direct control of colonial rule—the military, the judiciary, and,
tion of imperial rule: (T) the ideological construction and consolidation of
most important, the administrative service—have always been overwhelm-
white masculinity as normative and the corresponding racialization and sexu-
ingly masculine. White men in colonial service embodied rule by literally and
alization of colonized peoples; (2) the effects of colonial institutions and poli-
symbolically representing the power of the empire. There was no work/leisure
cies in transforming indigenous patriarchies and consolidating hegemonic
distinction for colonial officers; they were uniformed and "on duty" at all
middle-class cultures in metropolitan and colonized areas; and (3) the rise
times. As Helen Callaway (1987) states in her study of European women in
of feminist politics and consciousness in this historical context within and
colonial Nigeria, white women did not travel to the colonies until much later,
against the framework of national liberation movements. I draw on British
and then too they were seen as "subordinate and unnecessary appendages,"
colonial rule partly because it is impossible to make generalizations about
not as rulers (6). Thus, the British colonial state established a particular form
all colonial cultures, but mainly because I am interested in providing an ex-
of rule through the bureaucratization of gender and race specifically in terms
ample of a historically specific context for the emergence of feminist politics
of the institution of colonial service. This particular ruling apparatus made
(in this case, to a large extent, I draw on material about India) rather than in
certain relations and behaviors visible, for instance, the boundaries of the
claiming a singular history for the emergence of feminisms in Third World
relations between white men in the colonial bureaucracy and "native" men
contexts. However, I believe this analysis suggests methodological directions
and women, and the behavior of imperial rulers who seemed to "rule with-
for feminist analysis that are not limited to the British-Indian context.
out actually exerting power." 1° Thus, the embodiment of the power of em-
Dorothy Smith describes the ruling apparatus in this way:
pire by officers in colonial service led to particular relations of rule and forms
The ruling apparatus is that familiar complex of ma nagement, government of knowledge. This was accomplished through the creation of the "English
administration, professions, and intelligentsia, as well as the textually me- gentleman" as the natural and legitimate ruler— a creation based on a belief
diated discourses that coordinate and interpenetrate it. Its special capacity system that drew on social Darwinism, evolutionary anthropology, chivalry
is the organization of particular places, persons, and events into general- myths, Christianity, medical and "scientific" treatises, and the literary tradi-
ized and abstracted modes vested in categorical systems, rules, laws, and tion of empire.
conceptual practices. The former thereby become subject to an abstracted Institutionally, colonial rule operated by setting up visible, rigid, and hier-
and universalized system of ruling mediated by texts. (Smith 5987, 1o8) archical distinctions between the colonizers and the colonized. The physical
and symbolic separation of the races was deemed necessary to maintain social
Smith is referring to a capitalist ruling apparatus, but the idea of abstract-
distance and authority over subject peoples. In effect, the physical details (e.g.,
ing particular places, people, and events into generalized categories, laws,
racial and sexual separation) of colonial settings were transmuted to a moral
and policies is fundamental to any form of ruling. It is in this very process
plane: the ideal imperial agent embodied authority, discipline, fidelity, devo-
of abstraction that the colonial state legislates racial, sexual, and class/caste
tion, fortitude, and self-sacrifice. This definition of white men as "naturally"
ideologies. For instance, in drawing racial, sexual, and class boundaries in
born to rule is grounded in a discourse of race and sexuality that necessarily
terms of social, spatial, and symbolic distance, and actually formulating these
defined colonized peoples, men and women, as incapable of self-government.
58 Feminism without Borders 59 Cartographies of Struggle
 The maintenance of strong sexual and racial boundaries was thus essential traction. And they did this by institutionalizing ideologies and knowledges
to the distinctions that were made between "legitimate rulers" and "childlike that legitimated these practices of ruling. Clearly, one such form of knowl-
subjects." These boundaries were evident in the explicit and implicit regu- edge fundamental to colonial rule in Asia, Africa, and Latin America was/is
lation against the intermingling of the races in colonized countries as well the discourse of race and racism.11 Racism in the context of colonialism and
as, for instance, in another, very different colonial context, in the miscegena- imperialism takes the form of simultaneous naturalization and abstraction.
tion laws of American plantation slavery. South African apartheid was also It works by erasing the economic, political, and historical exigencies that ne-
founded on the delineation of these kinds of boundaries. cessitate the essentialist discourse of race as a way to legitimate imperialism
In 1909 a confidential circular was issued by Lord Crewe to colonialists in the first place. The effects of this discourse, specifically its enforcement
in Africa. This circular, which became known as the "Concubinage Circular," through the coercive institutions of colonial rule (e.g., police and legal sys-
stated moral objections to officers' consorting with native women, claim- tems), has been documented bya numberof Third World intellectuals, includ-
ing that this practice diminished the authority of colonials in the eyes of the ing Frantz Fanon, Albert Memmi, W. E. B. Du Bois, and Zora Neale Hurston.
natives, thus lowering their effectiveness as administrators (Callaway 1987). But colonial rule did not operate purely at the level of discourse. All forms
The last copy of this circular was destroyed in 1945, but its contents were kept of ruling operate by constructing, and consolidating as well as transforming,
alive as folklore, as unwritten rules of conduct. Here is an excellent example of already existing social inequalities. In addition to the construction of hege-
the bureaucratization of gender and race through a particular form of colonial monic masculin i ties as a form of state rule, the colonial state also transformed
rule. The circular constructs and regulates a specific masculinity of rulers—a existing patriarchies and caste/class hierarchies.
masculinity defined in relation to "native women" (forbidden sexuality) and to Historians and critics have examined the operation of colonial rule at the
"native men" (the real object of British rule). Furthermore, it is a masculinity level of institutional practices, policies, and laws. There are numerous studies
also defined in relation to white women, who, as the real consorts of colonial on the effect of colonial policies on existing sexual divisions of labor, or on
officers, supposedly legitimate and temper the officers' authority as admin- sexually egalitarian relations.12 One of the best analyses of the relation of
istrators (rulers) capable of restraint and also form the basis of the Victorian caste/class hierarchies to patriarchies under British colonialism is offered by
code of morality. KumKum Sangari and Sudesh Vaid in their introduction to a book of essays
"‘ The effect of the consolidation of this bureaucratic masculinity was of on Indian colonial and postcolonial history (1989, 1-26).13 Sangari and Vaid
course not necessarily restraint. Sexual encounters between white men and begin by stating that patriarchies are not systems that are added on to class
native women often took the form of rape. This racialized, violent masculinity and caste but are intrinsic to the very formation of and transformations within
was in fact the underside of the sanctioned mode of colonial rule. In fact, these categories. In other words, they establish a dynamic, necessary relation
it is only in the last two decades that racialized sexual violence has emerged between understandings of class/caste and patriarchies under British rule. An
as an important paradigm or trope of colonial rule. Jacqui Alexander argues example of this is a rich analysis of colonial regulation of agrarian relations.
this point in a different postcolonial context, Trinidad and Tobago. Her analy- Analysis ofagrarian regulations usually focuses on the construction, trans-
sis (1991) of the racialized construction of masculinity, in part through state formation, and management of class/caste relations. However, by drawing on
legislation in the form of the Sexual Offences Bill, substantiates the historical essays that analyze British intervention (rules and laws) in land settlements
continuity between colonial and postcolonial tropes of (hetero)sexuality and as well as in local patriarchal practices, Sangari and Vaid are able to point to
conjugal relations. Similarly, Angela Gilliam's discussion in her essay (1990 the effect of agrarian regulation on the process of the restructuring and re-
on rape and the issue of sex/color lines in Latin America specifies the relation constitution of patriarchies across class/caste hierarchies. For instance, some
of racialized violent masculinity to the class/gender system. of the effects of colonial policies and regulations are the reempowering of
Thus colonial states created racially and sexually differentiated classes con- landholding groups, the granting of property rights to men, the exclusion of
ducive to a ruling process fundamentally grounded in economic surplus ex- women from ownership, and the "freezing" of patriarchal practices of mar-

6o Feminism without Borders 6x Cartographies of Struggle

Mage, succession, and adoption into laws. The cumulative effect of these par- Another effect of British colonial rule in India was the consolidation of
ticular institutions of colonial rule is thus, at least partially, an aggravation of public and private spheres of the Indian middle class in the nineteenth cen-
existing inequalities as well as the creation of "new" ones. tury, a process that involved a definite project of sexualization. In their intro-
The complex relationship between the economic interests of the colo- duction, Sangari and Vaid (1989, 1-26) draw on the work of Partha Chat-
nial state and gender relations in rural Indian society are examined by Prem terjee and Sumanta Banerjee to discuss the creation of the middle-class
Chowdhry (in Sangari and Vaid 1989). Writing about colonial Haryana (then in "private" sphere of the Bhadralok. The Bhadralok notion of middle-class
the province of Punjab), Chowdhry demonstrates how the "apparent contra- Indian womanhood draws on Victorian ideas of the purity and homebound
diction in the coexistence of indices of high status and low status" for Harya- nature of women but is specifically constructed in opposition to both West-
navi peasant women is explainable in terms of the agrarian political economy. ern materialism and lower-caste/class sexual norms. For instance, the process
Peasant women were much sought after as partners in agricultural labor, and of the "purification" of the vernacular language in the early nineteenth cen-
physically strong women were much in demand as brides. Scriptural sanc- tury was seen as simultaneous Sanskritization and Anglicization. Similarly,
tions against widow remarriage were, understandably, generally disregarded; nineteenth-century versions of female emancipation arose through the con-
indeed, such remarriage was encouraged by custom and folk proverbs. But struction of middle-class Indian womanhood and were inextricably tied to
since widows could inherit their husband's property, there was considerable national regeneration. Sangari and Vaid maintain that the formation of de-
restriction placed on whom they could marry. The primary interest was in re- sired notions of spirituality (caste/class-related) and of womanhood (gender-
taining the land in the family, and thus male elders circumvented the law by related) is part of the formation of the middle class itself.
forcing them to remarry within the family (a practice known as karewa). This, then, is the historical context in which middle-class Indian feminist
The colonial state, which had an economic interest in seeing landholdings struggles arise: nationalist struggles against an imperial state, religious re-
stable (to ensure revenue collection), actively discouraged unmarried widows form and "modernization" of the Indian bourgeoisie, and the consolidation of
from partitioning landholdings. It even strengthened karewa, ostensibly in an Indian middle class poised to take over as rulers. In fact it is Indian middle-
the name of the avowed policy of "preserv[ing the] village community" and class men who are key players in the emergence of "the woman question"
the "cohering [of] tribes." Even when the patriarchal custom was challenged within Indian nationalist struggles. Male-led social reform movements were
legally by the widows themselves, the colonial state sanctified the custom by thus preoccupied with legislating and regulating the sexuality of middle-class
depending on a "general code of tribal custom." The official British argu- women, and selectively encouraging women's entry into the public sphere, by
ment was that although this was a "system of polyandry[J . . . probably the instituting modes of surveillance that in turn controlled women's entry into
first stage in development of a savage people after they have emerged from the labor force and into politics. This particular configuration also throws
a mere animal condition of promiscuity" (Rohtak District Gazetteer, quoted in up the question of the collusion of colonialist and nationalist discourses in
Chowdhry 1989, 317), the rural population of Haryana itself did not follow constructions of Indian middle-class womanhood.
either the Hindu or the Muslim law and should therefore be allowed to deter- The early history of the emergence of women's struggles in India thus en-
mine "its" own customs. But the catch was that these customs were complied capsulates tensions between progressive and conservative ideas and actions.
with and codified (as Chowdhry points out) "in consultation with the village After all, histories of feminism also document histories of domination and
headmen of each landowning tribe in the district, these being acknowledg- oppression. No noncontradictory or "pure" feminism is possible. In India, the
edly 'men of most influential families in the village'" (317). Thus patriarchal middle-class women's movement essentially attempted to modernize earlier
practices were shaped to serve the economic interests of both the landowning patriarchal regulation of women and pave the way for middle-class women
classes and the colonial state; even the seemingly progressive customs such as to enter the professions and participate in political movements. On the other
widow remarriage had their limits determined within this gendered political hand, what Sangari and Vaid call "democratizing" women's movements fo-
economy." cused on gender equality in the home and workplace and questioned both

62 Feminism without Borders 63 Cartographies of Struggle

feudal and colonial structures but were nevertheless partially tied to middle- of labor whereby (white) masculinity was inseparable from social authority
class familial ideologies and agendas as well as to feudal patriarchal norms. and masculine adventure was followed by masculinized rule, the notion of
This formulation is of course a partial one and illustrates one mode of exam- citizenship created by bourgeois liberal capitalism is predicated on an imper-
ining the relations of colonialism, class, and gender as a significant context sonal bureaucracy and a hegemonic masculinity organized around the themes
for the emergence of the organized struggles of, in this case, Indian women of rationality, calculation, and orderliness. Thus, Connell argues, contempo-
against a racist, paternal, imperial state (Britain) and a paternal, middle-class, rary liberal notions of citizenship are constitutively dependent on and sup-
national liberation movement. ported by the idea of the patriarchal household, and formulated around the
In outlining the operation of relations of ruling at this historical moment, notion of a "rationalized" hegemonic masculinity (in contrast to the violent
Iam attempting to suggest a way of understanding and a mode of feminist in- masculinity of colonial rule or of the military). This rationalized masculinity is
quiry that is grounded in the relations among gender, race, class, and sexuality evident in the bureaucratic sexual division of labor of people employed by the
at a particular historical moment. Feminist struggles are waged on at least state: 8o to go percent of the political elite, civil service bureaucracy (railways,
two simultaneous, interconnected levels: an ideological, discursive level that maritime services, power, and construction), judiciary, and military are male,
addresses questions of representation (womanhood/femininity), and a ma- while women are overwhelmingly employed in the human services (education,
terial, experiential, daily-life level that focuses on the micropolitics of work, nursing, social work, etc.) and secretarial arms of the state.
home, family, sexuality, and so on. Colonial relations of rule form the back- Besides instituting this particular gender regime, the state also regulates
drop for feminist critiques at both levels, and it is the notion of the practice gender and sexual relations by instituting policies pertaining to the family,
of ruling that may allow for an understanding of the contradictory sex, race, population, labor force and labor management, housing, sexual behavior and
class, and caste positioning of Third World women in relation to the state, expression, provision of child care and education, taxation and income redis-
and thus may suggest ways of formulating historically the location of Third tribution, and the creation and use of military forces.
World women's feminist struggles. However, to return to Connell, this complex analysis of the gender and
sexualized regime of the state excludes any discussion of racial formation.
THE STATE, CITIZENSHIP, AND RACIAL FORMATION Thus, Connell provides at best a partial analysis of citizenship. White liberal
Unlike the colonial state, the gender and racial regimes of contemporary capitalist patriarchies have always been the focus of feminist resistance. But
liberal capitalist states operate through the ostensibly "unmarked" discourses to fully appreciate and mobilize against the oppressive rule of this state, the
of citizenship and individual rights. In contrast to the visible racialized mas- relations of rule of the state must be understood and analyzed in terms of
culinity of nineteenth- and early twentieth-century territorialist imperialism, gender, class, and sexual as well as racial formation. In fact, this is essential
white capitalist patriarchies institute relations of rule based on a liberal citi- if we are to explain why the state is a significant nexus for the mobilization
zenship model with its own forms of knowledge and impersonal bureau- of feminist constituencies in overwhelmingly racialized cultures.
cracies. According to R. W. Connell, the contemporary Euro-American state A conceptualization of race and racism is thus essential to any contem-
operates through the setting up of a "gender regime": a regime whereby the porary discussion of feminist politics in, for instance, the United States and
state is the primary organizer of the power relations of gender» In other Britain. In the U.S. context, Elizabeth Higginbotham (1983) defines racism as
words, the state delimits the boundaries of personal/domestic violence, pro- an ideology within which people of color in the United States have to live. It is
tects property, criminalizes "deviant" and "stigmatized" sexuality, embodies an ideology that legitimates the exclusion of nonwhite people from particu-
masculinized hierarchies (e.g., the gendered bureaucracy of state personnel), lar areas of social and economic life, simultaneously promoting a tolerance
structures collective violence in the police force, prisons, and wars, and some- of these inequities on the part of the ruling class. In effect, at the economic
times allows or even invites the countermobilization of power. level, the definition of labor ("free" vs. "slave"), the differential allocation of
While imperial rule was constructed on the basis of a sharp sexual division workers, the composition of the "underclass" and "welfare recipients," are

64 Feminism without Borders 65 Cartographies of Struggle

all constitutively dependent on race as an organizing principle. In addition, capitalist neocolonialism, and, more recently, monopoly and multinational
race is a primary consideration in the definition of ideas of "citizenship" and capitalism. Thus, racism is often the product of a colonial situation, although
the regulation of these through immigration and naturalization laws. Draw- it is not limited to it. Blacks and Latinos in the United States, Asians and West
ing on three specific contexts, the United States, Britain, and South Africa, Indians in Britain, and North Africans in France, all share similarly oppressive
Higginbotham's discussion briefly delineates the relations of rule of the state conditions and the status of second-class citizens.
and racial formation through immigration and nationality laws. Her analy- A comparison of the history of the immigration of white people and of the
sis of historicized ideologies of gendered and racialized citizenship in these corresponding history of slavery and indentured labor of people of color in the
countries illustrates a particular form of rule of contemporary (white) capi- United States indicates a clear pattern of racialization tied to the ideological
talist states and, taken in conjunction with Connell's discussion of the state and economic exigencies of the state. White men were considered "free labor"
as the arbiter of patriarchies, simultaneously defines an important context for and could take a variety of jobs. At the same time, black men and women
contemporary Third World feminist struggles. Higginbotham's discussion is were used as slave labor to develop the agriculture of the South, and Mexican-
thus an extension of the earlier discussion of Connell's argument regarding Americans were (and still are) paid much lower wages than whites for their
the gender regime of the state. work in mines, railroads, lumber camps, oil extraction, and agriculture in
Historically, (white) feminist movements in the West have rarely engaged the Southwest. These relations of inequality are the context for the entry of
questions of immigration and nationality (one exception is Britain, which has women of color into the U.S. labor force—usually in domestic or laundry
a long history of black feminist organizing around such issues). In any event, work, or labor in the fields. In part it is this history of low-wage, exploitative
I would like to suggest that analytically these issues are the contemporary occupations that have been the lot of U.S. Third World women and that con-
metropolitan counterpart of women's struggles against colonial occupation tributes to the racist definitions they must endure vis-à-vis a dominant white,
in the geographical Third World. In effect, the construction of immigration middle-class, professional culture.
and nationality laws, and thus ofappropriate racialized, gendered citizenship, In effect, then, citizenship and immigration laws are fundamentally about
illustrates the continuity between relationships of colonization and white, defining insiders and outsiders. The U.S. Naturalization Law of 1790, the
masculinist, capitalist state rule. state's original attempt to define citizenship, maintained that only free,
In an important study of U.S. racial trajectories, Michael Omi and Howard "white" immigrants could qualify. It took the Walter-McCarran Act of 1952
Winant16 introduce the idea of "racial formation," which "referts) to the pro- to grant Japanese Americans U.S. citizenship. Racial categorization has re-
cess by which social, economic and political forces determine the content and mained very fluid and dependent on labor needs throughout the nineteenth
importance of racial categories, and by which they are in turn shaped by racial and twentieth centuries. For instance, in the nineteenth century there were
meanings" (Omi and Winant 1986, 61). Omi and Winant maintain that in the three racial categories: white, Negro, and Indian. Mexicans were legally ac-
contemporary United States, race is one of the central axes of understand- corded the status of "free white persons" after the 1848 treaty of Guadalupe
ing the world. Particular racial myths and stereotypes change, but the under- Hidalgo, while the California supreme court ruled in 1854 that the Chinese,
lying presence of a racial meaning system seems to be an anchoring point of who were a major source of cheap labor on the west coast, were to be consid-
American culture. While racial formation is a matter of the dynamic between ered "Indian" (Omi and Winant 1986, 79.
individual identities and collective social structures, the racial parameters of The most extensive work on feminism and racial formation in the U.S. con-
the United States include citizenship and naturalization laws, and social and cerns black-white relations and history. In fact, the recent historiography on
welfare policies and practices that often arise as a response to oppositional slavery and contemporary black feminist thought is one of the most exciting,
movements. Historically, citizenship and immigration laws and social poli- insightful, and well-documented fields in feminist and antiracist scholarship.
cies have always been connected to economic agendas and to the search for Historians such as Eugene Genovese (1979), Elizabeth Fox-Genovese (1988),
cheap labor. These state practices are anchored in the institutions of slavery, John Blassingame (1979), Paula Giddings (1984), and Jacqueline Jones (1985)

66 Feminism without Borders 67 Cartographies of Struggle

and critics such as bell hooks (1984, 1988), Hortense Spillers (1987), Judith naturalization was denied to all Asians from 1924 to 1943. Beginning in 1943,
Rollins (1987), and Audre Lorde (1984) laid down the groundwork with their and until the mid-1960s, when immigration laws were liberalized, the state
analyses of the intersection of racial formations with sexual, class, and eco- instituted a quota system for Asian immigrants. Quotas were available only
nomic structures (see also Okihiro 1986). Instead of summarizing theirwork, for professionals with postsecondary education, technical training, and spe-
I would like to look closely at a different context of racialization in the United cialized experience. Thus, the replacement of the "yellow peril" stereotype by
States: the history of immigration and naturalization, which parallels the pro- a "model minority" stereotype is linked to a particular history of immigration
cess of racialization that has occurred through the history of slavery and civil laws that are anchored in the economic exigencies of the state and systemic
rights (black-white relations). Some of the history of slavery and contempo- inequalities.
rary racism in the United States is encapsulated by Barbara Smith (1983). In In the contemporary American context, the black-white line is rigidly en-
analyzing the representation of black lesbians in the work of Alice Walker, forced. This is evident in the 198os legal cases on affirmative action, where
Gloria Naylor, and Audre Lorde, Smith reads against the grain of both racist, the basis for affirmative action as a form of collective retribution has been
patriarchal texts and the texts of black feminists, discussing in some detail challenged on grounds of "reverse discrimination," an argument based on
historical constructions of black womanhood, specifically the conjuncture of individual rather than collective demands. These arguments have been made
racist and heterosexist characterizations of black women. and upheld in spite of the ostensibly liberal, pluralist claims of the American
A chronological listing of the U.S. Exclusion Acts illustrates the inter- state.18 On the other hand, racial categorization in Brazil varies along a black-
section of morality and race, class, gender, and sexuality in the construc- white color continuum which signifies status and privilege differences. Simi-
tion of Asian peoples as the "yellow peril."17 It was the 1870 hearings on larly, in South Africa under apartheid, Chinese people had the same status as
Chinese prostitution that led to "An Act to Prevent the Kidnapping and Im- Asians (or "coloreds"), while Japanese were referred to as "honorary whites."
portation of Mongolian, Chinese, and Japanese Females for Criminal and Orni and Winant's (1986) notion of racial formation allows us to account for
Demoralizing Purposes." This act granted immigration officers the right to the historical determinants of these ideological definitions of race.
determine if women who chose to immigrate were "persons of correct habits The most developed discussion of the state's regulation of Third World
and good character." It also assumed that all "Oriental women" wanting to peoples through immigration and naturalization laws can be found in the
immigrate would engage in "criminal and demoralizing acts." While the gen- United Kingdom. Third World feminists in Britain position the racist state as
eral purpose of the exclusion acts is clear— to keep Asians (and possibly other a primary focus of struggle. British nationality and immigration laws define
non-European "foreigners") out— the focus on defining the morality of Asian and construct "legitimate" citizenship—an idea that is constitutively racial-
women as a basis for entry into the country indicates the (hetero)sexism and ized and gender-based. Beginning in the 1950s, British immigration laws were
racism underlying U.S. immigration and naturalization laws. The purpose of written to prevent black people (Commonwealth citizens from Africa, Asia,
the prostitution acts may well be different from that of the exclusion acts. the Far East, Cyprus, and the Caribbean) from entering Britain, thus making
However, both are fundamentally anchored in definitions of gender, race, and the idea of citizenship meaningless. These laws were entirely constructed
sexuality. The ideological definition of women's morality thus has significant around a racist, classist ideology of a patriarchal nuclear family, where women
material effects in this situation. are never accorded subject status but are always assumed to be legal append-
The first law explicitly based on nationality was the 1882 Chinese Act. ages of men.19 For instance, the 1968 Commonwealth Immigrants Act, in
Following this act were the 1907 Gentlemen's Agreement, which curtailed which ancestry was decisive, permitted only black men with work permits to
Japanese and Korean immigration; a 1917 act that restricted Asian Indian enter Britain and assumed that men who were the "heads of families" could
immigration; the 1924 Oriental Exclusion Act, which terminated all labor im- send for their "wives," but not viceversa. The focus on familial configurations
migration from mainland Asia; and the 1934 Tydings-McDuffie Act, which also indicates the implicit heterosexual assumptions written into these laws.
restricted Filipino immigration to the United States. Citizenship through Women can be defined only in relation to men and through the heterosexual

68 Feminism without Borders 69 Cartographies of Struggle

nuclear family model. Similarly, the 1981 British Nationality Act translated of a Black underclass, so systemic as to guarantee that the White working class
immigration legislation into nationality law whereby three new kinds of race- will continue to remain a race for itself, so holistic as to ensure that the color
and gender-specific citizenships were created: British citizenship, dependent line is the power line is the poverty line" (Sivanandan 1981, 300). Sivanandan's
territories citizenship, and British overseas citizenship. equation of the color line with the power line with the poverty line20 encap-
The effects of this act on women's citizenship were substantial: it took sulates the contours of racial formation under apartheid, and it is this context
away the automatic right of women married to British men to register as citi- that determined the particular emergence of the struggles of South African
zens; it disenfranchised all children born in Britain who were originally en- women: struggles around racial, political, and economic liberation, work, do-
titled to automatic citizenship (children were entitled to citizenship only if mestic life, housing, food, and land rights. Racist ideology has the hegemonic
one of their parents was born or settled in Britain); and it allowed British capacity to define the terms whereby people understand themselves and their
women to pass on citizenship to children born abroad for the first time in world. The project of decolonization thus involves the specification of race in
history. Thus, as the Women, Immigration and Nationality Group (WI NG) ar- political, economic, and ideological terms, for the meanings of race are nec-
gues, immigration and nationality laws in Britain are feminist issues, as they essarily shaped as much in collective and personal practice (identity politics)
explicitly reflect the ideology of (white) women as the reproducers of the na- as by the state (colonial or contemporary capitalist).
tion. The construction of such legislation thus is a central form of state rule In this discussion of immigration, naturalization, and nationality laws I
and clearly a crucial location for black women's struggles. The WING group have sketched the relationships between the liberal capitalist state and gender
describes the significance of the laws thus: and racial formations. By analyzing the discourse and concept of citizenship
as constructed through immigration and nationality laws, I have attempted
The intermeshed racism and sexism of British immigration legislation af-
to specify the gender and racial regime of the contemporary Euro-American
fects black and immigrant women in all areas of their lives. As wives, they
liberal democratic state and its relations of rule. The fact that notions of sexu-
are assumed to live wherever their husbands reside and to be dependent
ality (morality of women), gender (familial configurations), and race ("Ori-
on them. As mothers, particularly single mothers, they have difficulty in
ental") are implicitly written into these laws indicates the reason why this
bringing their children to join them. As workers, they are forced to leave
particular aspect of the contemporary state is a crucial context for Third World
their families behind. . . . It is this system of immigration control which
women's feminist struggles, and provides a method of feminist analysis that
legitimizes institutionalized racism in Britain today. It has far-reaching
is located at the intersections of systemic gender, race, class, and sexual para-
effects not only for black and third world people seeking to enter Britain
digms as they are regulated by the liberal state. My examination of these issues
but also for those living here who are increasingly subject to internal im-
also demonstrates the relationships between the economic exigencies of the
migration controls. (WING 1985, 148)
state (the original reason for migration/immigration) and its genderand racial
Finally, racial formation took its most visibly violent and repressive form in regimes.
apartheid South Africa. Here, the very language of apartheid (and of course
the denial of "citizenship" to black people) —"separate but equal develop- MULTINATIONAL PRODUCTION AND SOCIAL AGENCY

ment," "white areas" and "Bantustans" (which comprised less than 13 percent Questions of gender and race take on a new significance at the turn of the
of the land), black women workers as superfluous appendages —captured century, when, as a consequence of the massive incorporation of Third World
the material force of ideological definitions of race. Working-class solidarity women into a multinational labor force and into domestic service, feminist
across racial lines was impossible under apartheid because of racialization, as theorists have had to rethink such fundamental concepts as the public/private
Sivanandan notes: "[T] he racist ideology of South Africa is an explicit, system- distinction in explanations of women's oppression. Indeed, questions per-
atic, holistic ideology of racial superiority—so explicit that it makes clear that taining to the situation of "Third World" women (both domestic and interna-
the White working class can only maintain its standard of living on the basis tional), who are often the most exploited populations, are some of the most

70 Feminism without Borders 71 Cartographies of Struggle

urgent theoretical challenges facing the social and political analysis of gender from the days of British colonial administration, Ong analyzes a correspond-
and race in postindustrial contexts. Of course, no discussion of the contempo- ing construction of Malay identity in relation to subsistence agriculture, land,
rary contexts of Third World women's engagement with feminism could omit and other social structures. She goes on to delineate the role of the contem-
a sketch of the massive incorporation and proletarianization of these women porary Malaysian state as the manager of different structures of power where
in multinational factories. While this location is not just a social indicator of multinational corporate investments were incorporated into ideological state
Third World women's economic and social status (Momsen and Townsend apparatuses that policed the new Malay working-class women:
1987), it is a significant determinant of the micropolitics of daily life and self-
[This study] discussed novel power configurations in domains such as the
constructions of massive numbers of Third World women employed in these
family, factory, kampung, and state institutions which reconstructed the
factories. In fact, the 196os expansion of multinational export-processing
meanings of Malay female gender and sexuality. In Japanese factories,
labor-intensive industries to the Third World and the U.S.-Mexican border is
the experiences of Malay women workers could be understood in terms of
the newest pernicious form of economic and ideological domination.
their use as "instruments of labor," as well as reconstitution by discursive
World market factories relocate in search of cheap labor and find a home in
practices as sexualized subjects. Discipline was exercised not only through
countries with unstable (or dependent) political regimes, low levels of union-
work relations but also through surveillance and the cooperation of vil-
ization, and high unemployment. What is significant about this particular
lage elders in managing the maidens and their morality. Assailed by public
situation is that it is young Third World women who overwhelmingly consti-
doubts over their virtue, village-based factory women internalized these
tute the labor force. And it is these women who embody and personify the
disparate disciplinary schemes, engaging in self- and other-monitoring
intersection of sexual, class, and racial ideologies.
on the shopfloor, in kampung society and within the wider society. (Ong
Numerous feminist scholars have written about the exploitation of Third
1987,220)
World women in multinational corporations.21 While a number of studies
provide information on the mobilization of racist and (hetero)sexist stereo- Ong's work illustrates the embodiment of sexist, racist stereotypes in the re-
types in recruiting Third World women into this labor force, relatively few ad- cruitment of young Malay village women into factory work, and delineates
dress questions of the social agency of women who are subjected to a number factors pertaining to their subjectivities. Thus, Malay women face economic
of levels of capitalist discipline. In other words, few studies have focused on exploitation, sexual harassment, and various levels of discipline and surveil-
women workers as subjects — as agents who make choices, have a critical per- lance as workers. Ong's discussion of their sexuality and morality recall earlier
spective on their own situations, and think and organize collectively against discussions of the morality of immigrant women in the United States. These
their oppressors. Most studies of Third World women in multinationals locate particular constructions of morality to which Third World women are subject
them as victims of multinational capital as well as of their own "traditional" inform their notions of self, their organizing, and their day-to-day resilience.
sexist cultures. The counterparts to world market factories in Third World countries are
Aihwa Ong (1987) provides an analysis that goes against the grain of con- garment sweatshops in U.S. cities and electronics industries in the Silicon Val-
structing Third World women workers as pure victims. Ong's analysis illus- ley in California. These sweatshops operate illegally to avoid unemployment
trates (a) how the lives of factory women in Malaysia are determined in part insurance, child labor laws, and regulations. For instance, 90 percent of gar-
by economic and ideological assumptions on an international scale, (2) the ment workers are women, the majority being immigrants from the Caribbean,
historical links of the colonial (British) and the postcolonial state in the con- Latin America, and Asia. They have few alternatives — as heads of households,
struction of a social space for women workers, and (3) the construction of mothers without daycare, women on welfare—in other words, they are poor
Third World women's resistance and subjectivities in the context of deep ma- Third World women. Like the Malaysian factory workers, these women are
terial and structural transformations in their lives. subject to racist and sexist stereotypes such as "sewing is a women's job," and
Tracing the introduction of new relations of production and exchange "Third World women are more docile and obedient." Here again, a number of

72 Feminism without Borders 73 Cartographies of Struggle

scholars have detailed the effects of this particular proletarianization of Third sexualized relations of colonial rule, a brief example of these links clarifies my
World women in the United States. Suffice it to say that constructions of self point. I want to suggest that anthropology is an important discursive context
and agency in this context too are based on indigenous social and ideologi- in this cartography and that it is an example of disciplinary knowledge that
cal transformations managed by the state in conjunction with multinational signifies the power of naming and the contests over meaning of definitions
corporate capitalism. Within this framework of multinational employment, of the self and other. Trinh T. Minh-ha (1989) formulates the racial and sexual
it is through an analysis of the ideological construction of the "Third World basis of the "object of anthropological study" thus:23
woman worker" (the stereotypical [ideal] worker employed by world market
It seems clear that the favorite object of anthropological study is not just
factories) that we can trace the links of sexist, racist, class-based structures
any man but a specific kind of man: the Primitive, now elevated to the rank
internationally. lt is also this particular context and juncture that suggest a
of the full yet needy man, the Native. Today, anthropology is said to be
possible coalition among Third World women workers.22
"conducted in two ways: in the pure state and in the diluted state." ... The
Thus an analysis of the employment of Third World women workers by
"conversation of man with man" is, therefore, mainly a conversation of
multinational capital in terms of ideological constructions of race, gender,
"us" with "us" about "them," of the white man with the white man about
and sexuality in the very definition of "women's work" has significant reper-
the primitive-native man. The specificity of these three "man" grammati-
cussions for feminist cross-cultural analysis. In fact, questions pertaining to
cally leads to "men"; a logic reinforced by the modem anthropologist who,
the social agency of Third World women workers may well be some of the
while aiming at the generic "man" like all his colleagues, implies elsewhere
most challenging questions facing feminist organizing today. By analyzing
that in this context, man's mentality should be read as men's mentalities.
the sexualization and racialization of women's work in multinational facto-
(Trinh 1989, 64-65)
ries and relating this to women's own ideas of their work and daily life, we
can attempt a definition of self and collective agency that takes apart the idea The quotation illustrates both the fundamentally gendered and racial na-
of "women's work" as a naturalized category. Just as notions of "mother- ture of the anthropological project during colonial rule and the centrality
hood" and "domesticity" are historical and ideological rather than "natural" of the white, Western masculinity of the anthropologist. A number of an-
constructs, in this particular context, ideas of "Third World women's work" thropologists have engaged the discursive and representational problems of
have their basis in social hierarchies stratified by sex/gender, race, and class. classical anthropology in recent years. In fact, one of the major questions
Understanding these constructions in relation to the state and the interna- feminist anthropology has had to address is precisely the question of both
tional economy is crucial because of the overwhelming employment of Third representing Third World women in anthropological texts (as a corrective
World women in world market factories, sweatshops, and home work. Thus, to masculinist disciplinary practices) and simultaneously speaking for Third
this forms another important context for understanding the systemic exploi- World women.24 As Trinh states, we must be concerned with the question of
tation of poor Third World women, and provides a potential space for cross- Third World women:
national feminist solidarity and organizing. These questions are elaborated
Why do we have to be concerned with the question of Third World women?
in more detail in chapter 6.
After all it is only one issue among others. Delete "Third World" and the
sentence immediately unveils its value-loaded cliches. Generally speaking,
ANTHROPOLOGY AND THE
a similar result is obtained through the substitution of words like racist for
THIRD WORLD WOMAN AS "NATIVE"
sexist, or vice versa, and the established image of the Third World Woman
One of the most crucial forms of knowledge produced by, indeed born of,
in the context of (pseudo-) feminism readily merges with that of the Native
colonial rule is the discipline of anthropology. While I do not intend to offer a
in the context of (neo-colonialist) anthropology. The problems are inter-
comprehensive analysis of the origins of this discipline in the racialized and
connected. (Trinh 1989, 85)

74 Feminism without Borders 75 Cartographies of Struggle

 Here Trinh suggests that there is a continuity between definitions of the fining Third World women's engagement with feminism. And while these
"Native" (male) and the "Third World Woman." Both draw on sexist and racist questions have to be addressed at the level of organized movements, they also
stereotypes to consolidate particular relations of rule. In both cases, gender have to be addressed at the level of everyday life in times of revolutionary
and race (white men and white women) are central to the definition of su- upheaval as well as in times of "peace."
perior/inferior. This, then, is an example of the interconnectedness of the pro- This section foregrounds the interconnections of consciousness, identity,
cesses of racialization and sexualization in the production of knowledge con- and writing and suggests that questions of subjectivity are always multiply
ducive to colonial rule. Anthropology and its "nativization" of Third World mediated through the axes of race, class/caste, sexuality, and gender. Ido not
women thus forms a significant context for understanding the production provide a critique of identity politics here, but Ido challenge the notion "I am,
of knowledge "about" Third World women. Knowledge production in liter- therefore I resist!" That is, I challenge the idea that simply being a woman,
ary and social-scientific disciplines is clearly an important discursive site for or being poor or black or Latino, is sufficient ground to assume a politicized
struggle. The practice of scholarship is also a form of rule and of resistance, oppositional identity. In other words, while questions of identity are crucially
and constitutes an increasingly important arena of Third World feminisms. important, they can never be reduced to automatic self-referential, individu-
After all, the material effects of this knowledge production have ramifications alist ideas of the political (or feminist) subject.
for institutions (e.g., laws, policies, educational systems) as well as the con- This section focuses on life story-oriented written narratives, but this is
stitution of selves and of subjectivities. For instance, Rey (1991) addresses clearly only one, albeit important, context in which to examine the develop-
such paradigms when she suggests that Chinese women "disappear" in popu- ment of political consciousness. Writing is itself an activity marked by class
lar and academic discourses on China, only to reappear in "case studies" or and ethnic position. However, testimonials, life stories, and oral histories are
in the "culture garden." Similarly, in chapter 1, I discuss the discursive pro- a significant mode of remembering and recording experience and struggles.
duction of the "Third World woman" in the discourse of international devel- Written texts are not produced in a vacuum. In fact, texts that document Third
opment studies. Questions of definition and self-definition inform the very World women's life histories owe their existence as much to the exigencies of
core of political consciousness in all contexts, and the examination of a dis- the political and commercial marketplace as to the knowledge, skills, moti-
course (anthropology) that has historically authorized the objectification of vation, and location of individual writers.
Third World women remains a crucial context to map Third World women as For example, critics have pointed to the proliferation of experientially ori-
subjects of struggle. ented texts by Third World women as evidence of "diversity" in US. feminist
circles. Such texts now accompany "novels" by black and Third World women
CONSCIOUSNESS, IDENTITY, WRITING in women's studies curricula. However, in spite of the fact that the growing
Numerous texts on Third World women's political struggles have focused demand among publishers for culturally diverse life (hi)stories indicates a rec-
on their participation in organized movements, whether in nationalist or ognition of plural realities and experiences as well as a diversification of in-
antiracist liberation struggles, organized peasant working-class movements, herited Eurocentric canons, often this demand takes the form of the search
middle-class movements pertaining to the legal, political, and economic for more "exotic" and "different" stories in which individual women write
rights of women, or struggles around domestic violence. In fact, the focus of as truth-tellers and authenticate "their own oppression," in the tradition of
the three previous sections detailing historical and contextual issues (colo- Euro-American women's autobiography. In other words, the mere prolifera-
nialism, class, gender; citizenship, the state, and racial formation; and multi- tion of Third World women's texts, in the West at least, owes as much to the
national production and social agency) has also been on such macrostructural relations of the marketplace as to the conviction to "testify" or "bear witness."
phenomena and organized movements. However, not all feminist struggles Thus, the existence of Third World women's narratives in itself is not evi-
can be understood within the framework of "organized" movements. Ques- dence of decentering hegemonic histories and subjectivities. It is the way in
tions of political consciousness and self-identity are a crucial aspect of de- which they are read, understood, and located institutionally that is of para-

76 Feminism without Borders 77 Cartographies of Struggle

mount importance. After all, the point is not just to record one's history of disallows the notion of Palestinian "childhood," thus exercising immense
struggle, or consciousness, but how they are recorded; the way we read, re- military and legal power over Palestinian children. In this context, Palestinian
ceive, and disseminate such imaginative records is immensely significant. It narratives of childhood can be seen as narratives of resistance, which write
is this very question of reading, theorizing, and locating these writings that I childhood, and thus selfhood, consciousness, and identity, back into daily
touch on in the examples below. life. Harlow's analysis also indicates the significance of written or recorded
The consolidation and legitimation of testimonials as a form of Latin history as the basis of the constitution of memory. In the case of Palestini-
American oral history (history from below) owes as much to the political im- ans, the destruction of all archival history, the confiscation of land, and the
peratives of such events as the Cuban revolution as to the motivations and rewriting of historical memory by the Israeli state mean not only that narra-
desires of the intellectuals and revolutionaries who were/are the agents of tives of resistance must undo hegemonic recorded history, but that they must
these testimonials. The significance of representing "the people" as subjects also invent new forms of encoding resistance, of remembering. Honor Ford-
of struggle is thus encapsulated in the genre of testimonials, a genre that is, Smith,26 in her introduction to a book on "life stories of Jamaican women,"
unlike traditional autobiography, constitutively public, and collective (forand encapsulates the significance of this writing:
of the people).25
The tale-telling tradition contains what is most poetically true about our
Similarly, in the last two decades, numerous publishing houses in differ-
struggles. The tales are one of the places where the most subversive ele-
ent countries have published autobiographical or life story-oriented texts by
ments of our history can be safely lodged, for over the years the tale tellers
Third World feminists. This is a testament to the role of publishing houses
convert fact into images which are funny, vulgar, amazing or magically real.
and university and trade presses in the production, reception, and dissemi-
These tales encode what is overtly threatening to the powerful into covert
nation of feminist work, as well as to the creation of a discursive space where
images of resistance so that they can live on in times when overt struggles
(self-)knowledge is produced by and for Third World women. Feminist analy-
are impossible or build courage in moments when it is. To create such tales
sis has always recognized the centrality of rewriting and remembering history,
is a collective process accomplished within a community bound by a par-
a process that is significant not merely as a corrective to the gaps, erasures, and ticular historical purpose... . They suggest an altering or re-defining of the
misunderstandings of hegemonic masculinist history but because the very
parameters of political process and action. They bring to the surface fac-
practice of remembering and rewriting leads to the formation of politicized
tors which would otherwise disappear or at least go very far underground.
consciousness and self-identity. Writing often becomes the context through
(Sistren with Ford-Smith 1987, 3-4)
which new political identities are forged. It becomes a space for struggle and
contestation about reality itself. If the everyday world is not transparent and I quote Ford-Smith's remarks because they suggest a number of crucial ele-
its relations of rule—its organizations and institutional frameworks—work ments of the relation of writing, memory, consciousness, and political resis-
to obscure and make invisible inherent hierarchies of power (Smith 1987), it tance: the codification of covert images of resistance during nonrevolutionary
becomes imperative that we rethink, remember, and utilize our lived relations times; the creation of a communal (feminist) political consciousness through
as a basis of knowledge. Writing (discursive production) is one site for the the practice of storytelling; and the redefinition of the very possibilities of po-
production of this knowledge and this consciousness. litical consciousness and action through the act of writing. One of the most
Written texts are also the basis of the exercise of power and domination. significant aspects of writing against the grain in both the Palestinian and the
This is clear in Barbara Harlow's (1989) delineation of the importance of liter- Jamaican contexts is thus the invention of spaces, texts, and images forencod-
ary production (narratives of resistance) during the Palestinian intifada. Har- ing the history of resistance. Therefore, one of the most significant challenges
low argues that the Israeli state has confiscated both the land and the child- here is the question of decoding these subversive narratives. Thus, history and
hood of Palestinians, since the word "child" has not been used for twenty memory are woven through numerous genres: fictional texts, oral history, and
years in the official discourse of the Israeli state. This language of the state poetry, as well as testimonial narratives—not just what counts as scholarly

78 Feminism without Borders 79 Cartographies of Struggle

or academic ("real"?) historiography. An excellent example of the recupera- nates in the very foundation of our lives, our culture, our languages, our
tion and rewriting of this history of struggle is the 1970s genre of U.S. black thoughts. A massive uprooting of dualistic thinking in the individual and
women's fiction that collectively rewrites and encodes the history ofAmerican collective consciousness is the beginning of a long struggle, but one that
slavery and the oppositional agency of African American slave women. Toni could, in our best hopes, bring us to the end of rape, of violence, of war.
Morrison's Beloved and Gayl Jones's Corregidora are two examples that come (Anzaldúa 1987, 78-80)
to mind.
This notion of the uprooting of dualistic thinking suggests a conceptual-
Ford-Smith's discussion also suggests an implicit challenge to the femi-
ization of consciousness, power, and authority that is fundamentally based
nist individualist subject of much of liberal feminist theory, what Norma Alar-
on knowledges that are often contradictory. For Anzaldúa, a consciousness
con, in a different context, calls "the most popular subject of Anglo-American
of the borderlands comes from a recentering of these knowledges—from the
feminism . . . an autonomous, self-making, self-determining subject who
ability to see ambiguities and contradictions clearly, and to act collectively,
first proceeds according to the logic of identification with regard to the subject
with moral conviction. Consciousness is thus simultaneously singular and
of consciousness, a notion usually viewed as the purview of man, but now
plural, located in a theorization of being "on the border." Not any border,
claimed for women" (Alarcon 1989, 3). Alarcon goes on to define what she
but a historically specific one: the United States-Mexican border. Thus, un-
calls the "pluralityof self " ofwomen of color as subjects in the book This Bridge
like a Western, postmodernist notion of agency and consciousness that often
Called My Back (1981) in relation to the feminist subject of Anglo-American
announces the splintering of the subject, and privileges multiplicity in the
feminism. Both Ford-Smith and Alarcon suggest the possibility, indeed the
abstract, this is a notion of agency born of history and geography. It is a theo-
necessity, of conceptualizing notions of collective selves and consciousness as
rization of the materiality and politics of the everyday struggles of Chicanas.
the political practice of historical memory and writing by women of color and
Some of these questions are also taken up by Lourdes Torres in her 1991
Third World women. This writing/speaking of a multiple consciousness, one
essay on the construction of the self in U.S. Latina autobiographies. Torres
located at the juncture of contests over the meanings of racism, colonialism,
speaks of the multiple identities of Latinas and of the way particular autobio-
sexualities, and class, is thus a crucial context for delineating Third World
graphical narratives create a space to theorize the intersection of language
women's engagement with feminisms. This is precisely what Gloria Anzal-
and sexuality, and to examine and define the historical and cultural roots of
dúa refers to as a "mestiza consciousness" (Anzaldúa 1987).27 A mestiza con-
survival in Anglo society.
sciousness is a consciousness of the borderlands, a consciousness born of the
Finally, the idea of plural or collective consciousness is evident in some
historical collusion of Anglo and Mexican cultures and frames of reference.
of the revolutionary testimonials of Latin American women, speaking from
It is a plural consciousness in that it requires understanding multiple, often
within rather than for their communities. Unlike the autobiographical sub-
opposing ideas and knowledges, and negotiating these knowledges, not just
ject of Anglo-American feminism characterized by Alarcon, testimonials are
taking a simple counterstance:
strikingly nonheroic and impersonal. Their primary purpose is to document
At some point, on our way to a new consciousness, we will have to leave and record the history of popular struggles, foreground experiential and his-
the opposite bank, the split between the two mortal combatants some- torical "truth" which has been erased or rewritten in hegemonic, elite, or im-
what healed so that we are on both shores at once, and at once see through perialist history, and bear witness in order to change oppressive state rule.
the serpent and the eagle eyes. . . . The work of mestiza consciousness Thus testimonials do not focus on the unfolding of a singular woman's con-
is to break down the subject-object duality that keeps her a prisoner and sciousness (in the hegemonic tradition of European modernist autobiogra-
to show in the flesh and through the images in her work how duality is phy); rather, their strategy is to speak from within a collective, as participants
transcended. The answer to the problem between the white race and the in revolutionary struggles, and to speak with the express purpose of bringing
colored, between males and females, lies in healing the split that origi- about social and political change. As Doris Sommer argues, testimonials are

8o Feminism without Borders 81 Cartographies of Struggle

written so as to produce complicity in the reader. Thus they are fundamentally ings and narratives that are constitutively about remembering and creating
about constructing relationships between the self and the reader, in order to alternative spaces for survival, which figure self- and political consciousness?
invite and precipitate change (revolution). Sommer identifies the "plural" or If, as I suggested earlier, certain narratives by Third World women operate
"collective" self of Latin American women's testimonials as "the possibility to not through a logic of identification but through one of opposition, how is
get beyond the gap between public and private spheres and beyond the often domination and resistance theorized? Firstly, resistance clearly accompanies
helpless solitude that has plagued Western women even more than men since all forms of domination. However, it is not always identifiable through orga-
the rise of capitalism" (Sommer 1988, Ito). nized movements; resistance inheres in the very gaps, fissures, and silences
Alarcon, Ford-Smith, Anzaldúa, and Sommer thus together pose a serious of hegemonic narratives. Resistance is encoded in the practices of remember-
challenge to liberal humanist notions of subjectivity and agency. In differ- ing, and of writing. Agency is thus figured in the small, day-to-day practices
ent ways, their analyses foreground questions of memory, experience, knowl- and struggles of Third World women. Coherence of politics and of action
edge, history, consciousness, and agency in the creation of narratives of comes from a sociality that itself perhaps needs to be rethought. The very
the (collective) self. They suggest a conceptualization of agency that is mul- practice of remembering against the grain of "public" or hegemonic history,
tiple and often contradictory but always anchored in the history of specific of locating the silences and the struggle to assert knowledge that is outside
struggles. It is a notion of agency that works not through the logic of identi- the parameters of the dominant, suggests a rethinking of sociality itself.
fication but through the logic of opposition. This is a complex argument that Perhaps Dorothy Smith's concept of relations of rule can provide a way of
I want to introduce rather than work through here. linking institutions and structures with the politics of everyday life that is the
At the furthest limit of the question of oppositional agency is a problem ad- basis of this formulation of struggle and agency. For instance, the notion "the
dressed by Rosalind O'Hanlon (1988) in her analysis of the work of the South personal is political" must be rethought if we take seriously the challenge of
Asian subaltern studies group which focuses on the histories of peasants, collective agency posed by these narratives. Similarly, the definition of per-
agricultural laborers, factory workers, and tribals. In her examination of the sonal/public life as it has been formulated in feminist theoretical work has to
"history from below" project of Subaltern Studies, O'Hanlon suggests the crux undergo a radical reexamination. I introduce these questions here in an at-
of the difficulty in defining and understanding the subjectivity of the subaltern tempt to suggest that we need to renegotiate how we conceive of the relation
as outside the purview of liberal humanism: of self- and collective consciousness and agency; and specifically the connec-
tions between this and historical and institutional questions. These narratives
In speaking of the presence of the subaltern, we are, of course, referring
are thus an essential context in which to analyze Third World women's en-
primarily to a presence which is in some sense resistant: which eludes and
gagement with feminism, especially since they help us understand the epis-
refuses assimilation into the hegemonic. and so provides our grounds for
temological issues which arise through the politicization of consciousness,
rejecting elite historiography's insistence that the hegemonic itself is all
our daily practices of survival and resistance.
that exists with the social order. Our question, therefore, must in part be
To summarize, the first part of this chapter delineates the urgency and
what kind of presence, what kind of practice, we would be justified in call-
necessity to rethink feminist praxis and theory within a cross-cultural, inter-
ing a resistant one: what is the best figure for us to cast it in, which will both
national framework, and discusses the assumption of Third World women
reflect its fundamental alienness, and yet present ¡tin a form which shows
,as a social category in feminist work and definitions and contests over femi-
some part of that presence at least to stand outside and momentarily to
nism among Third World women. The second part suggests five provisional
escape the constructions of dominant discourse. (O'Hanlon 1988, 219)
contexts for understanding Third World women's engagement with femi-
O'Hanlon suggests one aspect of the dilemma with which I began this dis- nism. The first three chart political and historical junctures: decolonization
cussion: how do we theorize and locate the links between history, conscious- and national liberation movements in the Third World, the consolidation
ness, identity, and experience in the writings of Third World women, writ- of white, liberal capitalist patriarchies in Euro-America, and the operation

82 Feminism without Borders 83 Cartographies of Struggle

of multinational capital within a global economy. The last two contexts for
understanding Third World women's engagement with feminism focus on
discursive contexts: first, on anthropology as an example of a discourse of
dominance and self-reflexivity, and second, on storytelling or autobiography
(the practice of writing) as a discourse of oppositional consciousness and
agency. Again, these are necessarily partial contexts meant to be suggestive CHAPTER THREE

rather than comprehensive — this is, after all, one possible cartographyofcon-
What's Home Got to Do with It? (with Biddy Martin)
temporary struggles. And it is admittedly a cartography which begs numer-
ous questions and suggests its own gaps and fissures. However, I write it in
an attempt to "pivot" the center of feminist analyses, to suggest new begin-
Biddy Martin and I began working on this project after visiting our respec-
nings and middles, and to argue for more finely honed historical and context-
tive "homes" in Lynchburg, Virginia, and Mumbai, in the fall of 1984—visits
specific feminist methods. I also write out of the conviction that we must be
fraught with conflict, loss, memories, and desires that we both considered to
able and willing to theorize and engage the feminist politics of women, for
be of central importance in thinking about our relationship to feminist poli-
these are the very understandings we need to respond seriously to the chal-
tics. In spite of significant differences in our personal histories and academic
lenges of race, class, and our postcolonial condition.
backgrounds and in the displacements we both experience, the political and
intellectual positions we share made it possible for us to work on, indeed to
write, this essay together. Our separate readings of Minnie Bruce Pratt's auto-
biographical narrative "Identity: Skin Blood Heart" (1984a) became the occa-
sion for thinking through and developing more precisely some of the ideas
about feminist theory and politics that have occupied us. We are interested
in the configuration of home, identity, and community; more specifically, in
the power and appeal of "home" as a concept and a desire, its occurrence as
metaphor in feminist writings, and its challenging presence in the rhetoric of
the New Right.
Both leftists and feminists have realized the importance of not handing
over notions of home and community to the Right. Far too often, however,
both male leftists and feminists have responded to the appeal of a rhetoric of
home and family by merely reproducing the most conventional articulations
of those terms in their own writings. In her work, Zillah Eisenstein (1984)
identifies instances of what she labels revisionism within liberal, radical, and
socialist feminist writings: texts by women such as Betty Friedan, Andrea
Dworkin, and Jean Bethke Elshtain, in which the pursuit of safe places and
ever-narrower conceptions of community relies on unexamined notions of
home, family, and nation, and severely limits the scope of the feminist inquiry
and struggle.The challenge, then, is to find ways of conceptualizing commu-
nity differently without dismissing its appeal and importance.

84 Feminism without Borders

 It is significant that the notion of "home" has been taken up in a range of She makes it very clear that unity through incorporation has too often been the
writings by women of color, who cannot easily assume "home" within femi- white middle-class feminist's mode of adding on difference without leaving
nist communities as they have been constituted.' Bernice Johnson Reagon's the comfort of home. What Pratt sets out to explore are the exclusions and re-
(1984) critique of white feminists' incorporation of "others" into their pressions that support the seeming homogeneity, stability, and self-evidence
"homes" is a warning to all feminists that "we are going to have to break out of "white identity," which is derived from and dependent on the marginaliza-
of little barred rooms" and cease holding tenaciously to the invisible and only tion of differences within as well as "without."
apparently self-evident boundaries around that which we define as ourcnvn, Our decision to concentrate on Pratt's narrative has to do with our shared
"if we are going to have anything to do with what makes it into the next cen- concern that critiques of what is increasingly identified as "white" or "West-
tury." Reagon does not deny the appeal and the importance of "home" but ern" feminism unwittingly leave the terms of West/East, white/nonwhite
challenges us to stop confusing it with political coalition and suggests that it polarities intact; they do so, paradoxically, by starting from the premise that
takes what she calls an old-age perspective to know when to engage and when Western feminist discourse is inadequate or irrelevant to women of color or
to withdraw, when to break out and when to consolidate.2 Third World women. The implicit assumption here, which we wish to chal-
For our discussion of the problematics of "home," we chose a text that lenge, is that the terms of a totalizing feminist discourse are adequate to the
demonstrates the importance of both narrative and historical specificity in task of articulating the situation of white women in the West. We would con-
the attempt to reconceptualize the relations between "home," "identity," and test that assumption and argue that the reproduction of such polarities only
political change. The volume in which Pratt's essay appears, Yours in Struggle: serves to concede "feminism" to the "West" all over again. The potential con-
Three Feminist Perspectives on Anti-Semitism and Racism, is written by Elly Bullcin, sequence is the repeated failure to contest the feigned homogeneity of the
Minnie Bruce Pratt, and Barbara Smith, each of whom ostensibly represents West and what seems to be a discursive and political stability of the hierar-
a different experience and identity and consequently a different (even if femi- chical West-East divide.
nist) perspective on racism and anti-Semitism. What makes this text unusual, Pratt's essay enacts as much as it treats the contradictory relations between
in spite of what its title may suggest, is its questioning of the all-too-common skin, blood, heart, and identity and between experience, identity, and commu-
conflation of experience, identity, and political perspective. nity in ways that we would like to analyze and discuss in more detail. Like the
What we have tried to draw out of this text is the way in which it unsettles essays by Smith and Bulkin that follow it, it is a form of writing that not only
not only any notion of feminism as an all-encompassing home but also the anticipates and integrates diverse audiences or readers but also positions the
assumption that there are discrete, coherent, and absolutely separate identi- narrator as reader. The perspective is multiple and shifting, and the shifts in
ties—homes within feminism, so to speak—based on absolute divisions be- perspective are enabled by the attempts to define self, home, and community
tween various sexual, racial, or ethnic identities. What accounts for the un- that are at the heart of Pratt's enterprise. The historical grounding of shifts
settling of boundaries and identities, and the questioning of conventional and changes allows for an emphasis on the pleasures and terrors of intermi-
notions of experience, is the task that the contributors have set for them- nable boundary confusions, but insists, at the same time, on our responsibility
selves: to address certain specific questions and so to situate themselves in for remapping boundaries and renegotiating connections. These are partial
relation to the tensions between feminism, racism, and anti-Semitism. The in at least two senses of the word: politically partial, and without claim to
"unity" of the individual subject, as well as the unity of feminism, is situated wholeness or finality.
and specified as the product of the interpretation of personal histories; per- It is this insistence that distinguishes the work of a Reagon or a Pratt from
sonal histories that are themselves situated in relation to the development the more abstract critiques of "feminism" and the charges of totalization that
within feminism of particular questions and critiques. come from the ranks of antihumanist intellectuals. For without denying the
Pratt's autobiographical narrative is the narrative of a woman who iden- importance of their vigilante attacks on humanist beliefs in "man" and Abso-
tifies herself as white, middle-class, Christian-raised, southern, and lesbian. lute Knowledge wherever they appear, it is equally important to point out the

86 Feminism without Borders 87 What's Home Got to Do with It?

political limitations of an insistence on "indeterminacy" that implicitly,when homogenize the experiences and conditions of women across time and cul-
not explicitly, denies the critic's own situatedness in the social, and in effect ture; nor do we wish to deny that "Western" feminists have often taken their
refuses to acknowledge the critic's own institutional home. own positions as referent, thereby participating in the colonialist moves char-
Pratt, on the contrary, succeeds in carefully taking apart the bases of her acteristic of traditional humanist scholarship. However, such critiques run
own privilege by resituating herselfagain and again in the social, byconstantly the risk of falling into culturalist arguments, and these tend to have the unde-
referring to the materiality of the situation in which she finds herself. The sired effect of solidifying the identification of feminism with the West rather
form of the personal historical narrative forces her to reanchor herself re- than challenging the hegemony of specific analytic and political positions.
peatedly in each of the positions from which she speaks, even as she works The refusal to engage in the kind of feminist analysis that is more differen-
to expose the illusory coherence of those positions. For the subject of such tiated, more finely articulated, and more attentive to the problems raised in
a narrative, it is not possible to speak from, or on behalf of, an abstract in- poststructuralist theory makes "bad feminism" a foil supporting the privilege
determinacy. Certainly, Pratt's essay would be considered a "conventional" of the critics' "indeterminacy." Wary of the limitations of an antihumanism
(and therefore suspect) narrative from the point of view of contemporary de- that refuses to rejoin the political, we purposely chose a text that speaks from
constructive methodologies, because of its collapsing of author and text, its within "Western feminist discourse" and attempts to expose the bases and
unreflected authorial intentionality, and its claims to personal and political supports of privilege even as it renegotiates political and personal alliances.3
authenticity. One of the most striking aspects of "Identity: Skin Blood Heart" is the
Basic to the (at least implicit) disavowal of conventionally realist and auto- text's movement away from the purely personal, visceral experience of iden-
biographical narrative by deconstructionist critics is the assumption that dif- tity suggested by the title to a complicated working out of the relationship
ference can emerge only through self-referential language, that is, through between home, identity, and community that calls into question the notion
certain relatively specific formal operations present in the text or performed of a coherent, historically continuous, stable identity and works to expose the
upon it. Our reading of Pratt's narrative contends that a so-called conven- political stakes concealed in such equations. An effective way of analyzing
tional narrative such as Pratt's is not only useful but essential in addressing the Pratt's conceptualization of these relationships is to focus on the manner in
politically and theoretically urgent questions surrounding identity politics. which the narrative works by grounding itself in the geography, demography,
Just as Pratt refuses the methodological imperative to distinguish between and architecture of the communities that are her "homes"; these factors func-
herself as actual biographical referent and her narrator, we have at points al- tion as an organizing mode in the text, providing a specific concreteness and
lowed ourselves to let our reading of the text speak for us. movement for the narrative.
It is noteworthy that some of the American feminist texts and arguments Correspondingly, the narrative politicizes the geography, demography, and
that have been set up as targets to be taken apart by deconstructive moves architecture of these communities — Pratt's homes at various times of her his-
are texts and arguments that have been critiqued from within "American" tory—by discovering local histories of exploitation and struggle. These are
feminist communities for their homogenizing, even colonialist gestures; they histories quite unlike the ones she is familiar with, the ones with which she
have been critiqued, in fact, by those most directly affected by the exclusions grew up. Pratt problematizes her ideas about herself by juxtaposing the as-
that have made possible certain radical and cultural feminist generalizations. sumed histories of her family and childhood, predicated on the invisibility of
Antihumanist attacks on "feminism" usually set up "American feminism" as the histories of people unlike her, to the layers of exploitation and struggles of
a "straw man" and so contribute to the production—or, at the very least, the different groups of people for whom these geographical sites were also home.
reproduction—of an image of "Western feminism" as conceptually and po- Each of the three primary geographical locations—Alabama (the home
litically unified in its monolithically imperialist moves. of her childhood and college days), North Carolina (the place of her mar-
We do not wish to deny that too much of the conceptual and political work riage and coming out as a lesbian), and Washington, D.C. (characterized by
of "Western" feminists is encumbered by analytic strategies that do indeed her acute awareness of racism, anti-Semitism, class, and global politics) —
88 Feminism without Borders 89 What's Home Got to Do with It?
is constructed on the tension between two specific modalities: being home is based. For the narrator, such negativity is represented by a rigid identity
and not being home. "Being home" refers to the place where one lives within such as that of her father, which sustains its appearance of stability by de-
familiar, safe, protected boundaries; "not being home" is a matterof realizing fining itself in terms of what it is not: not black, not female, not Jewish, not
that home was an illusion of coherence and safety based on the exclusion of Catholic, not poor, and so on. The "self" in this narrative is not an essence or
specific histories of oppression and resistance, the repression of differences truth concealed by patriarchal layers of deceit and lying in wait of discovery,
even within oneself. Because these locations acquire meaning and function revelation, or birth.4
as sites of personal and historical struggles, they work against the notion of It is this very conception of self that Pratt likens to entrapment, constric-
an unproblematic geographic location of home in Pratt's narrative. Similarly, tion, a bounded fortress that must be transgressed, shattered, opened onto
demographic information functions to ground and concretize race, class, and that world that has been made invisible and threatening by the security of
gender conflicts. Illusions of home are always undercut by the discovery of home. While Pratt is aware that stable notions of self and identity are based
the hidden demographics of particular places, as demography also carries the on exclusion and secured by terror, she is also aware of the risk and terror
weight of histories of struggle. inherent in breaking through the walls of home. The consciousness of these
Pratt speaks of being "shaped" in relation to the buildings and streets in contradictions characterizes the narrative.
the town in which she lived. Architecture and the layouts of particular towns In order to indicate the fundamentally constructive, interpretive nature of
provide concrete, physical anchoring points in relation to which she both sees Pratt's narrative, we have chosen to analyze the text following its own narrative
and does not see certain people and things in the buildings and on the streets. organization in three different scenarios: scenarios that are characterized not
However, the very stability, familiarity, and security of these physical struc- by chronological development but by discontinuous moments of conscious-
tures are undermined by the discovery that these buildings and streets wit- ness. The scenarios are constructed around moments in Pratt's own history
nessed and obscured particular race, class, and gender struggles. The realiza- which propel her in new directions through their fundamental instability and
tion that these "growing-up places" are home towns where Pratt's eye "has built-in contradictions.
only let in what I have been taught to see" politicizes and undercuts any physi-
cal anchors she might use to construct a coherent notion of home or her iden-
Scenario I.
tity in relation to it.
Each of us carries around those growing-up places, the institutions, a sort I live in a part of Washington, D.0 that white suburbanites called "the
of backdrop, a stage set. So often we act out the present against the backdrop jungle" during the uprising of the '6os — perhaps still do, for all I know.
of the past, within a frame ofperception that is so familiar, so safe that it is ter- When I walk the two-and-a-half blocks to H St. NE, to stop in at the bank,
rifying to risk changing it even when we know our perceptions are distorted, to leave my boots off at the shoe-repair-and-lock shop, I am most usually
limited, constricted by that old view. the only white person in sight. I've seen two other whites, women, in the
The traces of her past remain with her but must be challenged and reinter- year ¡'ved lived here. [This does not count white folks in cars, passing
preted. Pratt's own histories are in constant flux. There is no linear progres- through. In official language, H St. NE, is known as "The H Street Corri-
sion based on "that old view," no developmental notion of her own identity dor," as in something to be passed through quickly, going from your place,
or self. There is instead a constant expansion of her "constricted eye," a nec- on the way to elsewhere.] (xi)
essary reevaluation and return to the past in order to move forward to the
This paragraph of the text locates Minnie Bruce Pratt in a place that does not
present. Geography, demography, and architecture, as well as the configura-
exist as a legitimate possibility for home on a white people's map of Washing-
tion of her relationships to particular people (her father, her lover, her work-
ton, D.C.: H Street N.E., "the jungle," "the H. Street Corridor as in something
mate), serve to indicate the fundamentally relational nature of identity and
to be passed through quickly, going from your place to elsewhere" (ii). That,
the negations on which the assumption of a singular, fixed, and essential self

go Feminism without Borders gi What's Home Got to Do with It?

 then, is potentially Pratt's home, the community in which she lives. But this about the histories of her own and other peoples —an education that indi-
"jungle," this corridor, is located at the edge of homes of white folk. It is a cates to her her own implication in those histories. Pratt's approach achieves
place outside the experience of white people, where Pratt must be the out- significance in the context of other white feminists' responses to the charge
sider because she is white. This "being on the edge" is what characterizes her of racism in the women's movement. An all-too-common response has been
"being in the world as it is," as opposed to remaining within safe bounded self-paralyzing guilt and/or defensiveness; another has been the desire to be
places with their illusion of acceptance. "I will try to be at the edge between educated by women of color. The problem is exacerbated by the tendency on
my fear and outside, on the edge at my skin, listening, asking what new thing the part of some women of color to assume the position of ultimate critic or
will I hear, will I see, will ¡let myself feel, beyond the fear," she writes. It is her judge on the basis of the authenticity of their personal experience of oppres-
situation on the edge that expresses the desire and the possibility of break- sion. An interesting example of the assignment of fixed positions — the educa-
ing through the narrow circle called home without pretense that she can or tor/critic (woman of color) and the guilty and silent listener (white woman) —
should "jump out of her skin" or deny her past. is an essay by Elizabeth Spelman and Maria Lugones (1983). The dynamics set
The salience of demography, a white woman in a black neighborhood, up would seem to exempt both parties from the responsibilities of working
afraid to be too familiar and neighborly with black people, is acutely felt. Pratt through the complex historical relations between and among structures of
is comforted by the sounds of the voices of black people, for they make her domination and oppression.
"feel at home" and remind her of her father's southern voice, until she runs In this scenario, the street scene is particularly effective, both spatially and
into Mr. Boone, the janitor with the downcast head and the "yes ma'ams," and metaphorically. The street evokes a sense of constant movement, change, and
Pratt responds in "the horrid cheerful accents of a white lady." The pain is not temporality. For instance, Pratt can ask herself why the young black woman
just the pain of rejection by this black man; it is the pain of acknowledging the did not speak to her, why she herself could not speak to the professional white
history of the oppression and separation of different groups of people that woman in the morning but does at night, why the woman does not respond—
shatters the protective boundaries of her self and renders her desire to speak all in the space of one evening's walk down three blocks. The meetings on
with others problematic. The context of this personal interaction is set im- the street also allow for a focus on the racial and ethnic demography of the
mediately in terms of geographical and political history. Mr. Boone's place of community as a way of localizing racial, sexual, and class tensions. Since
origin (hometown) is evoked through the narration of the history of local re- her present location is nowhere (the space does not exist for white people),
sistance struggles in the region from which he comes. He's a dark, red-brown she constantly has to problematize and define herself anew in relation to
man from the Yemessee in South Carolina —that swampy land of Indian resis- people she meets in the street. There is an acute consciousness of being white,
tance and armed communities of fugitive slaves, that marshy land at the head- woman, lesbian, and Christian-raised and of which of these aspects is salient
waters of the Combahee, once site of enormous rice plantations and location in different "speakings": "Instead, when I walk out in my neighborhood,
of Harriet Tubman's successful military action that freed many slaves. each speaking to another person has become fraught for me, with the his-
This history of resistance has the effect of disrupting forever all memo- tory of race and sex and class; as I walk I have a constant interior discussion
ries of a safe, familiar southern home. As a result of this interaction, Pratt with myself, questioning how I acknowledge the presence of another, what I
now remembers that home was repressive space built on the surrendering know or don't know about them, and what it means how they acknowledge
of all responsibility. Pratt's self-reflection, brought on by a consciousness of me" (12). Thus, walking down the street and speaking to various people —
difference, is nourished and expanded by thinking contextually of other his- a young white man, young black woman, young professional white woman,
tories and of her own responsibility and implication in them. What we find young black man, older white woman are all rendered acutely complex and
extraordinary about Pratt as narrator (and person) is her refusal to allow guilt contradictory in terms of actual speakings, imagined speakings, and actual
to trap her within the boundaries of a coherent "white" identity. It is this very and imagined motivations, responses, and implications—there is no possi-
refusal that makes it possible for her to make the effort to educate herself bility of a coherent self with a continuity of responses across these different

92 Feminism without Borders 93 What's Home Got to Do with It?

 P

"speaking-to's." History intervenes. For instance, a respectful answer from a rated through the memory of childhood scenes, full of strong and suggestive
young black man might well be "the response violently extorted by history." architectural/spatial metaphors that are juxtaposed with images suggesting
The voices, sounds, hearing, and sight in particular interactions or within alternative possibilities. The effort to explain her motivation for change re-
"speaking-to's" carry with them their own particular histories; this narrative minds her of her father: "When I try to think of this, I think of my father" (i6).
mode breaks the boundaries of Pratt's experience of being protected, of being Pratt recounts a scene from her childhood in which her father took her up the
a majority. marble steps of the courthouse in the center of the town, the courthouse in
which her grandfather had judged for forty years, to the clock tower in order
to show her the town from the top and the center. But the father's desire to
Scenario 2
have her see as he saw, to position her in relation to her town and the world as
Yet I was shaped by my relation to those buildings and to the people in the he was positioned, failed. She was unable, as a small child, to make it to the
buildings, by ideas of who should be in the Board of Education, of who top of the clock tower and could not see what she would have seen had she
should be in the bank handling money, of who should have the guns and been her father or taken his place.
the keys to the jail, of who should be in the jail; and I was shaped by what From her vantage point as an adult, she is now able to reconstruct and ana-
I didn't see, or didn't notice, on those streets. (17) lyze what she would have seen and would not have seen from the center and
the top of the town. She would have seen the Methodist church and the Health
The second scenario is constructed in relation to Pratt's childhood home in
Department, for example, and she would not have seen the sawmill of Four
Alabama and deals very centrally with her relation to her father. Again, she ex-
Points, where the white mill folks lived, or the houses of blacks in the Veneer
plores that relationship to her father in terms of the geography, demography,
Mill quarters. She had not been able to take that height because she was not
and architecture of the hometown; again, she reconstructs it by uncovering
her father and could not become like him: she was a white girl, not a boy. This
knowledges, not only the knowledge of those others who were made invisible
assertion of her difference from the father is undercut, however, in a reversal
to her as a child but also the suppressed knowledge of her own family back-
characteristic of the moves enacted throughout the essay, when she begins a
ground. The importance of her elaborating the relation to her father through
new paragraph by acknowledging: "Yet I was shaped by my relation to those
spatial relations and historical knowledges lies in the contextualization of
buildings and to the people in the buildings."
that relation, and the consequent avoidance of any purely psychological ex-
What she has gained by rejecting the father's position and vision, by ac-
planation. What is affected, then, is the unsettling of any self-evident relation
knowledging her difference from him, is represented as a way of looking, a
between blood, skin, heart. And yet, here as elsewhere, the essential relation
capacity for seeing the world in overlapping circles, "like movement on the
between blood, skin, heart, home, and identity is challenged without dismiss-
millpond after a fish has jumped, instead of the courthouse square with me
ing the power and appeal of those connections.
at the middle, even if I am on the ground." The contrast between the vision
Pratt introduces her childhood home and her father in order to explain
that her father would have her learn and her own vision, her difference and
the source of her need to change what she was born into to explain what
"need," emerges as the contrast between images of constriction, of entrap-
she, or any person who benefits from privileges of class and race, has to gain ment, or ever-narrowing circles with, on the one hand, a bounded self at the
from change. This kind of self-reflexivity characterizes the entire narrative
center—the narrow steps to the roof of the courthouse, the clock tower with
and takes the form of an attempt to avoid the roles and points of enuncia-
a walled ledge—and, on the other hand, the image of the millpond with its
tion that she identifies as the legacy of her culture: the roles of judge, martyr, ever-shifting centers. The apparently stable, centered position of the father
preacher, and peacemaker, and the typically white, Christian, middle-class,
is revealed to be profoundly unstable, based on exclusions, and characterized
and liberal pretense of a concern for others, an abstract moral or ethical con-
by terror.
cern for what is right. Her effort to explain her own need to change is elabo-
Change, however, is not a simple escape from constraint to liberation.

94 Feminism without Borders 95 What's Home Got to Do with It?

There is no shedding the literal fear and figurative law of the father and no Only one aspect of experience is given a unifying and originating function in
reaching a final realm of freedom. There is no new place, no new home. Since the text: that is her lesbianism and love for other women, which has motivated
neither her view of history nor her construction of herself through it is linear, and continues to motivate her efforts to reconceptualize and recreate both her
the past, home, and the father leave traces that are constantly reabsorbed into self and home. A careful reading of the narrative demonstrates the complexity
a shifting vision. She lives, after all, on the edge. Indeed, that early experience of lesbianism, which is constructed as an effect, as well as a source, of her
of separation and difference from the father is remembered not only in terms political and familial positions—its significance, that is, is demonstrated in
of the possibility of change but also in relation to the pain of loss, the lone- relation to other experiences rather than assumed as essential determinant.
liness of change, the undiminished desire for home, for familiarity, for some What lesbianism becomes as the narrative unfolds is that which makes
coexistence of familiarity and difference. The day she couldn't make it to the "home" impossible, which makes her self nonidentical, which makes her vul-
top of the tower "marks the last time I can remember us doing something nerable, removing her from the protection afforded those women within privi-
together, just the two of us; thereafter, I knew on some level that my place was leged races and classes who do not transgress a limited sphere of movement.
with women, not with him, not with men." Quite literally, it is her involvement with another woman that separates the
This statement would seem to make the divisions simple, would seem to narrator not only from her husband but from her children as well. It is that
provide an overriding explanation of her desire for change, for dealing with which threatens to separate her from her mother, and that which remains a
racism and anti-Semitism, would seem to make her one ofa monolithic group silence between herself and her father. That silence is significant, since, as
of others in relation to the white father. However, this division, too, is not she points out—and this is a crucial point—her lesbianism is precisely what
allowed to remain stable and so to be seen as a simple determinant of identity. she can 'deny, and indeed must deny, in order to benefit fully from the privi-
Near the end of her narrative, Pratt recounts a dream in which her father lege of being white and middle-class and Christian. She can deny it, but only
entered her room carrying something like a heavy box, which he put down on at great expense to herself. Her lesbianism is what she experiences most im-
her desk. After he left, she noticed that the floor of her room had become a mediately as the limitation imposed on her by the family, culture, race, and
field of dirt with rows of tiny green seed just sprouting. We quote from her class that afforded her both privilege and comfort, at a price. Learning at what
narration of the dream, her ambivalence about her father's presence, and her price privilege, comfort, home, and secure notions of self are purchased, the
interpretation of it: price to herself and ultimately to others is what makes lesbianism a political
He was so tired; I flung my hands out angrily, told him to go, back to motivation as well as a personal experience.
my mother; but crying, because my heart ached; he was my father and so It is significant that lesbianism is neither marginalized nor essentialized
tired. . . . The box was still there, with what I feared: my responsibility but constructed at various levels of experience and abstraction. There are at
for what the men of my culture have done. . . . I was angry: why should I least two ways in which lesbianism has been isolated in feminist discourse:
be left with this: I didn't want it: I'd done my best for years to reject it: I the homophobic oversight and relegation of it to the margins, and the lesbian-
wanted no part of what was in it: the benefits of my privilege, the restric- feminist centering of it, which has had at times the paradoxical effect of re-
tions, the injustice, the pain, the broken urgings of the heart, the unknown moving lesbianism and sexuality from their embeddedness in social relations.
horrors. And yet it is mine: lam my father's daughter in the present, living In Pratt's narrative, lesbianism is that which exposes the extreme limits of
in a world he and my folks helped create. A month after I dreamed this he what passes itself offas simply human, as universal, as unconstrained by iden-
died; I honor the grief of his life by striving to change much of what he tity, namely, the position of the white middle class. It is also a positive source
believed in: and my own grief by acknowledging that I saw him caught in of solidarity, community, and change. Change has to do with the transgres-
the grip of racial, sexual, cultural fears that I still am trying to understand sion of boundaries, those boundaries so carefully, so tenaciously, so invisibly
in myself. (53) drawn around white identity.5 Change has to do with the transgression of
those boundaries.
96 Feminism without Borders 97 What's Home Got to Do with It?
 The insight that white, Christian, middle-class identity, as well as comfort resistance to those forms of oppression, she points to the underside of the
and home, is purchased at a high price is articulated very compellingly in rela- rhetoric of home, protection, and threatening others that were promoted by
tion to her father. It is significant that there is so much attention to her relation Reagan and the New Right. "It is this threatening protection' thatwhite Chris-
to her father, from whom she describes herself as having been estranged— tian men in the U.S. are now offering" (38).
significant and exemplary of what we think is so important about this narra- When one conceives of power differently, in terms of its local, institu-
tive.6 What gets articulated are the contradictions in that relation, her differ- tional, discursive formations, of its positivity, and in terms of the production
ence from the father, her rejection of his positions, and at the same time her rather than suppression of forces, then unity is exposed to be a potentially re-
connections to him, her love for him, the ways in which she is his daughter. pressive fiction.8 It is at the moment at which groups and individuals are con-
The complexity of the father-daughter relationship and Pratt's acknowledg- ceived as agents, as social actors, as desiring subjects that unity, in the sense
ment of the differences within it— rather than simply between herselfand her of coherent group identity, commonality, and shared experience, becomes
father—make it impossible to be satisfied with a notion of difference from difficult. Individuals do not fit neatly into unidimensional, self-identical cate-
the father, literal or figurative, which would (and in much feminist literature gories. Hence the need for a new sense of political community that gives up
does) exempt the daughter from her implication in the structures of privi- the desire for the kind of home where the suppression of positive differences
lege/oppression, structures that operate in ways much more complex than underwrites familial identity. Pratt's narrative makes it clear that connections
the male/female split itself. The narrator expresses the pain, the confusion have to be made at levels other than abstract political interests. And the ways
attendant upon this complexity. in which intimacy and emotional solidarity figure in notions of political com-
The narrative recounts the use of threat and of protections to consoli- munity avoid an all-too-common trivialization of the emotional, on the one
date home, identity, community, and privilege, and in the process exposes the hand, and romanticization of the political, on the other.
underside of the father's protection. Pratt recalls a memory of a night, dur-
ing the height of the civil rights demonstrations in Alabama, when her father
Scenario 3
called her in to read her an article in which Martin Luther King Jr. was accused
of sexually abusing young teenage girls. "I can only guess that he wanted me Every day I drove around the market house, carrying my two boys between
to feel that my danger, my physical, sexual danger, would be the result of the home and grammar school and day care. To me it was an impediment to the
release of others from containment. I felt frightened and profoundly endan- flow of traffic, awkward, anachronistic. Sometimes in early spring light it
gered, by King, by my father: I could not answer him. It was the first, the only seemed quaint. I had no knowledge and no feeling of the sweat and blood
time, I could not answer him. It was the first the only time he spoke of sex, in of people's lives that had been mortared into its bricks: nor of their inde-
any way, to me" (36-37). pendent joy apart from that place. (21)
What emerges is the consolidation of the white home in response to a
The third scenario involves Pratt's life in an eastern rural North Carolina town,
threatening outside. The rhetorics of sexual victimization or vulnerability of
to which she came in 1974 with her husband and two children. Once again
white women is used to establish and enforce unity among whites and to cre-
Pratt characterizes her relation to the town, as well as to her husband and
ate the myth of the black rapist.7 Once again, her experience within the family
children, by means of demographic and architectural markers and metaphors
is reinterpreted in relation to the history of race relations in an "outside" in
that situate her at the periphery of this "place which is so much like home":
which the family is implicated. What Pratt integrates in the text at such points
a place in which everything would seem to revolve around a stable center, in
is a wealth of historical information and analysis of the ideological and so-
this case the market house: "I drove around the market house four times a
cial/political operations beyond her "home." In addition to the historical in-
day, traveling on the surface of my own life: circular, repetitive, like one of
formation she unearths both about the atrocities committed in the name of
the games at the county fair" (22). Once again she is invited to view her home
protection, by the Ku Klux Klan and white society in general, and about the

98 Feminism without Borders 99 What's Home Got to Do with It?

town from the top and center, specifically from the point of view of the white rator pursues the extent and the ways in which she carries her white, middle-
"well-to-do folks," for whom the history of the market house consisted of class conceptions of home around with her and the ways in which they in-
the fruits, the vegetables, and the tobacco exchanged there. "But not slaves, form her relation to politics. There is an irreconcilable tension between the
they said" (20. However, the black waiter serving the well-to-do in the private search for a secure place from which to speak, within which to act, and the
club overlooking the center of town contests this account, providing facts and awareness of the price at which secure places are bought, the awareness of
dates of the slave trade in that town. This contradiction leaves a trace but does the exclusions, the denials, the blindnesses on which they are predicated.
not become significant to her view of her life in that town, a town so much The search for a secure place is articulated in its ambivalence and com-
like the landscape of her childhood. It does not become significant, that is, plexity through the ambiguous use of the words "place" and "space" in pre-
until her own resistance to the limitations of home and family converges with cisely the ways they have become commonplace within feminist discourse.
her increasing knowledge of the resistance of other people; converges but is The moments of terror when she is brought face to face with the fact that
not conflated with those other struggles. What Pratt uncovers of the town she is "homesick with nowhere to go," that she has no place, the "kind of
histories is multilayered and complex. She speaks of the relation of different vertigo" she feels upon learning of her own family's history of racism and
groups of people to the town and their particular histories of resistance—the slaveholding, the sensation of her body having no fixed place to be, are re-
breaking up of Klan rallies by Lumbee Indians, the long tradition of black cul- membered concurrently with moments of hope, when "she thought she had
ture and resistance, Jewish traditions of resistance, anti-Vietnam protest, and the beginning of a place for myself."
lesbians' defiance of military codes—with no attempt to unify or equate the What she tried to recreate as a feminist, a woman aware of her position
various struggles under a grand polemics of oppression. The coexistence of vis-à-vis men as a group, is critiqued as a childish place:
these histories gives the narrative its complex, rich texture. Both the town and Raised to believe that I could be where I wanted and have what I wanted,
her relation to it change as these histories of struggle are narrated. Indeed, as a grown woman I thought I could simply claim what I wanted, even the
there is an explicit structural connection between moments of fear and loss of making of a new place to live with other women. I had no understanding
former homes with the recognition of the importance of interpretation and of the limits that I lived within, nor of how much my memory and my ex-
struggle. From our perspectives, the integrity of the narrative and the sense perience of a safe space to be was based on places secured by omission,
of self have to do with the refusal to make easy divisions and with the unre- exclusions or violence, and on my submitting to the limits of that place.
lenting exploration of the ways in which the desire for home, for security, for (25-26)
protection—and not only the desire for them, but the expectation of a right
to these things—operates in Pratt's own conception of political work. She The self-reflexiveness that characterizes the narrative becomes especially
describes her involvement in political work as having begun when feminism clear in her discussion of white feminists' efforts at outreach in her North
swept through the North Carolina town in which she was living with husband Carolina community. She and her National Organization for Women fellow
and her two sons in the 19705, a period in her life when she felt threatened as workers had gone forward "to a new place": "Now we were throwing back
a woman and was forced to see herself as part of a class of people; that she safety lines to other women, to pull them in as if they were drowning. What I
describes as anathema to the self-concept of middle-class white people who felt, deep down, was hope that they would join me in my place, which would
would just like to "be," unconstrained by labels, by identities, by consignment be the way I wanted it. I didn't want to have to limit myself" (30).
to a group, and would prefer to ignore the fact that their existence and social However, it is not only her increasing knowledge of her exclusion of others
place are anything other than self-evident, natural, human. from that place that initiates her rethinking. What is most compelling is her
What differentiates Pratt's narration of her development from other femi- account of her realization that her work in N OW was also based on the exclu-
nist narratives of political awakening is its tentativeness, its consisting of fits sion of parts of herself, specifically her lesbianism.19 Those moments when
and starts, and the absence of linear progress toward a visible end.9 This nar- she would make it the basis of a sameness with other women, a sameness

roo Feminism without Borders 'or What's Home Got to Do with It?
 that would make a new place too, is undercut by her seeing the denials, the between what Teresa de Lau retis has called the negativity of theory and the
exclusions, and the violence that are the conditions of privilege and indeed positivity of politics is a tension enacted over and over again by this text.12 The
of love in its Christian formulation. The relationship between love and the possibility of recreating herself and of creating new forms of community not
occlusion or appropriation of the other finds expression in her description based on "home" depends for Minnie Bruce Pratt upon work and upon knowl-
of her attempts to express her love for her Jewish lover in a poem filled with edge, not only of the traditions and culture of others but also of the positive
images from the Jewish tradition, a way of assuming, indeed insisting upon, forms of struggle within her own. It depends on acknowledging not only her
their similarity by appropriating the other's culture. ignorance and her prejudices but also her fears, above all the fear of loss that
The ways in which appropriation or stealth, in the colonial gesture, repro- accompanies change.
duces itself in the political positions of white feminists is formulated con- The risk of rejection by one's own kind, by one's family, when one exceeds
vincingly in a passage about what Pratt calls "cultural impersonation," a term the limits laid out or the self-definition of the group, is not made easy; again,
that refers to the tendency among white women to respond with guilt and the emphasis on her profoundly ambivalent relationship to her father is cru-
self-denial to the knowledge of racism and anti-Semitism, and to borrow or cial. When the alternatives would seem to be either the enclosing, encircling,
take on the identity of the other in order to avoid not only guilt but pain and constraining circle of home, or nowhere to go, the risk is enormous. The as-
self-hatred.11 It is Prates discussion of the negative effects, political and per- sumption of, or desire for, another safe place like "home" is challenged by
sonal, of cultural impersonation that raises the crucial issue of what destruc- the realization that "unity" — interpersonal as well as political—is itself nec-
tive forms a monolithic (and overly theoretical) critique of identity can take. essarily fragmentary, itself that which is struggled for, chosen, and hence un-
The claim to a lack of identity or positionality is itself based on privilege, on stable by definition; it is not based on "sameness," and there is no perfect fit.
a refusal to accept responsibility for one's implication in actual historical or But there is agency as opposed to passivity.
social relations, on a denial that positionalities exist or that they matter, the The fear of rejection by one's own kind refers not only to the family of
denial of one's own personal history and the claim to a total separation from origin but also to the potential loss of a second family, the women's com-
it. What Minnie Bruce Pratt refuses over and over is the facile equation of her munity, with its implicit and often unconscious replication of the conditions
own situation with that of other people: of home.13 When we justify the homogeneity of the women's community in
which we move on the basis of the need for community, the need for home,
When, after Greensboro, I groped toward an understanding of injustice
what, Pratt asks, distinguishes our community from the justifications ad-
done to others, injustice done outside my narrow circle of being, and to
vanced by women who have joined the Klan for "family, community, and pro-
folks not like me, I began to grasp, through my own experience, something
tection"? The relationship between the loss of community and the loss of self
of what that injustice might be. But I did not feel that my new understand-
is crucial. To the extent that identity is collapsed with home and community
ing simply moved me into a place where I joined others to struggle with
and based on homogeneity and comfort, on skin, blood, and heart, the giving
them against common injustices. Because I was implicated in the doing
up of home will necessarily mean the giving up of self and vice versa.
of some of these injustices, and I held myself, and my people, respon-
sible. (35) Then comes the fear of nowhere to go: no old home with family: no new
one with women like ourselves: and no place to be expected with folks who
The tension between the desire for home, for synchrony, for sameness,
have been systematically excluded by ours. And with our fear comes the
and the realization of the repressions and violence that make home, harmony,
doubt: Can I maintain my principles against my need for the love and pres-
sameness imaginable, and that enforce it, is made clear in the movement of
ence of others like me? It is lonely to be separated from others because of
the narrative by very careful and effective reversals that do not erase the posi-
injustice, but it is also lonely to break with our own in opposition to that
tive desire for unity, for oneness, but destablilize and undercut it. The relation
injustice. (so)

102 Feminism without Borders 103 What's Home Got to Do with It?

A. I
 The essay ends with a tension between despair and optimism over politi- In this city where I am no longer of the majority by color or culture, I tell
cal conditions and the possibilities for change. Pratt walks down Maryland myself every day: In this world you aren't the superior race or culture, and
Avenue in Washington, D.C. — the town that is now her "hometown"—pro- never were, whatever you were raised to think: and are you getting ready
testing against U.S. invasions, Grenada, the marines in Lebanon, the war in to be in this world?
Central America, the acquittals of the North Carolina Klan and Nazi perpetra- And I answer myself back: I'm trying to learn how to live, to have the
tors. The narrative has come full circle, and her consciousness of her "place speaking-to extend beyond the moment's word, to act so as to change the
in this town —the capital—encompasses both local and global politics and unjust circumstances that keep us from being able to speak to each other;
her own implication in them. The essay ends with the following statement:1 I'm trying to get a little closer to the longed-for but unrealized world, where
continue the struggle with myself and the world I was born in" (57). we each are able to live, but not by trying to make someone less than us,
Pratt's essay on feminism, racism, and anti-Semitism is not a litany of op- not by someone else's blood or pain. Yes, that's what I'm trying to do with
pression but an elaboration, indeed an enactment, of careful and constant my living now. (13)
differentiations that refuses the all-too-easy polemic that opposes victims to
We have used our reading of this text to open up the question of how po-
perpetrators. The exposure of the arbitrariness and the instability of posi-
litical community might be reconceptualized within feminist practice. We do
tions within systems of oppression evidences a conception of power that
not intend to suggest that Pratt's essay, or any single autobiographical narra-
refuses totalizations and can therefore account for the possibility of resis-
tive, offers an answer. Indeed, what this text has offered is a pretext for posing
tance. "The system" is revealed to be not one but multiple, overlapping, inter-
questions. The conflation of Pratt the person with the narrator and subject of
secting systems or relations that are historically constructed and recreated
this text has led us and our students to want to ask, forexample, how such indi-
through everyday practices and interactions and that implicate the individual
vidual self-reflection and critical practice might translate into the building of
in contradictory ways. All of that without denying the operations of actual
political collectivity. And to consider more specifically the possible political
power differences, overdetermined though they may be, reconceptualizing
implications and effects of a white middle-class woman's "choice" to move
power without giving up the possibility of conceiving power.
to H Street N.E. Certainly, we might usefully keep in mind that the approach
Community, then, is the product of work, of struggle; it is inherently un-
to identity, to unity, and to political alliances in Pratt's text is itself grounded
stable, contextual; it has to be constantly reevaluated in relation to critical po-
in and specific to her complex positionalities in a society divided very centrally
litical priorities; and it is the product of interpretation, interpretation based
by race, gender, class, ethnicity, and sexualities.
on an attention to history, to the concrete, to what Foucault (1980) has called
subjugated knowledges. There is also, however, a strong suggestion that com-
munity is related to experience, to history. For if identity and community are
not the product of essential connections, neither are they merely the prod-
uct of political urgency or necessity. For Pratt, they are a constant recontex-
tualizing of the relationship between personal/group history and political
priorities.
It is crucial, then, to avoid two traps, the purely experiential and the theo-
retical oversight of personal and collective histories. In Pratt's narrative, per-
sonal history acquires a materiality in the constant rewriting of herself in
relation to shifting interpersonal and political contexts. This rewriting is an
interpretive act which is itself embedded in social and political practice:

104 Feminism without Borders to5 What's Home Got to Do with It?
 has also had some problematic effects in the area of race and Third World /
postcolonial studies. One problematic effect of the postmodern critique of
essentialist notions of identity has been the dissolution of the category of
race—however, this is often accomplished at the expense of a recognition
of racism. Another effect has been the generation of discourses of diversity
CHAPTER FOUR and pluralism grounded in an apolitical, often individualized identity poli-
Sisterhood, Coalition, and the Politics of Experience tics.2 Here, questions of historical interconnection are transformed into ques-
tions of discrete and separate histories (or even herstories) and into ques-
tions of identity politics (this is different from recognizing the significance of
Feminist and antiracist struggles now face some of the same urgent ques- the politics of identity).3 I work through some of the effects here by suggest-
tions encountered in the 197os. After decades of feminist political activism ing the importance of analyzing and theorizing difference in the context of
feminist cross-cultural work. Through this theorization of experience, I sug-
and scholarship in a variety of sociopolitical and geographical locations, ques-
gest that historicizing and locating political agency is a necessary alternative
tions of difference (sex, race, class, nation), experience, and history remain
to formulations of the "universality" of gendered oppression and struggles.
at the center of feminist analysis. Only, at least in the U.S.academy, feminists
This universality of gender oppression is problematic, based as it is on the
no longer have to contend as they did in the 1970s with phallocentric denials
assumption that the categories of race and class have to be invisible for gen-
of the legitimacy of gender as a category of analysis. Instead, the crucial ques-
der to be visible. Claiming universality of gender oppression is not the same
tions now concern the construction, examination, and, most significantly,
as arguing for the universal rights of women based on the particularities of
the institutionalization of difference within feminist discourses. It is this in-
our experiences. I argue that the challenges posed by black and Third World
stitutionalization of difference that concerns me here. Specifically, I ask the
feminists can point the way toward a more precise, transformative feminist
following question: how does the politics of location in the United States
politics based on the specificity of our historical and cultural locations and
of the late twentieth and early twenty-first century determine and produce
our common contexts of struggle. Thus, the juncture of feminist and anti-
experience and difference as analytical and political categories in feminist
racist/Third World/postcolonial studies is of great significance, materially as
"cross-cultural" work? By the term "politics of location" I refer to the his-
well as methodologically:,
torical, geographical, cultural, psychic, and imaginative boundaries that pro-
Feminist analyses that attempt to cross national, racial, and ethnic bound-
vide the ground for political definition and self-definition for contemporary
aries produce and reproduce difference in particular ways. This codification
U.S.feminists.,
of difference occurs through the naturalization of analytic categories that are
Since the 1970s, there have been key paradigm shifts in Western femi-
supposed to have cross-cultural validity. I attempt an analysis of two feminist
nist theory. These shifts can be traced to political, historical, methodological,
texts that address the turn of the century directly. Both texts also foreground
and philosophical developments in our understanding of questions ofpower,
analytic categories that address questions of cross-cultural, cross-national
struggle, and social transformation. Feminists have drawn on decolonization
differences among women. Robin Morgan's "Planetary Feminism: The Poli-
movements around the world, on movements for racial equality, on peasant
tics of the 2Ist Century" and Bernice Johnson Reagon's "Coalition Politics:
struggles, and on gay and lesbian movements, as well as on the methodolo-
Turning the Century" are both movement texts and are written for diverse mass
gies of Marxism, psychoanalysis, deconstruction, and poststructuralism to
audiences. Morgan's essay forms the introduction to her 1984 book, Sister-
situate our thinking. While these developments have often led to progres-
hood is Global: The International Women's Movement Anthology, while Reagon's piece
sive, indeed radical, analyses of sexual difference, the focus on questions of
was first given as a talk at the West Coast Women's Music Festival in 198!
subjectivity and identity that is a hallmark of contemporary feminist theory
and has since been published in Barbara Smith's 1983 anthology, Home Girls:

107 The Politics of Experience

A Black Feminist Anthology.5 Both essays construct contesting notions of experi- King's analysis calls into question the authority and presence of "experience"
ence, difference, and struggle within and across cultural boundaries. I stage in constructing lesbian identity. She criticizes feminist analyses in which dif-
an encounter between these texts because they represent for me, despite their ference is inscribed simply within a lesbian/heterosexual framework, with
differences from each other, an alternative presence—a thought, an idea, a "experience" functioning as an unexamined, catch-all category. This is simi-
record of activism and struggle—that can help me both locate and position lar to the female/male framework Wittig calls attention to, for although the
myself in relation to "history." Through this presence, and with these texts, terms of the equation are different, the status and definition of "experience"
I can hope to approach the new century and not be overwhelmed. are the same. The politics of being "woman" or "lesbian" are deduced from the
The status of "female" or "woman/women's" experience has always been experience of being woman or lesbian. Being female is thus seen as naturally
a central concern in feminist discourse. After all, it is on the basis of shared related to being feminist, where the experience of being female transforms
experience that feminists of different political persuasions have argued for us into feminists through osmosis. Feminism is not defined as a highly con-
unity or identity among women. Teresa de Lauretis, in fact, gives this ques- tested political terrain; it is the mere effect of being female.6 This is what one
tion a sort of foundational status: "The relation of experience to discourse, might call the feminist osmosis thesis: females are feminists by association
finally, is what is at issue in the definition of feminism" (1986, 5). Feminist and identification with the experiences that constitute us as female.
discourses, critical and liberatory in intent, are not thereby exempt from in- The problem is, however, that we cannot avoid the challenge of theorizing
scription in their internal power relations. Thus the recent definition, clas- experience. For most of us would not want to ignore the range and scope of
sification, and assimilation of categories of experientially based notions of the feminist political arena, one characterized quite succinctly by de Lauretis:
"woman" (oranalogously, in some analyses, "lesbian") to forge political unity "[F]eminism defines itself as a political instance, not merely a sexual politics
require our attention and careful analysis. Gender is produced as well as un- but a politics of everyday life, which later. . . enters the public sphere of ex-
covered in feminist discourse, and definitions of experience, with attendant pression and creative practice, displacing aesthetic hierarchies and generic
notions of unity and difference, form the very basis of this production. For categories, and. . . thus establishes the semiotic ground for a different pro-
instance, gender inscribed within a purely male/female framework reinforces duction of reference and meaning" (1986, ro). It is this recognition that leads
what Monique Wittig (198o, 103-1o) has called the heterosexual contract. me to an analysis of the status of experience and difference and the relation
Here difference is constructed along male/female lines, and it is being female of this to political praxis in Morgan's and Reagon's texts.
(as opposed to male) that is at the center of the analysis. Identity is seen as
either male or female. A similar definition of experience can also be used to
"A Place on the Map Is Also a Place in History"
craft lesbian identity. Katie King's analysis indicates this:
The last three decades have witnessed the publication of numerous femi-
The construction of political identity in terms of lesbianism as a magi-
nist writings on what is generally referred to as an international women's
cal sign forms the pattern into which the feminist taxonomic identities of
movement, and we have its concrete embodiment in Sisterhood Is Global, a text
recent years attempt to assimilate themselves.... Identifying with lesbian-
that describes itself as "The international women's movement anthology."7
ism falsely implies that one knows all about heterosexism and homopho-
There is considerable difference between international feminist networks
bia magically through identity or association. The "experience" of lesbi-
organized around specific issues such as sex tourism and multinational ex-
anism is offered as salvation from the individual practice of heterosexism
ploitation of women's work, and the notion of an international women's
and homophobia and the source of intuitive institutional and structural
movement that, as I hope to demonstrate, implicitly assumes global or uni-
understanding of them. The power of lesbianism as a privileged signifier
versal sisterhood. But it is best to begin by recognizing the significance and
makes analysis of heterosexism and homophobia difficult since it obscures
value of the publication of an anthology such as this. The value of document-
the need for counter-intuitive challenges to ideology. (1986, 85)
ing the indigenous histories ofwomen's struggles is unquestionable. Morgan
io8 Feminism without Borders 109 The Politics of Experience
states that the book took twelve years in conception and development, five history and effects of contemporary imperialism. Robin Morgan seems to
years in actual work, and innumerable hours in networking and fundraising. situate all women (including herself) outside contemporary world history,
It is obvious that without Morgan's vision and perseverance this anthology leading to what I see as her ultimate suggestion, that transcendence rather
would not have been published. The range of writing represented is truly im- than engagement is the model for future social change. This, I think, is a
pressive. At a time when most of the globe seems to be taken over by religious model with dangerous implications for women who do not and cannot speak
fimdamentalism and big business, and the colonization of space takes prece- from a location of white, Western, middle-class privilege. A place on the map
dence over survival concerns, an anthology that documents women's orga- (New York City) is, after all, also a locatable place in history.
nized resistances has significant value in helping us envision a better future. In What is the relation between experience and politics in Morgan's text? In
fact, it is because I recognize the value and importance of this anthology that her opening essay, "Planetary Feminism," the category of "women's experi-
I am concerned about the political implications of Morgan's framework for ence" is constructed within two parameters: woman as victim, and woman
cross-cultural comparison. Thus my comments and criticisms are intended to as truth-teller. Morgan suggests that it is not mystical or biological common-
encourage a greater internal self-consciousness within feminist politics and alities that characterize women across cultures and histories but, rather, a
writing, not to lay blame or induce guilt. common condition and worldview:
Universal sisterhood is produced in Morgan's text through specific as-
The quality of feminist political philosophy (in all its myriad forms) makes
sumptions about women as a cross-culturally singular, homogeneous group
possible a totally new way of viewing international affairs, one less con-
with the same interests, perspectives, and goals and similar experiences. Mor-
cerned with diplomatic postures and abstractions, but focused instead on
gan's definitions of "women's experience" and history lead to a particular
concrete, unifying realities ofpriority importance to the survival and better-
self-presentation of Western women, a specific codification of differences
ment of living beings. For example, the historical, cross-cultural oppo-
among women, and eventually to what I consider to be problematic sugges-
sition women express to war and our healthy skepticism of certain tech-
tions for political strategy.8 Since feminist discourse is productive of analytic
nological advances (by which most men seem overly impressed at first
categories and strategic decisions that have material effects, the construction
and disillusioned at last) are only two instances of shared attitudes among
of the category of universal sisterhood in a text that is widely read deserves
women which seem basic to a common world view. Nor is there anything
attention. In addition, Sisterhood Is Global is still the only text that proclaims
mystical or biologically deterministic about this commonality. It is the re-
itself as the anthology of the international women's movement. It has been
sult of a common condition which, despite variations in degree, is experienced
distributed worldwide, and Morgan herself has earned the respect of femi-
by all human beings who are born female. (1984, 4)
nists everywhere. And since authority is always charged with responsibility,
the discursive production and dissemination of notions of universal sister- This may be convincing up to a point, but the political analysis that underlies
hood are together a significant political event that perhaps solicits its own Morgan's characterization of the commonality among women is shaky at best.
analysis. At various points in her essay, the "common condition" that women share is
Morgan's explicit intent is "to further the dialogue between and solidarity referred to as the suffering inflicted by a universal "patriarchal mentality" (0,
of women everywhere" (1984, 8). This is a valid and admirable project to the women's opposition to male power and androcentrism, and the experience of
extent that one is willing to assume, if not the reality, then at least the possi- rape, battery, labor, and childbirth. For Morgan, the magnitude of suffering
bility, of un iversal sisterhood on the basis ofsha red good will. But the moment experienced by most of the women in the world leads to their potential power
we attempt to articulate the operation of contemporary imperialism with the as a world political force, a force constituted in opposition to Big Brother in the
notion of an international women's movement based on global sisterhood, United States, Western and Eastern Europe, China, Africa, the Middle East,
the awkward political implications of Morgan's task become clear. Her par- and Latin America. The assertion that women constitute a potential world po-
ticular notion of universal sisterhood seems predicated on the erasure of the litical force is suggestive; however, Big Brother is not exactly the same even

Ho Feminism without Borders Hi The Politics of Experience

in, say, the United States and Latin America. Despite the similarity of power rhetoric" (xvi). In addition, Morgan asserts that women social scientists are
interests and location, the two contexts present significant differences in the "freer of androcentric bias" and "more likely to elicit more trust and ... more
manifestations of power and hence of the possibility of struggles against it. honest responses from female respondents of their studies" (xvii). There is
I part company with Morgan when she seems to believe that Big Brother is an argument to be made for women interviewing women, but I do not think
the same the world over because "he" simply represents male interests, not- this is it. The assumptions underlying these statements indicate to me that
withstanding particular imperial histories or the role of monopoly capital in Morgan thinks women have some kind of privileged access to the "real," the
different countries. "truth," and can elicit "trust" from other women purely on the basis of their
In Morgan's analysis, women are unified by their shared perspective (for being not-male. There is a problematic conflation here of the biological and
example, opposition to war), shared goals (betterment of human beings), and the psychological with the discursive and the ideological. "Women" are col-
shared experience of oppression. Here the homogeneity of women as a group lapsed into the "suppressed feminine" and men into the dominant ideology.
is produced not on the basis of biological essentials (Morgan offers a rich, The fact that truth (as well as the "real") is always mediated and dependant on
layered critique of biological materialism), but rather through the psycholo- the interpretative framework used is lost in this framework, as is the notion
gization of complex and contradictory historical and cultural realities. This that feminist frameworks are predicated on self-conscious political choices
leads in turn to the assumption of women as a unified group on the basis of and interpretive frames of the world and why being women matters in par-
secondary sociological universals. What binds women together is an ahistori- ticular ways.
cal notion of the sameness of their oppression and, consequently, the same- Thus these oppositions are possible only because Morgan implicitly erases
ness of their struggles.° Thus in Morgan's text cross-cultural comparisons are from her account the possibility that women might have acted, that they were
based on the assumption of the singularity and homogeneity of women as a anything but pure victims. For Morgan, history is a male construction; what
group. This homogeneity of women as a group is, in turn, predicated on a women need is herstory, separate and outside of his-story. The writing of
history (the discursive and the representational) is confused with women as
definition of the experience of oppression where difference can only be under-
historical actors. The fact that women are representationally absent from his-
stood as male/female. Morgan assumes universal sisterhood on the basis of
story does not mean that they are/were not significant social actors in history.
women's shared opposition to androcentrism, an opposition that, according
However, Morgan's focus on herstory as separate and outside history not only
to her, grows directly out of women's shared status as its victims. The ana-
hands overall ofworld history to the boys but potentially suggests that women
lytic elision between the experience of oppression and the opposition to it (which
have been universally duped, not allowed to "tell the truth," and robbed of
has to be based on an interpretation of experience) illustrates an aspect of what
all agency. The implication of this is that women as a group seem to have
I referred to earlier as the feminist osmosis thesis: being female and being
forfeited any kind of material referentiality.
feminist are one and the same; we are all oppressed and hence we all resist.
What, then, does this analysis suggest about the status of experience in
Politics and ideology as self-conscious struggles, and choices necessarily get
this text? In Morgan's account, women have a sort of cross-cultural coherence
written out of such an analysis.1°
as distinct from men. The status or position of women is assumed to be self-
Assumptions about the relation of experience to history are evident in Mor-
evident. However, this focus on the position of women whereby women are
gan's discussion of another aspect of women's experience: woman as truth-
seen as a coherent group in all contexts, regardless of class or ethnicity, struc-
teller. According to her, women speak of the "real" unsullied by "rhetoric" or
tures the world in ultimately Manichean terms, where women are always seen
"diplomatic abstractions." They, as opposed to men (also a coherent singular
in opposition to men, patriarchy is always essentially the invariable phenome-
group in this analytic economy), are authentic human beings whose "free-
non of male domination, and the religious, legal, economic, and familial sys-
dom of choice" has been taken away from them: "Our emphasis is on the
tems are implicitly assumed to be constructed by men. Here, men and women
individual voice ola woman speaking not as an official representative of her
are seen as whole groups with already constituted experiences as groups, and
country, but rather as a truth-teller, with an emphasis on reality as opposed to
113 The Politics of Experience
Hz Feminism without Borders
 questions of history, conflict, and difference are formulated from what can between behavior and its representation are either ignored or made irrelevant;
only be this privileged location of knowledge. experience is collapsed into discourse and viceversa. Second, since experience
Iam bothered, then, by the fact that Morgan can see contemporary imperi- has a fundamentally psychological status, questions of historyand collectivity
alism only in terms of a "patriarchal mentality" that is enforced by men as a are formulated on the level of attitude and intention. In effect, the sociality of
group. Women across class, race, and national boundaries are participants to collective struggles is understood in terms of something like individual group
the extent that we are "caught up in political webs not of our making which relations, relations that are commonsensically seen as detached from history.
we are powerless to unravel" (25). Since women as a unified group are seen If the assumption of the sameness of experience is what ties woman (indi-
as unimplicated in the process of history and contemporary imperialism, the vidual) to women (group), regardless of class, race, nation, and sexualities,
logical strategic response for Morgan appears to be political transcendence: the notion of experience is anchored firmly in the notion of the individual
"To fight back in solidarity, however, as a real political force requires that self, a determined and specifiable constituent of European modernity. How-
women transcend the patriarchal barriers of class and race, and furthermore, ever, this notion of the individual needs to be self-consciously historicized if
transcend even the solutions the Big Brothers propose to the problems they as feminists we wish to go beyond the limited bourgeois ideology of individu-
themselves created" (18). Morgan's emphasis on women's transcendence is alism, especially as we attempt to understand what cross-cultural sisterhood
evident in her discussions ofwomen's deep opposition to nationalism as prac- might be made to mean.
ticed in patriarchal society and women's involvement in peace and disarma- Toward the end of "Planetary Feminism" Morgan talks about feminist di-
ment movements across the world, because, in her opinion, they desire peace plomacy:
(as opposed to men, who cause war). Thus, the concrete reality of women's
What if feminist diplomacy turned out to be simply another form of the
involvement in peace movements is substituted by an abstract "desire" for
feminist aphorism "the personal is political"? Danda writes here of her
peace that is supposed to transcend race, class, and national conflicts among
own feminist epiphany, Amanda of her moments of despair, La Silenciada
women. Tangible responsibility and credit for organizing peace movements
of personally bearing witness to the death of a revolution's ideals. Tinne
is replaced by an essentialist and psychological unifying desire. The problem
confides her fears, Nawal addresses us in a voice direct from prison, Hilkla
is that in this case women are not seen as political agents; they are merely
tells us about her family and childhood; Ama Ata confesses the anguish
allowed to be well-intentioned. Although Morgan does offer some specific
of the woman artist, Stella shares her mourning with us, Mahnaz com-
suggestions for political strategy that require resisting "the system," her fim-
municates her grief and her hope, Nell her daring balance of irony and
damental suggestion is that women transcend the Left, the Right, and the
lyricism, Paola the story of her origins and girlhood. Manjula isn't afraid
Center, the law of the father, God, and the system. Since women have been
to speak of pain, Corrine traces her own political evolution along-side that
analytically constituted outside real politics or history, progress for them can
of her movement. Maria de Lourdes declares the personal and the political
only be seen in terms of transcendence.
inseparable. Motlalepula still remembers the burning of a particular ma-
The experience of struggle is thus defined as both personal and ahistori-
roon dress, Ingrid and Renate invite us into their private correspondence,
cal. In other words, the political is limited to the personal and all conflicts
Manelouise opens herself in a poem, Elena appeals personally to us for
among and within women are flattened. If sisterhood itself is defined on the
help. Gwendoline testifies about her private life as a public figure.... And
basis of personal intentions, attitudes, or desires, conflict is also automati-
do we not, after all, recognize one another? (35-36)
cally constructed on only the psychological level. Experience is thus written in
as simultaneously individual (that is, located in the individual body/psyche of It is this passage more than any other that encapsulates Morgan's individual-
woman) and general (located in women as a preconstituted collective). There ized and essentially equalizing notion of universal sisterhood and its corre-
seem to be two problems with this definition. First, experience is seen as being sponding political implications. The lyricism, the use of first names (the one
immediately accessible, understood, and named. The complex relationships and only time this is done) and the insistence that we must easily "recognize

114 Feminism without Borders 115 The Politics of Experience

one another" indicate what is left unsaid: we must identify with all women. dominant historical narrative that I find valuable in Reagon's (1983) discus-
But it is difficult to imagine such a generalized identification predicated on sion of coalition politics.
the commonality of women's interests and goals across very real divisive class
and ethnic lines—especially, for example, in the context of the mass prole-
"It Ain't Horne no More": Rethinking Unity
tarianization of Third World women by corporate capital based in the United
States, Europe, and Japan?' While Morgan uses the notion of sisterhood to construct a cross-cultural
Universal sisterhood, defined as the transcendence of the "male" world, unity of women and speaks of "planetary feminism as the politics of the
thus ends up being a middle-class, psychologized notion that effectively 21st century," Bernice Johnson Reagon uses coalition as the basis to talk about
erases material and ideological power differences within and among groups the cross-cultural commonality of struggles, identifying survival, rather than
of women, especially between First and Third World women (and, paradoxi- shared oppression, as the ground for coalition.13 She begins with this valu-
cally, removes us all as actors from history and politics). It is in this erasure able political reminder: "You don't go into coalition because you like it. The
of difference as inequality and dependence that the privilege of Morgan's po- only reason you would consider trying to team up with somebody who could
litical "location" might be visible. Ultimately in this reductive utopian vision, possibly kill you, is because that's the only way you can figure you can stay
men participate in politics while women can only hope to transcend it. Mor- alive" (1983, 357).
gan's notion of universal sisterhood does construct a unity. However, for me, The governing metaphor Reagon uses to speak ofcoalition, difference, and
the real challenge arises in being able to craft a notion of political unity with- struggle is that of a "barred room." However, whereas Morgan's barred room
out relying on the logic of appropriation and incorporation and, just as sig- might be owned and controlled by the Big Brothers in different countries,
nificantly, a denial of agency. I believe the unity of women is best understood Reagon's internal critique of the contemporary Left focuses on the barred
not as given, on the basis of a natural/psychological commonality; it is some- rooms constructed by oppositional political movements such as feminist, civil
thing that has to be worked for, struggled toward— in history. What we need rights, gay and lesbian, and Chicano/a political organizations. She maintains
to do is articulate ways in which the historical forms of oppression relate to that these barred rooms may provide a "nurturing space" fora little while, but
the category "women" and not to try to deduce one from the other. And it they ultimately provide an illusion of community based on isolation and the
is here that a formulation of feminist solidarity or coalition makes sense (in freezing of difference. Thus, while sameness of experience, oppression, cul-
contrast to a notion of universal sisterhood). In other words, it is Morgan's ture, and so on, may be adequate to construct this space, the moment we "get
formulation of the relation of synchronous, alternative histories (herstories) ready to clean house" this very sameness in community is exposed as having
to a diachronic, dominant historical narrative (History) that is problematic. been built on a debilitating ossification of difference.
One of the tasks of feminist analysis is uncovering alternative, nonidenti- Reagon is concerned with differences within political struggles and the
cal histories that challenge and disrupt the spatial and temporal location of a negative effects, in the long run, of a nurturing, "nationalist" perspective: "At
hegemonic history. However, attempts to uncover and locate alternative his- a certain stage nationalism is crucial to a people ifyou are going to ever impact
tories sometimes code these very histories either as totally dependent on and as a group in your own interest. Nationalism at another point becomes re-
determined by a dominant narrative or as isolated and autonomous narratives, actionary because it is totally inadequate for surviving in the world with many
untouched in their essence by the dominant figurations. In these rewritings, peoples" (358). This is similar to Gramsci's 1971 analysis of oppositional po-
what is lost is the recognition that it is the very coimplication of histories with litical strategy in terms of the difference between wars of maneuver (sepa-
History that helps us situate and understand oppositional agency.12 In Mor- ration and consolidation) and wars of position (reentry into the mainstream
gan's text, it is the move to characterize alternative herstories as separate and in order to challenge it on its own terms). Reagon's insistence on breaking
different from history that results in a denial of feminist agency. And it is this out of barred rooms and struggling for coalition is a recognition of the im-
potential repositioning of the relation of oppositional histories/spaces to a portance—indeed the inevitable necessity—of wars of position. It is based, I
ci6 Feminism without Borders c17 The Politics of Experience
think, on a recognition of the need to resist the imperatives of an expansion- scores the significance of the traditions of political struggle, what she calls
ist U.S.state and of imperial history. It is also, however, a recognition of the an "old-age perspective" —and this is, I would add, a transnational or cross-
limits of a narrow identity politics. For, once you open the door and let others cultural perspective. What is significant, however, is that the transnational
in, "the room don't feel like the room no more. And it ain't home no more" or cross-cultural is forged on the basis of memories and counternarratives,
(Reagon 1983, 359). not on an ahistorical universalism. For Reagon, cross-cultural, old-age per-
The relation of coalition to home is a central metaphor for Reagon. She spectives are founded on humility, the gradual chipping away of our assumed,
speaks of coalition as opposed, by definition, to home.I4 In fact, the confu- often ethnocentric centers of self/other definitions.
sion of home with coalition is what concerns her as an urgent problem, and Thus, her particular location and political priorities lead her to empha-
it is here that the status of experience in her text becomes clear. She criticizes size a politics of engagement (a war of position) and to interrogate totalizing
the idea of enforcing "women-only" or "woman-identified" space by using notions of difference and the identification of exclusive spaces as "homes."
an "in-house" definition of woman. What concerns her is not a sameness that Perhaps it is partly also her insistence on the urgency and difficult nature of
allows us to identify with one another as women but the exclusions particu- political struggle that leads Reagon to talk about difference in terms ofracism,
lar normative definitions of "woman" enforce. It is the exercise of violence in while Morgan often formulates difference in terms of cultural pluralism. This
creating a legitimate inside and an illegitimate outside in the name of identity is Reagon's way of "throwing yourself into the next century":
that is significant to her—in other words, the exercise of violence when unity
Most of us think that the space we live in is the most important space there
or coalition is confused with home and used to enforce a premature sister-
is, and that the condition we find ourselves in is the condition that must be
hood or solidarity. According to Reagon this comes from "taking a word like
changed or else. That is only partially the case. If you analyze the situation
'women' and using it as a code" (360). The experience of being woman can
properly, you will know that there might be a few things you can do in your
create an illusory unity, for it is not the experience of being woman, but the
personal, individual interest so that you can experience and enjoy change.
meanings attached to gender, race, class, and age at various historical mo-
But most of the things that you do, if you do them right, are for people who
ments that is of strategic significance. In other words, it is the kind of inter-
live long after you are forgotten. That will happen ifyou give it away.... The
pretive frame we use to analyze experiences anchored in gender, race, class,
only way you can take yourself seriously is if you can throw yourself into
and sexual oppression that matters.
the next period beyond your little meager human-body-mouth-talking all
Thus, by calling into question the term "woman" as the automatic basis of
the time. (365)
unity, Reagon wants to splinter the notion of experience suggested by Mor-
gan. Her critique of nationalist and culturalist positions, which after an initial We take ourselves seriously only when we go "beyond" ourselves, valuing not
necessary period of consolidation work in harmful and exclusionary ways, just the plurality of the differences among us but also the massive presence
provides us with a fundamentally political analytic space for an understanding of the Difference that our recent planetary history has installed. This "Dif-
of experience. By always insisting on an analysis of the operations and effects ference" is what we see only through the lenses of our present moment, our
of power in our attempts to create alternative communities, Reagon fore- present struggles. And this "Difference" emerges in the presence of global
grounds our strategic locations and positionings. Instead of separating ex- capitalism at this time in history.
perience and politics and basing the latter on the former, she emphasizes the I have looked at two feminist texts and argued that feminist discourse must
politics that always define and inform experience (in particular, in left, anti- be self-conscious in its production of notions of experience and difference.
racist, and feminist communities). By examining the differences and poten- The rationale for staging an encounter between the two texts, written by a
tial divisions within political subjects as well as collectives, Reagon offers an white and black activist respectively, was not to identify "good" and "bad"
implicit critique of totalizing theories of history and social change. She under- feminist texts. Instead, I was interested in foregrounding questions of cross-

x x8 Feminism without Borders 119 The Politics of Experience

1;
cultural analysis that permeate "movement" or popular (not just academic) temporality of struggle, I create the historical ground from which I can define
feminist texts and in indicating the significance of a politics of location in myself in the United States of the twenty-first century, a place from which I
the United States of the late twentieth century. Instead of privileging a certain can speak to the future—not the end of an era but the promise of many.
limited version of identity politics, it is the current intersection of antiracist, The United States of America is a geopolitical power seemingly unbounded
anti-imperialist, and gay and lesbian struggles that we need to understand to in its effects, peopled with "natives" struggling for land and legal rights, and
map the ground for feminist political strategy and critical analysis» "immigrants" with their own histories and memories. Alicia Dujovne Ortiz
A text that acquired a place in feminist discourse in the ig9os similar writes about Buenos Aires as "the very image of expansiveness" (1986-87, 76).
to the one that Sisterhood Is Global occupied in the 198os is The Challen,ge of This is also how I visualize the United States. Ortiz writes of Buenos Aires:
Local Feminisms: Women's Movements in Global Perspective, edited by Amrita
A city without doors. Or rather, a port city, a gateway which never closes. I
The contrast of local/global in the titles of the Morgan and Basu books in-
have always been astonished by those great cities of the world which have
dicate a significant shift in perspective. The analytic basis of The Challenge of such precise boundaries that one can say exactly where they end. Buenos
Local Feminisms is the networking across local specificities toward universal Aires has no end. One wants to ring it with a beltway, as if to point an index
objectives, not assumptions of universal sisterhood or experiential "unity" finger, trembling with uncertainty and say: "You end there. Up to this point
among women across cultures. Basu and the other contributors writing about you are you. Beyond that, God alone knows!" . . . a city that is impossible
women's movements in Asia, Africa, the Middle East, Latin America, Russia, to limit with the eye or the mind. So, what does it mean to say that one is a
Europe, and the United States are critical of the kind of "universalizing femi- native of Buenos Aires? To belong to Buenos Aires, to be Porteno— to come
nism" exemplified in Morgan's essay. They focus instead on finding common from this Port? What does this mean? What or who can we hang onto?
ground across regions, politics, and issues. The "local" is thus privileged but Usually we cling to history or geography. In this case, what are we to do?
always in relation to the "global." Here geography is merely an abstract line that marks the separation of the
A reading of the Morgan and Reagon texts opens up for mea temporalityof earth and sky. (76)
struggle, which disrupts and challenges the logic of linearity, development,
and progress that are the hallmarks of European modernity. But why focus If the logic of imperialism and the logic of modernity share a notion of time,
on a temporality of struggle? And how do I define my place on the map? For they also share a notion of space as territory. In the North America of the
me, the notion of a temporality of struggle defies and subverts the logic of twenty-first century, geography seems more and more like "an abstract line
European modernity and the "law of identical temporality." It suggests an that marks the separation of the earth and sky." Witness the struggle for con-
insistent, simultaneous, nonsynchronous process characterized by multiple trol over oil in the name of "democracy and freedom" in Saudi Arabia. Wit-
locations, rather than a search for origins and endings, which, as Adrienne ness especially, the "war against terrorism" after the events of It September
Rich says, "seems a way of stopping time in its tracks" (1986, 227). The year zoot. The borders and autonomy of nation-states, the geographies of nation-
2000 was the end of the Christian millennium, and Christianity is certainly
hood are irrelevant in this war, which can justify imperialist aggression in the
an indelible part of postcolonial history. But we cannot afford to forget those name of the "homeland security" of the United States. Even the boundaries
alternative, resistant spaces occupied by oppositional histories and memo- between space and outer space are not binding any more. In this expansive
ries. For instance, the year 2000 was also the year 5760 in the Hebrew calendar and expanding continent, how dol locate myself? And what does location as I
and year 1420 in the Arabic calendar. It was 6240 according to the Egyptian have inherited it have to do with self-conscious, strategic location as I choose
calendar, and 4677 according to the Chinese calendar. And it was "just an- it now?
other day" according to Oren Lyons, the Faithkeeper of the Onondaga Nation A National Public Radio news broadcast announces that all immigrants to
in New York. By not insisting on a history or a geography but focusing on a the United States have to undergo mandatory AIDS testing. I am reminded

120 Feminism without Borders 121 The Politics of Experience

very sharply of the twenty some years of my immigrant status in this coun- years. But that is my preferred history: what I hope and struggle for, I gar-
try, of the plastic identification card that was proof of my legitimate location ner as my knowledge, create it as the place from where I seek to know. After
in the United States. My location has shifted dramatically now since I am a all, it is the way in which I understand, define, and engage in feminist, anti-
U.S. citizen —a change necessitated by my adoption from India of my daugh- imperialist, and antiracist collectives and movements that anchors my belief
ter Uma in 1998. But location, for feminists, necessarily implies self- as well in the future and in the efficacy of struggles for social change.
as collective definition, since meanings of the self are inextricably bound up
with our understanding of collectives as social agents. For me, a compara-
tive reading of Morgan's and Reagon's documents of activism precipitates
the recognition that experience of the self, which is often discontinuous and
fragmented, must be historicized before it can be generalized into a collective
vision. In other words, experience must be historically interpreted and theo-
rized if it is to become the basis of feminist solidarity and struggle, and it is at
this moment that an understanding of the politics of location proves crucial.
In this country I am, for instance, subject to a number of legal/political
definitions: "postcolonial," "immigrant," "Third World," and now "citizen of
color." These definitions, while in no way comprehensive, do trace an analytic
and political space from which I can insist on a temporality of struggle. Move-
ment among cultures, languages, and complex configurations of meaning
and power have always been the territory of the colonized. It is this process,
what Caren Kaplan in her discussion of the reading and writing of home/exile
has called "a continual reterritorialization, with the proviso that one moves
on" (1986-87, 98), that I am calling a temporality of struggle. It is this pro-
cess, this reterritorialization through struggle, that allows me a paradoxical
continuity of self, mapping and transforming my political location. It sug-
gests a particular notion of political agency, since my location forces and en-
ables specific modes of reading and knowing the dominant. The struggles I
choose to engage in are then an intensification of these modes of knowing—
an engagement on a different level of knowledge. There is, quite simply no
transcendental location possible in the United States today.
I have argued fora politics ofengagement rather than a politics of transcen-
dence, for the present and the future. I know—in my own nonsynchronous
temporality— that the antiglobalization movements of the past five years will
gain momentum, that the resistance to and victory over the efforts of the U.S.
government and multinational mining conglomerates to relocate the Navajo
and Hopi reservations from Big Mountain, Arizona, will be written into ele-
mentary school textbooks, and the Palestinian homeland will no longer be
referred to as the "Middle East question" — it will be a reality in the next few

122 Feminism without Borders 123 The Politics of Experience

 rative or "myth" of capitalism as "democracy" but also to the mythologies
that feminists ofvarious races, nations, classes, and sexualities have inherited
about one another. I believe one of the greatest challenges we (feminists) face
is this task of recognizing and undoing the ways in which we colonize and
objectif), our different histories and cultures, thus colluding with hegemonic
CHAPTER FIVE
processes of domination and rule. Dialogue across differences is thus fraught
Genealogies of Community, Home, and Nation with tension, competitiveness, and pain. Just as radical or critical multicul-
turalism cannot be the mere sum or coexistence of different cultures in a pro-
foundly unequal, colonized world, multicultural feminism cannot assume the
Why craft genealogies in conversations about "transnational multicultural existence of a dialogue among feminists from different communities without
feminism?" At a time when globalization (and monoculturalism) is the pri- specifying a just and ethical basis for such a dialogue.
mary economic and cultural practice to capture and hold hostage the material Undoing ingrained racial and sexual mythologies within feminist commu-
resources and economic and political choices of vast numbers of the world's nities requires, in Jacqui Alexander's words, that we "become fluent in each
population, what are the concrete challenges for feminists of varied genealo- other's histories." It also requires seeking "unlikely coalitions" (Davis 1998,
gies working together? Within the context of the history of feminist struggle 299) and, I would add, clarifying the ethics and meaning of dialogue. What are
the conditions, the knowledges, and the attitudes that make a noncolonized
in the United States, the 198os were a period of euphoria and hope for femi-
dialogue possible? How can we craft a dialogue anchored in equality, respect,
nists of color, gay and lesbian, and antiracist, white feminists. Excavating
and dignity for all peoples? In other words, I want to suggest that one of the
subjugated knowledges and histories in order to craft decolonized, opposi-
most crucial challenges for a critical multicultural feminism is working out
tional racial and sexual identities and political strategies that posed direct
how to engage in ethical and caring dialogues (and revolutionary struggles)
challenges to the gender, class, race, and sexual regimes of the capitalist U.S.
across the divisions, conflicts, and individualist identity formations that inter-
nation-state anchored the practice of antiracist, multicultural feminisms.
weave feminist communities in the United States. Defining genealogies is one
At the start of this century, however, I believe the challenges are some-
crucial element in creating such a dialogue.
what different. Globalization, or the unfettered mobility of capital and the
Just as the very meaning and basis for dialogue across difference and power
accompanying erosion and reconstitution of local and national economic and
needs to be analyzed and carefully crafted, the way we define genealogies also
political resources and of democratic processes, the post-cold war U.S. im-
poses a challenge. Genealogies that not only specify and illuminate histori-
perialist state, and the trajectories of identity-based social movements in the
cal and cultural differences but also envision and enact common political and
198os and 19905 constitute the ground for transnational feminist engagement
intellectual projects across these differences constitute a crucial element of
in the twenty-first century. Multicultural feminism that is radical, antiracist,
the work of building critical multicultural feminism.
and nonheterosexist thus needs to take on a hegemonic capitalist regime and
To this end I offer a personal, anecdotal meditation on the politics of gen-
conceive of itself as also crossing national and regional borders. Questions of
der and race in the construction of South Asian identity in North America. My
"home," "belonging," "nation," and community" thus become profoundly
location in the United States is symptomatic of large numbers of migrants,
complicated.
nomads, immigrants, workers across the globe for whom notions of home,
One concrete task that feminist educators, artists, scholars, and activists
identity, geography, and history are infinitely complicated in the twenty-first
face is that of historicizing and denaturalizing the ideas, beliefs, and values
century. Questions of nation(ality), and of "belonging" (witness the situation
of global capital such that underlying exploitative social relations and struc-
of South Asians in Africa) are constitutive of the Indian diaspora.
tures are made visible. This means being attentive not only to the grand nar-

125 Community, Home, and Nation

 Emotional and Political Geographies of Belonging Since settled notions of territory, community, geography, and history don't
work for us, what does it really mean to be "South Asian" in the United States?
On a TWA flight on my way back to the United States from a conference
Obviously, I was not South Asian in India: I was Indian. What else could one
in the Netherlands, the white professional man sitting next to me asks which
be but "Indian" at a time when a successful national independence struggle
school I go to and when I plan to go home—all in the same breath. I put on
had given birth to a socialist democratic nation-state? This was the begin-
my most professorial demeanor (somewhat hard in crumpled blue jeans and
ning of the decolonization of the Third World. Regional geography (South
cotton T-shirt) and inform him that I teach at a small liberal arts college in
Asia) appeared less relevant as a mark of identification than citizenship in a
upstate New York and that I have lived in the United States for over twenty
postcolonial independent nation on the cusp of economic and political au-
years. At this point, my work is in the United States, not in India. (This is no
tonomy. However, in North America, identification as South Asian (in addi-
longer entirely true — my work is also with feminists and grassroots activists
tion to Indian, in my case) takes on its own logic. "South Asian" refers to folks
in India, but he doesn't need to know this.) Being "mistaken" for a gradu-
of Indian, Pakistani, Sri Lankan, Bangladeshi, Kashmiri, and Burmese ori-
ate student seems endemic to my existence in this country: few Third World
gin. Identifying as South Asian rather than Indian adds numbers and hence
women are granted professional (i.e., adult) and/or permanent (one is always
power within the U.S. state. Besides, regional differences among those from
a student) status in the United States, even if we exhibit clear characteristics
different South Asian countries are often less relevant than the commonali-
of adulthood such as gray hair and facial lines. The man ventures a further
ties based on our experiences and histories of immigration, treatment, and
question: what do I teach? On hearing "women's studies," he becomes quiet
location in the United States.
and we spend the next eight hours in polite silence. He has decided that Ido
Let me reflect a bit on the way I identify myself, and the way the U.S.
not fit into any of his categories, but what can you expect from a feminist (an
state and its institutions categorize me. Perhaps thinking through the vari-
Asian one) anyway? I feel vindicated and a little superior, even though I know
ous labels will lead me to the question of home and identity. In 1977, I arrived
he doesn't really feel "put in his place." Why should he? He claims a number
in the United States on a F1 visa (a student visa). At that time, my definition
of advantages in this situation: white skin, maleness, and citizenship privi-
of myself—a graduate student in education at the University of Illinois—and
leges. Judging by his enthusiasm for expensive "ethnic food" in Amsterdam,
the "official" definition of me (a student allowed into the country on a Fl visa)
and his J. Crew clothes, I figured class difference (economic or cultural) wasn't
obviously coincided. Then I was called a "foreign student" and expected to go
exactly a concern in our interaction. We both appeared to have similar social
"home" (to India, even though my parents were in Nigeria at the time) after
access as "professionals."
getting my Ph.D. This is the assumed trajectory for a number of Indians, espe-
I have been asked the "home" question (when are you going home?) peri-
cially the postindependence (my) generation, who come to the United States
odically for twenty years now. Leaving aside the subtly racist implications of
for graduate study.
the question (go home, you don't belong), I am still not satisfied with my re-
However, this was not to be my trajectory. I quickly discovered that being a
sponse. What is home? The place I was born? Where I grew up? Where my
foreign student, and a woman at that, meant being either dismissed as irrele-
parents live? Where I live and work as an adult? Where I locate my community,
vant (the quiet Asian woman stereotype), or treated in racist ways (my teach-
my people? Who are "my people"? Is home a geographical space, a histori-
ers asked if I understood English and if they should speak slower and louder
cal space, an emotional, sensory space? Home is always so crucial to immi-
so that I could keep up—this in spite of my inheritance of the Queen's En-
grants and migrants —I even write about it in scholarly texts (perhaps to avoid
glish and British colonialism) or celebrated and exoticized ("You are so smart!
addressing it, as an issue that is also very personal?). What interests me is
Your accent is even better than that of Americans" —a little Anglophilia at
the meaning of home for immigrants and migrants. Iam convinced that this
work here, even though all my Indian colleagues insist we speak English the
question—how one understands and defines home—is a profoundly politi-
Indian way).
cal one.
The most significant transition I made at that time was the one from "for-

126 Feminism without Borders 127 Community, Home, and Nation

 71111111•••••--

eign student" to "student of color." Once I was able to "read" my experiences began to be located within a deeply political space where racialization and
in terms of race, and to read race and racism as they are written into the social gender and class relations and histories became the prism through which
and political fabric of the United States, practices of racism and sexism be- I understood, however partially, what it could mean to be South Asian in
came the analytic and political lenses through which I was able to anchor my- North America. Interestingly, this recognition also forced me to reexamine
self here. Of course, none of this happened in isolation: friends, colleagues, the meanings attached to home and community in India.
comrades, classes, books, films, arguments, and dialogues were constitutive What I chose to claim, and continue to claim, is a history of anticolonialist,
of my political education as a woman of color in the United States. feminist struggle in India. The stories I recall, the ones that I retell and claim
In the late 1970s and early 198os feminism was gaining momentum on as my own, determine the choices and decisions I make in the present and
American campuses: it was in the air, in the classrooms, on the streets. How- the future. I did not want to accept a history of Hindu chauvinist (bourgeois)
ever, what attracted me wasn't feminism as the mainstream media and white upward mobility (even though this characterizes a section of my extended
women's studies departments defined it. Instead, it was a very specific kind family). We all choose partial, interested stories/histories—perhaps not as
of feminism, the feminism of U.S. women of color and Third World women, deliberately as I am making it sound here, but, consciously or unconsciously,
that spoke to me. In thinking through the links among gender, race, and class these choices about our past(s) often determine the logic of our present.
in their U.S. manifestations, I was for the first time able to think through my Having always kept my distance from conservative, upwardly mobile
own gendered, classed, postcolonial history. In the early 198os, reading Audre Indian immigrants, to whom the South Asian world in the United States was
Lorde, Nawal el Sadaawi, Angela Davis, Cherrie Moraga, bell hooks, Gloria divided into green card holders and non-green card holders, the only South
Joseph, Paula Gunn Allen, Barbara Smith, Merle Woo, and Mitsuye Yamada, Asian links I allowed and cultivated were with South Asians with whom I
among others, generated a sort of recognition that was intangible but very shared a political vision. This considerably limited my community. Racist and
inspiring. A number of actions, decisions, and organizing efforts at that time sexist experiences in graduate school and after made it imperative that I under-
led me to a sense of home and community in relation to women of color in stand the United States in terms of its history of racism, imperialism, and
the United States: home, not as a comfortable, stable, inherited, and famil- patriarchal relations, specifically in relation to Third World immigrants. After
iar space but instead as an imaginative, politically charged space in which all, we were then into the Reagan-Bush years, when the neoconservative back-
the familiarity and sense of affection and commitment lay in shared collec- lash made it impossible to ignore the rise of racist, antifeminist, and homo-
tive analysis of social injustice, as well as a vision of radical transformation. phobic attitudes, practices, and institutions. Any purely culturalist or nostal-
Political solidarity and a sense of family could be melded together imagina- gic sentimental definition of being "Indian" or "South Asian" was inadequate.
tively to create a strategic space I could call "home." Politically, intellectually, Such a definition fueled the "model minority" myth. And this subsequently
and emotionally I owe an enormous debt to feminists of color—especially constituted us as "outsiders/foreigners" or as interest groups that sought or
to the sisters who have sustained me over the years. A number of us, includ- had obtained the American dream.
ing Barbara Smith, Papusa Molina, Jacqui Alexander, Gloria Joseph, Mitsuye In the 198os, the labels changed: I went from being a "foreign student"
Yamada, Kesho Scott, among others, met in 1984 to discuss the possibility to being a "resident alien." I have always thought that this designation was a
of a Women of Color Institute for Radical Research and Action. Even though stroke of inspiration on the part of the U.S. state, since it accurately names
our attempt to start the institute fell through, the spirit of this vision, and the the experience and status of immigrants, especially immigrants of color. The
friendships it generated, still continue to nurture me and keep alive the idea flip side of "resident alien" is "illegal alien," another inspired designation.
of founding such an institute one day. One can be either a resident or illegal immigrant, but one is always an alien.
For me, engagement as a feminist of color in the United States made pos- There is no confusion here, no melting pot ideology or narratives of assimila-
sible an intellectual and political genealogy of being Indian that was radically tion: one's status as an "alien" is primary. Being legal requires identity papers.
challenging as well as profoundly activist. Notions of home and community (It is useful to recall that the "passport" — and by extensions the concept of

128 Feminism without Borders 129 Community, Home, and Nation

 nation-states and the sanctity of their borders—came into being after World reflect on the complicated meanings attached to holding Indian citizenship
War I.) while making a life for myself in the United States. In India, what does it mean
One must be stamped as legitimate (that is, not gay or lesbian and not to have a green card or U.S. passport, to be an expatriate? What does it mean
communist) by the Immigration and Naturalization Service. The INS is one to visit Mumbai (Bombay) every two to four years and still call it home? Why
of the central disciplinary arms of the U.S. government. It polices the bor- does speaking in Marathi (my mother tongue) become a measure and con-
ders and controls all border crossings, especially those into the United States. firmation of home? What are the politics of being a part of the majority and
In fact, the I NS is also one of the primary forces that institutionalizes race the "absent elite" in India, while being a minority and a racialized "other" in
differences in the public arena, thus regulating notions of home, legitimacy, the United States? And do feminist politics, or advocating feminism, have the
and economic access to the "American dream" for many of us. For instance, same meanings and urgencies in these different geographical and political
carrying a green card documenting resident alien status in the United States contexts?
is clearly very different from carrying an American passport, which is proof Some of these questions hit me smack in the face during a visit to India in
of U.S. citizenship. The former allows one to enter the United States with few December 1992, after the infamous destruction of the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya
hassles; the latter often allows one to breeze through the borders and ports of by Hindu fundamentalists on 6 December 1992. (Horrifically, these deadly
entry of other countries, especially countries that happen to be trading part- clashes between Hindus and Muslims took a new turn in March 2002, with
ners (much of Western Europe and Japan, among others) orinan unequal re- Muslims burning a train full of Hindus returning from Ayodhya, inaugurating
lationship with the United States (much of the noncommunist Third World). yet another continuing bloodbath.) In my earlier, rather infrequentvisits (once
At a time when notions of a capitalist free-market economy is seen (falsely) every four or five years was all I could afford), my green card designated me as
as synonymous with the values attached to democracy, an American passport an object of envy, privilege, and status within my extended family. Of course,
can open many doors. However, just carrying an American passport is no in- the same green card has always been viewed with suspicion by leftist and
surance against racism and unequal and unjust treatment within the United feminist friends, who (quite understandably) demand evidence of my ongoing
States. commitment to a socialist and democratic India. During my 1992 visit, how-
A comparison of the racialization of South Asian immigrants to second- ever, with emotions running high within my family, my green card marked
generation South Asian Americans suggests one significant difference be- me as an outsider who couldn't possibly understand the "Muslim problem" in
tween these two generations: experiencing racism as a phenomenon specific India. I was made aware of being an "outsider" in two profoundly troubling
to the United States, versus growing up in the ever-present shadow of racism shouting matches with my uncles, who voiced the most hostile sentiments
in the case of South Asians born in the United States. This difference in ex- against Muslims. Arguing that India was created as a secular state and that
perience would suggest that the psychic effects of racism would also be be dif- democracy had everything to do with equality for all groups (majority and mi-
ferent for these two constituencies. In addition, questions of home, identity, nority) got me nowhere. The very fundamentals of democratic citizenship in
and history take on very different meanings for South Asians born in North India were/are being undermined and redefined as "Hindu."
America. But this comparison requires a whole other reflection that is beyond Mumbai was one of the cities hardest hit with waves of communal vio-
the scope of this chapter. lence following the events of Ayodhya. The mobilization of Hindu fundamen-
talists, even paramilitary organizations, over the last century and especially
since the mid-rg4os, had brought Mumbai to a juncture at which the most
Home/Nation/Community:
violently racist discourse about Muslims seemed to be woven into the fabric
The Politics of Being Nri (Nonresident Indian)
of acceptable daily life. Racism was normalized in the popular imagination
Rather obstinately, I refused to give up my Indian passport and chose to such that it became almost impossible to raise questions in public about the
remain a resident alien in the United States for many years.' This leads me to ethics or injustice of racial/ethnic/religious discrimination. I could not as-

130 Feminism without Borders 131 Community, Home, and Nation

sume a distanced posture toward religion anymore. Too many injustices were As in Christian, Islamic, and Jewish fundamentalist discourses, the construc-
being committed in my name. tion of femininity and masculinity, especially in relation to the idea of the na-
Although born into a Hindu family, I have always considered myself a tion, are central to Hindu fundamentalist rhetoric and mobilizations. Women
nonpracticing Hindu—religion had always felt rather repressive when I was are not only mobilized in the "service" of the nation, but they also become
growing up. I enjoyed the rituals but resisted the authoritarian hierarchies the ground on which discourses of morality and nationalism are written. For
of organized Hinduism. However, the Hinduism touted by fundamentalist instance, the RSS mobilizes primarily middle-class women in the name of a
organizations like the RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, a paramilitary family-oriented Hindu nation, much as the Christian Right does in the United
Hindu fundamentalist organization founded in the 193os) and the Shiv Sena (a States. But discourses of morality and nation are also embodied in the nor-
Maharashtrian chauvinist, fundamentalist, fascist political organization that mative policing of women's sexuality (witness the surveillance and control of
has amassed a significant voice in Mumbai politics and government) was one women's dress in the name of morality by the contemporary Iranian state and
that even I, in my ignorance, recognized as reactionary and distorted. But this Taliban-ruled Afghanistan). Thus, one of the central challenges Indian femi-
discourse was real — hate-filled rhetoric against Muslims appeared to be the nists face at this time is how to rethink the relationship of nationalism and
mark of a "loyal Hindu." It was heart-wrenching to see my hometown be- feminism in the context of religious identities. In addition to the fundamen-
come a war zone, with streets set on fire and a daily death count to rival any talist mobilization that is tearing the country apart, the recent incursions of
major territorial border war. The smells and textures of my beloved Mumbai, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, with their structural ad-
of home, which had always comforted and nurtured me, were violently dis- justment programs that are supposed to "discipline" the Indian economy, are
rupted. The scent of fish drying on the lines at the fishing village in Danda redefining the meaning of postcoloniality and of democracy in India. Cate-
was submerged in the smell of burning straw and grass as whole bastis (chawls) gories such as gender, race, caste/class are profoundly and visibly unstable
were burned to the ground. The very topography, language, and relationships at such times of crisis. These categories must thus be analyzed in relation
that constituted "home" were exploding. What does community mean in this to contemporary reconstructions of womanhood and manhood in a global
context? arena increasingly dominated by religious fundamentalist movements, the
December 1992 both clarified as well as complicated for me the meanings IMF, the World Bank, and the relentless economic and ideological coloniza-
attached to being an Indian citizen, a Hindu, an educated woman feminist, tion of much of the world by multinationals based in the United States, Japan,
and a permanent resident in the United States in ways that I have yet to re- and Europe. In all these global economic and cultural/ ideological processes,
solve. After all, it is often moments of crisis that make us pay careful attention women occupy a crucial position.
to questions of identity. Sharp polarizations force one to make choices (not In India, unlike most countries, the sex ratio has declined since the early
in order to take sides, but in order to accept responsibility) and to clarify one's woos. According to the 1991 census, the ratio was 929 women to t,000 men,
own analytic, political, and emotional topographies. one of the lowest sex ratios in the world. Women produce 70 to 8o percent of
I learned that combating the rise of Hindu fundamentalism was a neces- all the food in India and have always been the hardest hit by environmental
sary ethical imperative for all socialists, feminists, and Hindus of conscience. degradation and poverty. The contradictions between civil law and Hindu and
Secularism, if it meant absence of religion, was no longer a viable position. Muslim personal laws affect women but rarely men. Horrific stories about the
From a feminist perspective, it became clear that the battle for women's minds deliberate genocide of female infants as a result of sex determination pro-
and hearts was very much center stage in the Hindu fundamentalist rhetoric cedures such as amniocentesis and recent incidents of sari (self-immolation
and social position of women. (Two journals, the Economic and Political Weekly by women on the funeral pyres of their husbands) have even hit the main-
of India and Manushi, are good sources for this work.) stream American media. Gender and religious (racial) discrimination are thus
Religious fundamentalist constructions of women embody the nexus of urgent, life-threatening issues for women in India. Over the last decade or so,
morality, sexuality, and nation— a nexus of great importance for feminists. a politically conscious Indian citizenship has necessitated taking such fun-

132 Feminism without Borders 133 Community, Home, and Nation

 damentally feminist issues seriously. In fact, these are the very same issues communities, being South Asian was a matter of being simultaneously visible
South Asian feminists in the United States need to address. My responsi- and invisible as a brown woman. Here, too, my brownness and facial struc-
bility to combat and organize against the regressive and violent repercussions ture marked me visibly as sometimes Latina, sometimes Native American (evi-
of Hindu fundamentalist mobilizations in India extends to my life in North denced by being hailed numerous times in the street as both). Even being
America. After all, much of the money that sustains the fundamentalist move- Asian, as in being from a part of the world called "Asia," had less meaning
ment is raised and funneled through organizations in the United States. in New Mexico, especially since "Asian" was synonymous with "East Asian":
the "South" always fell out. Thus, while I could share some experiences with
Latinas and Native American women, for instance, the experience of being
On Race, Color, and Politics: Being South Asian in North America
an "alien" — an outsider within, a woman outside the purview of normalized
It is a number of years since I wrote the bulk of this chapter,2 and as I re- U.S. citizenship—my South Asian genealogy also set me apart. Shifting the
read it, I am struck by the presence of the journeys and border-crossings that color line by crossing the geography and history of the American West and
weave into and anchor my thinking about genealogies. The very crossing of Southwest thus foregrounded questions about being South Asian in a space
regional, national, cultural, and geographical borders seems to enable me to where, first, my brownness was not read against blackness, and second, Asian
reflect on questions of identity, community, and politics. In the past years I was already definitively cast as East Asian. In this context, what is the rela-
have journeyed to and lived among peoples in San Diego, California; Albu- tion of South Asian to Asian American (read: East Asian American)? And why
querque, New Mexico; London, England; and Cuttack, India. My appearance does it continue to feel more appropriate, experientially and strategically, to
as a brown woman with short, dark, graying hair remained the same, but in call myself a woman of color or Third World woman? Geographies have never
each of these living spaces I learned something slightly different about being coincided with the politics of race. And claiming racial identities based on
South Asian in North America; about being a brown woman in the midst of history, social location, and experience is always a matter of collective analy-
other brown women with different histories and genealogies. sis and politics. Thus, while geographical spaces provide historical and cul-
I want to conclude with a brief reflection on my journeys to California tural anchors (Marathi, Mumbai, and India are fundamental to my sense of
and New Mexico, since they complicate further the question of being South myself), it is the deeper values and strategic approach to questions of eco-
Asian in North America. A rather obvious fact, which had not been experi- nomic and social justice and collective anticapitalist struggle that constitute
entially visible to me earlier, is that the color line differs depending on one's my feminism. Perhaps this is why journeys across the borders of regions and
geographical location in the United States. Having lived on the East Coast nations always provoke reflections of home, identity, and politics for me:
for many years, my designation as "brown," "Asian," "South Asian," "Third there is no clear or obvious fit between geography, race, and politics for some-
World," and "immigrant" has everything to do with definitions of "black- one like me. Iam always called on to define and redefine these relationships —
ness" (understood specifically as African American). However, San Diego, "race," "Asianness," and "brownness" are not embedded in me, whereas his-
with its histories of immigration and racial struggle, its shared border with tories of colonialism, racism, sexism, and nationalism, as well as of privilege
Mexico, its predominantly brown (Chicano and Asian-American) color line, (class and status) are involved in my relation to white people and people of
and its virulent anti-immigrant culture unsettled my East Coast definitions color in the United States.
of race and racialization. I could pass as Latina until I spoke my "Indian" Let me now circle back to the place I began: defining genealogies as a cru-
English, and then being South Asian became a question of (in)visibility and cial aspect of crafting critical multicultural feminist practice and the mean-
foreignness. Being South Asian here was synonymous with being alien, non- ings I have come to give to home, community, and identity. By exploring the
American. relationship between being a South Asian immigrant in America and an ex-
Similarly, in New Mexico, where the normative meanings of race and color patriate Indian citizen (N RI) in India, I have tried, however partially and anec-
find expression in the relations between Native American, Chicano, and Anglo dotally, to clarify the complexities of home and community for this particular

134 Feminism without Borders 135 Community, Home, and Nation

!
feminist of color/South Asian in North America. The genealogy I have created
for myself here is partial and deliberate. It is a genealogy that I find emo-
tionally and politically enabling— it is part of the genealogy that underlies
my self-identification as an educator involved in a pedagogy of liberation. Of
course, my history and experiences are in fact messier and not at all as linear
PART TWO
as this narrative makes them sound. But then the very process of construct-
ing a narrative for oneself— of telling a story— imposes a certain linearity and Demystifying Capitalism
coherence that is never entirely there. That is the lesson, perhaps, especially
for us immigrants and migrants: that home, community, and identity all fit
somewhere between the histories and experiences we inherit and the political
choices we make through alliances, solidarities, and friendships.
One very concrete effect of my creating this particular space for myself has
been my involvement in two grassroots organizations, one in India and the
other in the United States. The former, an organization called Awareness, is
based in Orissa and works to empower the rural poor. The group's focus is po-
litical education (similar to Paolo Friere's notion of "conscientization"), and
its members have also begun very consciously to organize rural women. The
U.S. organization I worked with is Grassroots Leadership of North Carolina.
It is a multiracial group of organizers (largely African American and white)
working to build a poor and working people's movement in the American
South. While the geographical, historical, and political contexts are different
in the case of these two organizations, my involvement in them is very similar,
as is my sense that there are clear connections to be made between the work
of the two organizations. In addition, I think that the issues, analyses, and
strategies for organizing for social justice are also quite similar. This particular
commitment to work with grassroots organizers in the two places I call home
is not accidental. It is very much the result of the genealogy! have traced here.
After all, it took me over a decade to make these commitments to grassroots
work in both spaces. In part, I have defined what it means to be South Asian
by educating myself about, and reflecting on, the histories and experiences
of African American, Latina, West Indian, African, European American, and
other constituencies in North America. Such definitions and understandings
do provide a genealogy, but a genealogy that is always relational and fluid as
well as urgent and necessary.

136 Feminism without Borders

 CHAPTER SIX

Women Workers and the Politics of Solidarity

We dream that when we work hard, we'll be able to clothe our children decently,
and still have a little time and money left for ourselves. And we dream that when we
do as good as other people, we get treated the same, and that nobody puts us down
because we are not like them.... Then we ask ourselves, "How could we make these
things come true?" And so far we've come up with only two possible answers: win
the lottery, or organize. What can I say, except I have never been lucky with num-
bers. So tell this in your book: tell them it may take time that people think they don't
have, but they have to organize!. . . Because the only way to get a little measure of
power over your own life is to do it collectively, with the support of other people who
share your needs. — Irma, a Filipina worker in the Silicon Valley, California (1993)

Irma's dreams of a decent life for her children and herself, her desire for
equal treatment and dignity on the basis of the quality and merit of her work,
her conviction that collective struggle is the means to "get a little measure of
power over your own life," succinctly capture the struggles of poor women
workers in the global capitalist arena.' In this chapter I want to focus on the
exploitation of poor Third World women, on their agency as workers, on the
common interests of women workers based on an understanding of shared
location and needs, and on the strategies/practices of organizing that are an-
chored in and lead to the transformation of the daily lives of women workers.
This has been an especially difficult chapter to write—perhaps because
the almost total saturation of the processes of capitalist domination makes
it hard to envision forms of feminist resistance that would make a real dif-
ference in the daily lives of poor women workers. However, as I began to sort
through the actions, reflections, and analyses by and about women workers
(or wage laborers) in the capitalist economy, I discovered the dignity ofwomen
workers' struggles in the face of overwhelming odds. From these struggles
we can learn a great deal about processes of exploitation and domination as politics of solidarity; as a Third World feminist teacher and activist for whom
well as about autonomy and liberation. the psychic economy of "home" and of "work" has always been the space
A study tour to Tijuana, Mexico, organized by Mary Tong of the San Diego- of contradiction and struggle; and as a woman whose middle-class struggles
based Support Committee for Maquiladora Workers, confirmed my belief in for self-definition and autonomy outside the definitions of daughter, wife,
the radical possibilities of cross-border organizing, especially in the wake of and mother mark an intellectual and political genealogy that led me to this
the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Exchanging ideas, ex- particular analysis of Third World women's work.
periences, and strategies with Veronica Vasquez, a twenty-one-year-old Ma- Here, I want to examine the analytical category of "women's work," and
quila worker fighting for her job, for better working conditions, and against to look at the historically specific naturalization of gender and race hierar-
sexual harassment, was as much of an inspiration as any in writing this chap- chies through this category. An international division of labor is central to the
ter. Veronica Vasquez, along with ninety-nine former employees of the Tijuana establishment, consolidation, and maintenance of the current world order:
factory Exportadora Mano de Obra, S.A. de C.V., filed an unprecedented law- global assembly lines are as much about the production of people as they
suit in Los Angeles, California, against the U.S. owner of Exportadora, Na- are about "providing jobs" or making profit. Thus naturalized assumptions
tional o-Ring of Downey, demanding that it be forced to follow Mexican labor about work and the worker are crucial to understanding the sexual politics of
laws and provide workers with three months' back pay after 'shutting down global capitalism. I believe that the relation of local to global processes of
company operations in Tijuana in November 3994. The courage, determina- colonization and exploitation, and the specification of a process of cultural
tion, and analytical clarity of these young Mexican women workers in launch- and ideological homogenization across national borders, in part through the
ing the first case to test the legality of NAFTA suggest that in spite of the global creation of the consumer as "the" citizen under advanced capitalism, must
saturation of processes of capitalist domination, 1995 was a moment of great be crucial aspects of any comparative feminist project. In fact it is this very
possibility for building cross-border feminist solidarity.2 notion of the citizen-consumer that I explore later in the context of the U.S.
Over the years I have been preoccupied with the limits as well as the pos- academy and higher education in general. I argue that this definition of the
sibilities of constructing feminist solidarities across national, racial, sexual, citizen-consumer depends to a large degree on the definition and disciplining
and class divides. Women's lives as workers, consumers, and citizens have of producers/workers on whose backs the citizen-consumer gains legitimacy.
changed radically with the triumphal rise of capitalism in the global arena. It is the worker-producer side of this equation that I address here. Who are
The common interests of capital (e.g., profit, accumulation, exploitation) are the workers that make the citizen-consumer possible? What role do sexual
somewhat clear at this point. But how do we talk about poor Third World politics play in the ideological creation of this worker? How does global capi-
women workers' interests, their agency, and their (in)visibility in so-called talism, in search of ever-increasing profits, utilize gender and racialized ide-
democratic processes? What are the possibilities for democratic citizenship ologies in crafting forms of women's work? And does the social location of
for Third World women workers in the contemporary capitalist economy? particular women as workers suggest the basis for common interests and
These are some of the questions driving this chapter. ¡hope to clarify and ana- potential solidarities across national borders?
lyze the location of Third World women workers and their collective struggles As global capitalism develops and wage labor becomes the hegemonic
in an attempt to generate ways to think about mobilization, organizing, and form of organizing production and reproduction, class relations within and
conscientization transnationally. across national borders have become more complex and less transparent.4
This chapter extends the arguments ¡have made in chapter 2. regarding the Thus, issues of spatial economy—the manner in which capital utilizes par-
location of Third World women as workers in a global economy.3 I write from ticular spaces for differential production and the accumulation of capital and,
my own discontinuous locations: as a South Asian anticapitalist feminist in in the process, transforms these spaces (and peoples) —gain fundamental im-
the United States committed to working on a truly liberatory feminist prac- portance for feminist analysis.5 In the aftermath of feminist struggles around
tice that theorizes and enacts the potential for a cross-cultural, international the right to work and the demand for equal pay, the boundaries between

140 Feminism without Borders 141 The Politics of Solidarity

 home/family and work are no longer seen as inviolable (of course these bound- (I) the persistence of patriarchal definitions of womanhood in the arena of
aries were always fluid for poor and working-class women). Women are (and wage labor; (2) the versatility and specificity of capitalist exploitative pro-
have always been) in the workforce, and we are here to stay. In this chapter, I cesses providing the basis for thinking about potential common interests and
offer an analysis of certain historical and ideological transformations of gen- solidarity between Third World women workers; and (3) the challenges for
der, capital, and work across the borders of nation states 6 and, in the process, collective organizing in a context where traditional union methods (based on
develop a way of thinking about the common interests of Third World women the idea of the class interests of the male worker) are inadequate as strategies
workers, and in particular about questions of agency and the transformation for empowerment.
• of consciousness. If, as I suggest, the logic of a world order characterized by a transnational
Drawing specifically on case studies of the incorporation of Third World economy involves the active construction and dissemination of an image of
women into a global division of labor at different geographical ends of the the "Third World/racialized, or marginalized woman worker" that draws on
current world order, largue for a historically delineated category of "women's indigenous histories of gender and race inequalities, and if this worker's iden-
work" as an example of a productive and necessary basis for feminist cross- tity is coded in patriarchal terms that define her in relation to men and the
cultural analysis.7 The idea I am interested in invoking here is not "the work heterosexual, conjugal family unit, then the model of class conflict between
that women do" or even the occupations that they/we happen to be concen- capitalists and workers needs to be recrafted in terms of the interests (and
trated in, but rather the ideological construction of jobs and tasks in terms of perhaps identities) of Third World women workers. Patriarchal ideologies,
notions of appropriate femininity, domesticity, (hetero)sexuality, and racial which sometimes pit women against men within and outside the home, in-
and cultural stereotypes. Iam interested in mapping these operations of capi- fuse the material realities of the lives of Third World women workers, making
talism across different divides, in tracing the naturalization of capitalist pro- it imperative to reconceptualize the way we think about working-class inter-
cesses, ideologies, and values through the way women's work is constitutively ests and strategies for organizing. Thus, while this is not an argument for just
defined—in this case, in terms of gender and racial parameters. One of the recognizing the "common experiences" of Third World women workers, it
questions I explore pertains to the way gender identity (defined in domestic, is an argument for recognizing (concrete, not abstract) "common interests"
heterosexual, familial terms) structures the nature of the work women are and the potential bases of cross-national solidarity—a common context of
allowed to perform or precludes women from being "workers" altogether. struggle. In addition, while I choose to focus on the "Third World" woman
While I base the details of my analysis in geographically anchored case worker, my argument holds for white women workers who are also racial-
studies, I am suggesting a comparative methodology that moves beyond the ized in similar ways. The argument then is about a process of gender and race
case study approach and illuminates global processes that inflect and draw domination, rather than the content of "Third World." Making Third World
upon indigenous hierarchies, ideologies, and forms of exploitation to con- women workers visible in this gender, race, class formation involves engag-
solidate new modes of colonization (or "recolonization"). The local and the ing a capitalist script of subordination and exploitation. But it also leads to
global are indeed connected through parallel, contradictory, and sometimes thinking about the possibilities of emancipatory action on the basis of the
converging relations of rule that position women in different and similar loca- reconceptualization of Third World women as agents rather than victims.
tions as workers.8 I agree with feminists who argue that class struggle, nar- But why even use "Third World," a somewhat problematic term that many
rowly defined, can no longer be the only basis for solidarity among women now consider outdated? And why make an argument that privileges the so-
workers. The fact of being women with particular racial, ethnic, cultural, cial location, experiences, and identities of Third World women workers, as
sexual, and geographical histories has everything to do with our definitions opposed to any other group of workers, male or female? Certainly, there are
and identities as workers. A number of feminists have analyzed the division problems with the term "Third World." It is inadequate in comprehensively
between production and reproduction, and the construction of ideologies characterizing the economic, political, racial, and cultural differences within
of womanhood in terms of public/private spheres. Here, I want to highlight the borders of Third World nations. But in comparison with other similar for-

142 Feminism without Borders 143 The Politics of Solidarity

mulations such as "North/South" and "advanced/underdeveloped nations," of political solidarity and common interests, defined as a community or col-
"Third World" retains a certain heuristic value and explanatory specificity in lectivity among women workers across class, race, and national boundaries
relation to the inheritance of colonialism and contemporary neocolonial eco- that is based on shared material interests and identity and common ways of
nomic and geopolitical processes that the other formulations lack.9 reading the world. This idea of political solidarity in the context of the in-
In response to the second question, I would argue that at this time in the de- corporation of Third World women into a global economy offers a basis for
velopment and operation ofa "new" world order, Third World women workers cross-cultural comparison and analysis that is grounded in history and social
(defined in this context as both women from the geographical Third World location rather than in an ahistorical notion of culture or experience. I am
and immigrant and indigenous women of color in the United States and West- making a choice here to focus on and analyze the continuities in the experi-
ern Europe) occupy a specific social location in the international division of ences, histories, and strategies of survival of these particular workers. But this
labor that illuminates and explains crucial features of the capitalist processes does not mean that differences and discontinuities in experience do not exist
of exploitation and domination. These are features of the social world that or that they are insignificant. The focus on continuities is a strategic one—
are usually obfuscated or mystified in discourses about the "progress" and it makes possible a way of reading the operation of capital from a location
"development" (e.g., the creation of jobs for poor, Third World women as (that of Third World women workers) that, while forming the bedrock of a
the marker of economic and social advancement) that is assumed to "natu- certain kind of global exploitation of labor, remains somewhat invisible and
rally" accompany the triumphal rise of global capitalism. I do not claim to undertheorized.
explain all the relevant features of the social world or to offer a comprehensive
analysis of capitalist processes of recolonization. However, I am suggesting
Gender and Work: Historical and Ideological Transformations
that Third World women workers have a potential identity in common, an
identity as workers in a particular division of labor at this historical moment. "Work makes life sweet," says Lola Weixel, a working-class Jewish woman
And I believe that exploring and analyzing this potential commonality across in Connie Field's film The Life and Times of Rosie the Riveter. Weixel is reflecting
geographical and cultural divides provides both a way of reading and under- on her experience of working in a welding factory during World War II, at a
standing the world and an explanation of the consolidation of inequities of time when large numbers of U.S. women were incorporated into the labor
gender, race, class, and (hetero)sexuality, which are necessary to envision and force to replace men who were away fighting the war. In one of the most mov-
enact transnational feminist solidarity.10 ing moments in the film, she draws attention to what it meant to her and to
The argument that multinationals position and exploit women workers in other women to work side by side, to learn skills and craft products, and to be
certain ways does not originate with me. I want to suggest, however, that in paid for the work they did, only to be told at the end of the war that they were
interconnecting and comparing some of these case studies, a larger theoreti- no longer needed and should go back to being girlfriends, housewives, and
cal argument can be made about the category of women's work, specifically mothers. While the U.S. state propaganda machine was especially explicit on
about the Third World woman as worker, at this particular historical moment. matters of work for men and women, and the corresponding expectations of
This intersection of gender and work, where the very definition of work draws masculinity/ femininity and domesticity in the late 1940s and 195os, this is no
upon and reconstructs notions ofmasculinity, femininity, and sexuality, offers longer the case. Shifting definitions of pu blic and private, and ofworkers, con-
a basis of cross-cultural comparison and analysis that is grounded in the con- sumers, and citizens no longer define wage work in visibly masculine terms.
crete realities of women's lives. I am not suggesting that this basis for com- However, the dynamics of job competition, loss, and profit making in the
parison exhausts the totality of women's experience cross-culturally. In other early years of this century are still part of the dynamic process that spelled the
words, because similar ideological constructions of "women's work" make decline of the mill towns of New England in the early pgoos and that now pits
cross-cultural analysis possible, this does not automatically mean women's "American" against "immigrant" and "Third World" workers along the U.S.-
lives are the same, but rather that they are comparable. I argue for a notion Mexico border or in the Silicon Valley in California. Similarly, there are con-

144 Feminism without Borders 145 The Politics of Solidarity

A
tinuities between the women-led New York garment-workers strike of 1909, be in an unequal global system. From at least the 1990s onward, multinational
the Bread and Roses (Lawrence textile) strike of 1912, Lola Weixel's role in corporations have been the hallmark of global capitalism. In an analysis of
union organizing during World War II, and the frequent strikes in the 198os the effects of these corporations on the new world order, Richard Barnet
and 1990s of Korean textile and electronic workers, most of whom are young, and John Cavanagh characterize the global commercial arena in terms of
single women." While the global division of labor looks quite different now four intersecting webs: the global cultural bazaar (which creates and dissemi-
from what it was in the 1950s, ideologies of women's work, the meaning and nates images and dreams through films, television, radio, music, and other
value of work for women, and women workers' struggles against exploitation media), the global shopping mall (a planetary supermarket that sells things
remain central issues for feminists around the world. After all, women's labor to eat, drink, wear, and enjoy through advertising, distribution, and market-
has always been central to the development, consolidation, and reproduction ing networks), the global workplace (a network of factories and workplaces
of capitalism in the United States and elsewhere. where goods are produced, information processed, and services rendered),
In the United States, histories of slavery, indentured servitude, contract and, finally, the global financial network (the international traffic in currency
labor, self-employment, and wage work are also simultaneously histories transactions, global securities, etc.) (Barnet and Cavanagh 1994, esp. 25-41).
of gender, race, and (hetero)sexuality, nested within the context of the de- In each of these webs, racialized ideologies of masculinity, femininity, and
velopment of capitalism (i.e., of class conflict and struggle). Thus, women sexuality play a role in constructing the legitimate consumer, worker, and
of different races, ethnicities, and social classes had profoundly different, manager. Meanwhile, the psychic and social disenfranchisement and impov-
though interconnected, experiences of work in the economic development erishment of women continues. Women's bodies and labor are used to con-
from nineteenth-century economic and social practices (slave agriculture in solidate global dreams, desires, and ideologies of success and the good life
the South, emergent industrial capitalism in the Northeast, the hacienda in unprecedented ways.
system in the Southwest, independent family farms in the rural Midwest, Feminists have responded directly to the challenges of globalization and
Native American hunting/gathering and agriculture) to wage labor and self- capitalist modes of recolonization by addressing the sexual politics and
employment (including family businesses) in the late twentieth century. In effects on women of religious fundamentalist movements within and across
the early years of this century, a hundred years after the Lowell girls lost their the boundaries of the nation-state; structural adjustment policies; militarism,
jobs when textile mills moved South to attract nonunionized labor, feminists demilitarization, and violence against women; environmental degradation
are faced with a number of profound analytical and organizational challenges and land/sovereignty struggles of indigenous and native peoples; and popu-
in different regions of the world. The material, cultural, and political effects of lation control, health, and reproductive policies and practices." In each of
the processes of domination and exploitation that sustain what is called the these cases, feminists have analyzed the effects on women as workers, sexual
new world order (Brecher 1993, 3-i2)are devastating for the vast majority of partners, mothers and caretakers, consumers, and transmitters and trans-
people in the world—and most especially for impoverished and Third World formers of culture and tradition. Analysis of the ideologies of masculinity
women. Maria Mies argues that the increasing division of the world into con- and femininity, of motherhood and (hetero)sexuality and the understanding
sumers and producers has a profound effect on Third World women workers, and mapping of agency, access, and choice are central to this analysis and
who are drawn into the international division of labor as workers in agricul- organizing. Thus, while my characterization of capitalist processes of domi-
ture; in large-scale manufacturing industries like textiles, electronics, gar- nation and recolonization may appear somewhat overwhelming, I want to
ments, and toys; in small-scale manufacturing of consumer goods like handi- draw attention to the numerous forms of resistance and struggle that have
crafts and food processing (the informal sector); and as workers in the sex also always been constitutive of the script of colonialism/capitalism. Capital-
and tourist industries (Mies 1986, 114-15). ist patriarchies and racialized, class/caste-specific hierarchies are a key part
The values, power, and meanings attached to being either a consumer ora of the long history of domination and exploitation of women, but struggles
producer/worker vary enormously depending on where and who we happen to against these practices and vibrant, creative, collective forms of mobilization

146 Feminism without Borders 147 The Politics of Solidarity

J•11,
and organizing have also always been a part of our histories. In fact, I attempt studies of black women workers (of Afro-Caribbean, Asian, and African ori-
to articulate an emancipatory discourse and knowledge, one that furthers the gin) in Britain, especially women engaged in homework, factory work, and
cause of feminist liberatory practice. After all, part of what needs to change family businesses.
within racialized capitalist patriarchies is the very concept of work/labor, as
well as the naturalization of heterosexual masculinity in the definition of "the HOUSEWIVES AND HOMEWORK:

worker." THE LACEMAKERS OF NARSAPUR

Teresa Amott and Julie Matthaei (1991), in analyzing the U.S. labor market, Maria Mies's 1982 study of the lacemakers of Narsapur, India, is a graphic
argue that the intersection of gender, class, and racial-ethnic hierarchies of illustration of how women bear the impact of development processes in coun-
power has had two major effects: tries where poor peasant and tribal societies are being "integrated" into an
international division of labor under the dictates of capital accumulation.
First, disempowered groups have been concentrated in jobs with lower
Mies's study illustrates how capitalist production relations are built upon the
pay, less job security, and more difficult working conditions. Second, work-
backs of women workers defined as housewives. Ideologies of gender and
places have been places of extreme segregation, in which workers have
work and their historical transformation provide the necessary ground for
worked in jobs only with members of their same racial-ethnic, gender, and
the exploitation of the lacemakers. But the definition of women as house-
class group, even though the particular racial-ethnic group and gender
wives also suggests the heterosexualization of women's work—women are
assigned to a job may have varied across firms and regions. (316-17) always defined in relation to men and conjugal marriage. Mies's account of
While Amott and Matthaei draw attention to the sex-and-race typing of the development of the lace industry and the corresponding relations of pro-
jobs, they do not theorize the relationship between this job typing and the duction illustrates fundamental transformations of gender, caste, and ethnic
social identity of the workers concentrated in these low-paying, segregated, relations. The original caste distinctions between the feudal warrior castes
often unsafe sectors of the labor market. While the economic history they (the landowners) and the Narsapur (poor Christians) and Serepalam (poor
chart is crucial to any understanding of the race-and-gender basis of U.S. capi- Kapus/Flindu agriculturalists) women are transformed through the develop-
talist processes, their analysis begs the question of whether there is a con- ment of the lace industry, and a new caste hierarchy is effected.
nection (other than the common history of domination of people of color) At the time of Mies's study, there were sixty lace manufacturers, with some
200,000 women in Narsapur and Serepalam constituting the workforce. Lace-
between how these jobs are defined and who is sought after for the jobs.
By examining two instances of the incorporation of women into the global making women worked six to eight hours a day and ranged in age from six
economy (women lacemakers in Narsapur, India, and women in the electron- to eighty. Mies argues that the expansion of the lace industry between 1970
ics industry in the Silicon Valley) I want to delineate the interconnections and 1978 and its integration into the world market led to class/caste differ-
among gender, race, and ethnicity, and the ideologies of work that locate entation within particular communities, with a masculinization of all non-
women in particular exploitative contexts. The contradictory positioning of production jobs (trade) and the complete feminization of the production pro-
women along class, race, and ethnic lines in these two cases suggests that, cess. Thus, men sold women's products and lived on profits from women's
in spite of the obvious geographical and sociocultural differences between labor. The polarization between men and women's work, where men actually
the two contexts, the organization of the global economy by contemporary defined themselves as exporters and businessmen who invested in women's
capital positions these workers in very similar ways, effectively reproducing labor, bolstered the social and ideological definition of women as housewives
and transforming locally specific hierarchies. There are also some significant and their work as "leisure time activity." In other words, work, in this con-
continuities between homework and factory work in these contexts, in terms text, was grounded in sexual identity, in concrete definitions of femininity,
of both the inherent ideologies of work as well as the experiences and social masculinity, and heterosexuality.
identities of women as workers. This tendency can also be seen in the case Two particular indigenous hierarchies, those of caste and gender, inter-
I
148 Feminism without Borders 149 The Politics of Solidarity
acted to produce normative definitions of "women's work." Where, at the on- Reading the operation of capitalist processes from the position of the
set of the lace industry, Kapu men and women were agricultural laborers and housewife/worker who produces for the world market makes the specifi-
it was the lower-caste Harijan women who were lacemakers, with the devel- cally gendered and caste/class opposition between laborer and the nonworker
opment of capitalist relations of production and the possibility of caste/class (housewife) visible. Moreover, it makes it possible to acknowledge and ac-
mobility, it was the Harijan women who were agricultural laborers while the count for the hidden costs of women's labor. And finally, it illuminates the
Kapu women undertook the "leisure time" activity of lace-making. The caste- fundamentally masculine definition of laborer/worker in a context where, as
based ideology of seclusion and purdah was essential to the extraction of sur- Mies says, men live off women who are the producers. Analyzing and trans-
plus value. Since purdah and the seclusion of women is a sign of higher caste forming this masculine definition of labor, which is the mainstay of capitalist
status, the domestication of Kapu laborer women where their (lace-making) patriarchal cultures, is one of the most significant challenges we face. The
activity was tied to the concept of the "women sitting in the house" was en- effect of this definition of labor is not only that it makes women's labor and
tirely within the logic of capital accumulation and profit. Now, Kapu women, its costs invisible, but that it undercuts women's agency by defining them as
not just the women of feudal, landowning castes, are in purdah as housewives victims of a process of pauperization or of "tradition" or "patriarchy," rather
producing for the world market. than as agents capable of making their own choices.
Ideologies of seclusion and the domestication of women are clearly sexual, In fact, the contradictions raised by these choices are evident in the lace-
drawing as they do on masculine and feminine notions of protectionism and makers' responses to characterizations of their own work as "leisure activity."
property. They are also heterosexual ideologies, based on the normative defi- While the fact that they did "work" was clear to them and while they had a
nition of women as wives, sisters, and mothers—always in relation to conju- sense of the history of their own pauperization (with a rise in prices for goods
gal marriage and the "family." Thus, the caste transformation and separation but no corresponding rise in wages), they were unable to explain how they
of women along lines of domestication and nondomestication (Kapu house- came to be in the situation they found themselves. Thus, while some of the
wives vs. Harijan laborers) effectively links the work that women do with their contradictions between their work and their roles as housewives and mothers
sexual and caste/class identities. Domestication works, in this case, because were evident to them, they did not have access to an analysis of these contra-
of the persistence and legitimacy of the ideology of the housewife, which de- dictions that could lead to seeing the complete picture in terms of their ex-
fines women in terms of their place within the home, conjugal marriage, and ploitation, strategizing and organizing to transform their material situations,
heterosexuality. The opposition between definitions of the "laborer" and of or recognizing their common interests as women workers across caste/class
the "housewife" anchors the invisibility (and caste-related status) of work; lines. As a matter of fact, the Serepelam women defined their lace-making in
in effect, it defines women as nonworkers. By definition, housewives cannot terms of "housework" rather than wage work, and women who had managed
be workers or laborers; housewives make male breadwinners and consumers to establish themselves as petty commodity producers saw what they did as
possible. Clearly, ideologies of "women's place and work" have real material entrepreneurial: they saw themselves as selling products rather than labor.
force in this instance, where spatial parameters construct and maintain gen- Thus, in both cases, women internalized the ideologies that defined them as
dered and caste-specific hierarchies. Thus, Mies's study illustrates the con- nonworkers. The isolation of the work context (work done in the house rather
crete effects of the social definition of women as housewives. Not only are than in a public setting) as well as the internalization of caste and patriar-
the lacemakers invisible in census figures (after all, their work is leisure), but chal ideologies thus militated against organizing as workers, or as women.
their definition as housewives makes possible the definition of men as "bread- However, Mies suggests that there were cracks in this ideology: the women
winners." Here, class and gender proletarianization through the development expressed some envy toward agricultural laborers, whom the lacemakers saw
of capitalist relations of production, and the integration of women into the as enjoying working together in the fields. What seems necessary in such a
world market, is possible because of the history and transformation of in- context, in terms of feminist mobilization, is a recognition of the fact that
digenous caste and sexual ideologies. the identity of the housewife needs to be transformed into the identity of a

150 Feminism without Borders 151 The Politics of Solidarity

"woman worker or working woman." Recognition of common interests as nationality are used as forms of both labor control and labor resistance in the
housewives is very different from recognition of common interests as women capitalist workplace today" (Hossfeld 1990, 149).14 Her contribution lies in
and as workers. charting the operation of gendered ideologies in the structuring of the indus-
try and in analyzing what she calls "refeminization strategies" in the work-
IMMIGRANT WIVES, MOTHERS, AND FACTORY WORK:
place.
ELECTRONICS WORKERS IN THE SILICON VALLEY
Although the primary workforce in the Valley consists of Third World and
My discussion of the U.S. end of the global assembly line is based on studies newly immigrant women, substantial numbers of Third World and immi-
by Naomi Katz and David Kemnitzer (1983 and 1986) and Karen Hossfeld grant men are also employed by the electronics industry. In the early 198os,
(1990) of electronics workers in the so-called Silicon Valley in California. An 70,000 women held 8o to 90 percent of the operative or labor jobs on the
analysis of production strategies and processes indicates a significant ideo- shop floor. Of these, 45 to 5o percent were Third World, especially Asian,
logical redefinition of normative ideas of factory work in terms of the Third immigrants. White men held either technician or supervisory jobs (Katz and
World, immigrant women who constitute the primary workforce. While the Kemnitzer 1983, 333). Hossfeld's study was conducted between 1983 and
lacemakers of Narsapur were located as housewives and their work defined as 1986, at which time she estimates that up to 8o percent of the operative jobs
leisure time activity in a very complex international world market, Third World were held by people of color, with women constituting up to 90 percent of
women in the electronics industry in the Silicon Valley are located as mothers, the assembly workers (1990, 154). Katz and Kannitzer maintain that the in-
wives, and supplementary workers. Unlike the search for the "single" woman dustry actively seeks sources of cheap labor by deskilling production and by
assembly worker in Third World countries, it is in part the ideology of the using race, gender, and ethnic stereotypes to "attract" groups of workers who
"married woman" that defines job parameters in the Valley, according to Katz are "more suited" to perform tedious, unrewarding, poorly paid work. When
and Kemnitzer's data. interviewed, management personnel described the jobs as unskilled (as easy
Hossfeld also documents how existing ideologies of femininity cement as following a recipe); requiring tolerance for tedious work (Asian women are
the exploitation of the immigrant women workers in the Valley and how the therefore more suited); and supplementary activity for women whose main
women often use this patriarchal logic against management. Assumptions tasks were mothering and housework (1983, 335).
of "single" and "married" women as the ideal workforce at the two geo- It may be instructive to unpack these job labels in relation to the immi-
graphical ends of the electronics global assembly line (which includes South grant and Third World (married) women who perform these jobs. The job
Korea, Hong Kong, China, Taiwan, Thailand, Malaysia, Japan, India, Pakistan, labels recorded by Katz and Kemnitzer need to be analyzed as definitions of
the Philippines, and the United States, Scotland, and Italy [Women Working women's work, specifically as definitions of Third World/immigrant women's
Worldwide 1993])are anchored in normative understandings of femininity, work. First, the notion of "unskilled" as easy (like following a recipe) and
womanhood, and sexual identity. The labels are predicated on sexual differ- the idea of tolerance for tedious work both have racial and gendered dimen-
ence and the institution of heterosexual marriage and carry connotations of sions. Both draw upon stereotypes that infantalize Third World women and
a "manageable" (docile?) labor force.13 initiate a nativist discourse of "tedium" and "tolerance" as characteristics of
Katz and Kemnitzer's data indicates a definition and transformation of non-Western, primarily agricultural, premodern (Asian) cultures. Secondly,
women's work that relies on gender, race, and ethnic hierarchies already his- defining jobs as supplementary activity for mothers and housewives adds a
torically anchored in the United States. Further, their data illustrates that further dimension: sexual identity and appropriate notions of heterosexual
the construction of "job labels" pertaining to Third World women's work is femininity as marital domesticity. These are not part-time jobs, but they are
closely allied with their sexual and racial identities. While Hossfeld's more re- defined as supplementary. Thus, in this particular context, (Third World)
cent study reinforces some of Katz and Kemnitzer's conclusions, she focuses women's work needs are defined as temporary.
more specifically on how "contradictory ideologies about sex, race, class, and While Hossfeld's analysis of management logic follows similar lines, she
15z Feminism without Borders 153 The Politics of Solidarity
offers a much more nuanced understanding of how the gender and racial For Katz and Kemnitzer the commitment of electronics workers to class
stereotypes prevalent in the larger culture infuse worker consciousness and mobility is an important assertion of self (335-36). Thus, unlike in Narsapur,
resistance. For instance, she draws attention to the ways in which factory jobs in the Silicon Valley, homework has an entrepreneurial aspect for the women
are seen by the workers as "unfeminine" or not "ladylike." Management ex- themselves. In fact, in Narsapur, women's work turns the men into entre-
ploits and reinforces these ideologies by encouraging women to view femi- preneurs. In the Valley, women take advantage of the contradictions of the
ninity as contradictory to factory work, by defining their jobs as secondary and situations they face as individual workers. While in Narsapur, it is purdah and
temporary and by asking women to choose between defining themselves as caste/class mobility that provides the necessary self-definition required to an-
women or as workers (Hossfeld 1990, 168). Womanhood and femininity are chor women's work in the home as leisure activity, in the Silicon Valley, it is a
thus defined along a domestic, familial model, with work seen as supplemen- specifically North American notion of individual ambition and entrepreneur-
tal to this primary identity. Significantly, although 8o percent of the immi- ship that provides the necessary ideological anchor for Third World women.
grant women in Hossfeld's study were the largest annual income producers Katz and Kemnitzer maintain that this underground economy produces an
in their families, they still considered men to be the breadwinners (1963). ideological redefinition of jobs, allowing them to be defined as other than the
Thus, as with the exploitation of Indian lacemakers as "housewives," Third basis of support of the historically stable, "comfortable," white, metropolitan
World/immigrant women in the Silicon Valley are located as "mothers and working class (1983, 342). In other words, there is a clear connection between
homemakers" and only secondarily as workers. In both cases, men are seen as low wages and the definition of the job as supplementary, and the fact that
the real breadwinners. While (women's) work is usually defined as something the lifestyles of people of color are defined as different and cheaper. Thus,
that takes place in the "public" or production sphere, these ideologies clearly according to Katz and Kemnitzer, women and people of color continue to be
draw on stereotypes of women as home-bound. In addition, the invisibility "defined out" of the old industrial system and become targets and/or instru-
of work in the Indian context can be compared to the temporary/secondary ments of the ideological shift away from class toward national/ethnic/gender
nature of work in the Valley. As in the 1982 Mies study, the data compiled by lines (1983, 341).15 In this context, ideology and popular culture emphasize
Hossfeld and Katz and Kemnitzer indicate the presence of local ideologies the individual maximization of options for personal success. Individual suc-
and hierarchies of gender and race as the basis for the exploitation of the elec- cess is thus severed from union activity, political struggle, and collective rela-
tronics workers. The question that arises is: How do women understand their tions. Similarly, Hossfeld suggests that it is the racist and sexist management
own positions and construct meanings in an exploitative job situation? logic of the needs of "immigrants" that allows the kind of exploitative labor
Interviews with electronics workers indicate that, contrary to the views of processes that she documents (t9go, 157-58) .16 However, in spite of Katz
management, women do not see their jobs as temporary but as part of a life- and Kemnitzer's complex analysis of the relationship of modes of produc-
time strategy of upward mobility. Conscious of their racial, class, and gender tion, social relations of production, culture, and ideology in the context of
status, they combat their devaluation as workers by increasing their income: the Silicon Valley workers, they do not specify why it is Third World women
by job-hopping, overtime, and moonlighting as piece workers (1983, 337). who constitute the primary labor force. Similarly, while Hossfeld provides a
Note that, in effect, the "homework" that Silicon Valley workers do is per- nuanced analysis of the gendering of the workplace and the use of racial and
formed under conditions very similar to the lace-making of Narsapur women. gendered logic to consolidate capitalist accumulation, she also sometimes
Both kinds of work are done in the home, in isolation, with the worker paying separates "women" and "minority workers" (176), and does not specify why it
her own overhead costs (like electricity and cleaning), with no legally man- is women of color who constitute the major labor force on the assembly lines
dated protections (such as a minimum wage, paid leave, or health benefits). in the Valley. In distinguishing between women and people of color, Katz and
However, clearly the meanings attached to the work differ in both contexts, Kemnitzer tend to reproduce the old conceptual divisions of gender and race,
as does the way we understand them. where women are defined primarily in terms of their gender and people of

154 Feminism without Borders 155 The Politics of Solidarity

color in terms of race. What is excluded is an interactive notion of gender and terns of their work lives —within the context of homework and family firms,
race, whereby women's gendered identity is grounded in race and people of businesses where the entire family is involved in earning a living, either in-
color's racial identities are gendered. side or outside the home — bears examination. Work by British feminist schol-
I would argue that the data compiled by Katz and Kemnitzer and Hossfeld ars (Phizacklea 1983, Westwood 1984 and 1988, Josephides 1988, and others)
does, in fact, explain why Third World women are targeted for jobs in electron- suggests that familial ideologies of domesticity and heterosexual marriage
ics factories. The explanation lies in the redefinition of work as temporary, cement the economic and social exploitation of black women's labor within
supplementary, and unskilled, in the construction of women as mothers and family firms. Repressive patriarchal ideologies, which fix the woman's role in
homemakers, and in the positioning of femininity as contradictory to fac- the family, are grounded in inherited systems of inequality and oppression in
tory work. In addition, the explanation also lies in the specific definition of black women's cultures of origin. And these very ideologies are reproduced
Third World, immigrant women as docile, tolerant, and satisfied with sub- and consolidated in order to provide the glue for profit making in the context
standard wages. It is the ideological redefinition of women's work that pro- of the racialized British capitalist state.
vides the necessary understanding of this phenomenon. Hossfeld describes For instance, Annie Phizacklea's (1983) work on Bangladeshi homework-
some strategies of resistance in which the workers utilize against manage- ers in the clothing industry in the English West Midlands illuminates the ex-
ment the very gendered and racialized logic that management uses against tent to which family and community ties, maintained by women, are crucial
them. However, while these tactics may provide some temporary relief on the in allowing this domestic subcontracting in the clothing industry to undercut
job, they build on racial and gender stereotypes that, in the long run, can be the competition in terms of wages and long work-days and its cost to women
and are used against Third World women. workers. In addition, Sallie Westwood's (1984) work on Gujarati women fac-
tory workers in the East Midlands hosiery industry suggests that the power
DAUGHTERS, WIVES, AND MOTHERS: and creativity of the shop floor culture that draws on cultural norms of femi-
MIGRANT WOMEN WORKERS IN BRITAIN ninity, masculinity, and domesticity, while generating resistance and soli-
darity among the Indian and white women workers, is, in fact, anchored in
Family businesses have been able to access minority women's labor power through Gujarati cultural inheritances. Discussing the contradictions in the lives of
mediations of kinship and an appeal to ideologies which emphasize the role of Gujarati women within the home and the perception that male family mem-
women in the home as wives and mothers and as keepers of family honor. —Sallie bers have of their work as an extension of their family roles (not as a path to
Westwood and Parminder Bhachu, Enterprising Women, 1988 financial independence), Westwood elaborates on the continuities between
In a collection of essays exploring the working lives of black and minority the ideologies of domesticity within the household, which are the result of
women inside and outside the home, Sallie Westwood and Parminder Bhachu (often repressive) indigenous cultural values and practices, and the culture
(1988) focus on the benefits afforded the British capitalist state by the racial of the shop floor. Celebrating each other as daughters, wives, and mothers is
and gendered aspects of migrant women's labor.17 They point to the fact that one form of generating solidarity on the shop floor, but it is also a powerful
what has been called the "ethnic economy" (the way migrants draw on re- refeminization strategy, to use Hossfeld's term.
sources to survive in situations where the combined effects of a hostile, racist Finally, family businesses, which depend on the cultural and ideologi-
environment and economic decline serve to oppress them) is also fundamen- cal resources and loyalties within the family to transform ethnic "minority"
tally a gendered economy. Statistics indicate that Afro-Caribbean and non- women into workers committed to common familial goals, are also anchored
Muslim Asian women have a higher full-time labor participation rate than in women's roles as daughters, wives, mothers, and keepers of family honor
white women in the United Kingdom. Thus, while the perception that black (Josephides 1988, Bhachu 1988). Women's work in family business is unpaid
women (defined, in this case, as women ofAfro-Caribbean, Asian, and African and produces dependencies that are similar to those of homeworkers, whose
origin) are mostly concentrated in part-time jobs is untrue, the forms and pat- labor, although paid, is invisible. Both are predicated on ideologies of domes-

156 Feminism without Borders 157 The Politics of Solidarity

ticity and womanhood that infuse the spheres of production and reproduc- as workers to the temporary nature of the work of Third World women in
tion. In discussing Cypriot women in family firms, Sasha Josephides (1988) the Silicon Valley. In the case of migrant women workers in family firms in
cites the use of familial ideologies of "honor" and the construction of a "safe" Britain, work becomes an extension of familial roles and loyalties and draws
environment outside the public sphere as the bases for a definition of femi- upon cultural and ethnic/racial ideologies of womanhood, domesticity, and
ninity and womanhood (the perfect corollary to a paternal, protective defini- entrepreneurship to consolidate patriarchal dependencies. In all these cases,
tion of masculinity) that allows Cypriot women to see themselves as workers ideas of flexibility, temporality, invisibility, and domesticity in the natural-
for their family, rather than as workers for themselves. All conflict around ization of categories of work are crucial in the construction of Third World
the question of work is thus accommodated within the context of the family. women as an appropriate and cheap labor force. All of the above ideas rest
This is an important instance of the privatization of work and of the redefini- on stereotypes about gender, race, and poverty, which, in turn, characterize
tion of the identity of women workers in family firms as doing work that is a Third World women as workers in the contemporary global arena.
"natural extension" of their familial duties (not unlike the lacemakers). It is Eileen Boris and Cynthia Daniels (1989) claim that "homework belongs to
their identity as mothers, wives, and family members that stands in for their the decentralization of production that seems to be a central strategy of some
identity as workers. Parminder Bhachu's (1988) work with Punjabi Sikhs also sectors and firms for coping with the international restructuring of produc-
illustrates this fact. Citing the growth of small-scale entrepreneurship among tion, consumption, and capital accumulation." 18 Homework assumes a sig-
South Asians as a relatively new trend in the British economy, Bhachu states nificant role in the contemporary capitalist global economy. The discussion of
that women workers in family businesses often end up losing autonomy and homework performed byThird World women in the three geographical spaces
reenter more traditional forms of patriarchal dominance, where men control discussed above —India, the United States, and Britain—suggests something
all or most of the economic resources within the family: "By giving up work, specific about capitalist strategies of recolon ization at this historical juncture.
these women not only lose an independent source of income, and a large net- Homework emerged at the same time as factory work in the early nineteenth
work of often female colleagues, but they also find themselves sucked back century in the United States, and, as a system, it has always reinforced the
into the kinship system which emphasizes patrilaterality" (85). Women thus conjoining of capitalism and patriarchy. Analyzing the homeworker as a wage
lose a "direct relationship with the productive process," thereby raising the laborer (rather than an entrepreneur who controls both her labor and the mar-
issue of the invisibility (even to themselves) of their identity as workers. ket for it) dependent on the employer for work that is carried out usually in
This analysis of migrant women's work in Britain illustrates the parallel the "home" or domestic premises, makes it possible to understand the sys-
trajectory of their exploitation as workers within a different metropolitan con- tematic invisibility of this form of work. What allows this work to be so fun-
text than the United States. To summarize, all these case studies indicate ways damentally exploitative as to be invisible as a form of work are ideologies of
in which ideologies of domesticity, femininity, and race form the basis of the domesticity, dependency, and (hetero)sexuality, which designate women—in
construction of the notion of "women's work" for Third World women in the this case, Third World women—as primarily housewives/mothers and men
contemporary economy. In the case of the lacemakers, this is done through as economic supporters/breadwinners. Homework capitalizes on the equa-
the definition of homework as leisure time activity and of the workers them- tion of home, family, and patriarchal and racial/cultural ideologies of femi-
selves as housewives. As discussed earlier, indigenous hierarchies of gender ninity/masculinity with work. This is work done at home, in the midst of
and castelclass make this definition possible. In the case of the electronics doing housework, childcare, and other tasks related to "homemaking," often
workers, women's work is defined as unskilled, tedious, and supplementary work that never ceases. Characterizations of "housewives," "mothers," and
activity for mothers and homemakers. It is a specifically American ideology "homemakers" make it impossible to see homeworkers as workers earning
of individual success, as well as local histories of race and ethnicity that con- regular wages and entitled to the rights of workers. Thus, not just their pro-
stitute this definition. We can thus contrast the invisibility of the lacemakers duction, but homeworkers' exploitation as workers, can, in fact, also remain

158 Feminism without Borders 159 The Politics of Solidarity

 invisible, contained within domestic, patriarchal relations in the family. This economic processes in different geographical locations. The analysis of the
is a form of work that often falls outside accounts of wage labor, as well as continuities between factory work and homework in objectifying and domes-
accounts of household dynamics (Allen 1989). ticating Third World women workers such that their very identity as workers
Family firms in Britain represent a similar ideological pattern, within a is secondary to familial roles and identities, and predicated on patriarchal
different class dynamic. Black women imagine themselves as entrepreneurs and racial! ethnic hierarchies anchored in local/indigenous and transnational
(rather than as wage laborers) working for the prosperity of their families in processes of exploitation exposes the profound challenges posed in organiz-
a racist society. However, the work they do is still seen as an extension of ing women workers on the basis of common interests. Clearly, these women
their familial roles and often creates economic and social dependencies. This are not merely victims of colonizing, exploitative processes—the analysis of
does not mean that women in family firms never attain a sense of autonomy, the case studies indicates different levels of consciousness of their own ex-
but that, as a system, the operation of family business exploits Third World ploitation, different modes of resistance, and different understandings of the
women's labor by drawing on and reinforcing indigenous hierarchies in the contradictions they face and of their own agency as workers. While the chap-
search for upward mobility in the (racist) British capitalist economy. What ter thus far lays the groundwork for conceptualizing the common interests
makes this form of work in the contemporary global capitalist arena so pro- of women workers based on an understanding of shared location and needs,
foundly exploitative is that its invisibility (both to the market, and sometimes the analysis foregrounds processes of repression rather than forms of oppo-
to the workers themselves) is premised on deeply ingrained sexist and racist sition. How have poor Third World women organized as workers? How do
relationships within and outside heterosexual kinship systems. This is also we conceptualize the question of "common interests" based in a "common
the reason why changing the gendered relationships that anchor homework context of struggle," such that women are agents who make choices and deci-
and organizing homeworkers becomes such a challenge for feminists. sions that lead to the transformation of consciousness and of their daily lives
The analysis of factory work and family business in Britain and of home- as workers?
work in all three geographical locations raises the question of whether home- As discussed earlier, with the current domination in the global arena of
work and factory work would be defined in these particular ways i f the workers the arbitrary interests of the market and of transnational, capital, older sign-
were single women. In this case, the construct of the worker is dependant posts and definitions of capital/labor or of "the worker" or even of "class
on gender ideologies. In fact, the idea of work or labor as necessary for the struggle" are no longer totally accurate or viable conceptual or organizational
psychic, material, and spiritual survival and development of women workers categories. It is, in fact, the predicament of poor working women and their
is absent. Instead, it is the identity of women as housewives, wives, and experiences of survival and resistance in the creation of new organizational
mothers (identities also defined outside the parameters of work) that is as- forms to earn a living and improve their daily lives that offers new possibili-
sumed to provide the basis for women's survival and growth. These Third ties for struggle and action.19 In this instance, then, the experiences of Third
World women are defined out of the labor/capital process as if work in their World women workers are relevant for understanding and transforming the
case isn't necessary for economic, social, psychic autonomy, independence, work experiences and daily lives of poor women everywhere. The rest of this
and self-determination—a nonalienated relation to work is a conceptual and chapter explores these questions by suggesting a working definition of the
practical impossibility in this situation. question of the common interests of Third World women workers in the con-
temporary global capitalist economy, drawing on the work of feminist politi-
cal theorist Anna G. Jonasdottir.
Common Interests/Different Needs:
Jonasdottir explores the concept of women's interests in participatory
Collective Struggles of Poor Women Workers
democratic political theory. She emphasizes both the formal and the content
Thus far, this chapter has charted the ideological commonalities of the ex- aspects of a theory of social and political interests that refers to "different
ploitation of (mostly) poor Third World women workers by global capitalist layers of social existence: agency and the needs/desires that give strength and

16o Feminism without Borders 161 The Politics of Solidarity

meaning to agency" (Jonasdottir 1988, 57). Adjudicating between political and dislocations in women's own consciousness of themselves as workers and
analysts who theorize common interests in formal terms (i.e., the claim to thus of their needs and desires —which sometimes militate against organiz-
actively "be among," to choose to participate in defining the terms of one's ing on the basis of their common interests (the results of agency). Thus, work
own existence, or acquiring the conditions for choice) and those who reject has to be done here in analyzing the links between the social location and
the concept of interests in favor of the concept of (subjective) individualized the historical and current experiences of domination of Third World women
and group-based "needs and desires" (the consequences of choice), Jonas- workers, on the one hand, and in theorizing and enacting the common social
dottir formulates a concept of the common interests of women that empha- identity of Third World women workers, on the other. Reviewing the forms
sizes the former but is a combination of both perspectives. She argues that the of collective struggle of poor, Third World women workers in relation to the
formal aspect of interest (an active "being among") is crucial: "Understood above theorization of common interests provides a map of where we are in
historically, and seen as emerging from people's lived experiences, interests this project.
about basic processes of social life are divided systematically between groups In the case of women workers in the free-trade zones in a number of
of people in so far as their living conditions are systematically different. Thus countries, trade unions have been the most visible forum for expressing the
historically and socially defined, interests can be characterized as 'objective'" needs and demands of poor women. The sexism of trade unions, however,
(41). In other words, there are systematic material and historical bases for has led women to recognize the need for alternative, more democratic orga-
claiming that Third World women workers have common interests. However, nizational structures, and to form women's unions (as in Korea, China, Italy,
Jonasdottir suggests that the second aspect of theorizing interest, the satis- and Malaysia (see Women Working Worldwide 1993D or to turn to community
faction of needs and desires (she distinguishes between agency and the result groups, church committees, or feminist organizations. In the United States,
of agency) remains an open question. Thus, the content of needs and desires Third World immigrant women in electronics factories have often been hos-
from the point of view of interest remains open for subjective interpretation. tile to unions that they recognize as clearly modeled in the image of the white,
According to Jonasdottir, feminists can acknowledge and fight on the basis of male, working-class American worker. Thus, church involvement in immi-
the (objective) common interests of women in terms of active representation grant women workers struggles has been an important form of collective
and choices to participate in a democratic polity, while at the same time not struggle in the United States (Women Working Worldwide, 1993, 38).
reducing women's common interests (based on subjective needs and desires) Women workers have developed innovative strategies of struggle in
to this formal "being among" aspect of the question of interest. This theoriza- women's unions. For instance, in 1989, the Korean Women Workers Associa-
tion allows us to acknowledge common interests and potential agency on the tion staged an occupation of the factory in Masan. They moved into the factory
basis of systematic aspects of social location and experience, while keeping and lived there, cooked meals, guarded the machines and premises, and effec-
open what I see as the deeper, more fundamental question of understand- tively stopped production (Women Working Worldwide 1993, 31). In this form
ing and organizing around the needs, desires, and choices (the question of of occupation of the work premises, the processes of daily life become consti-
critical, transformative consciousness) in order to transform the material and tutive of resistance (also evident in the welfare rights struggles in the United
ideological conditions of daily life. The latter has a pedagogical and transfor- States) and opposition is anchored in the systematic realities of the lives of
mative dimension that the former does not. poor women. It expresses not only their common interests as workers, but
How does this theorization relate to conceptualizations of the common acknowledges their social circumstance as women for whom the artificial sepa-
interests of Third World women workers? Jonasdottir's distinction between ration of work and home has little meaning. This "occupation" is a strategy of
agency and the result of agency is a very useful one in this instance. The chal- collective resistance that draws attention to poor women workers' building
lenges for feminists in this arena are (I) understanding Third World women community as a form of survival.
workers as having objective interests in common as workers (they are thus Kumudhini Rosa makes a similar argument in her analysis of the "habits of
agents and make choices as workers); and (2) recognizing the contradictions resistance" of women workers in free trade zones (FTz) in Sri Lanka, Malay-

162 Feminism without Borders 163 The Politics of Solidarity

sia, and the Philippines (Rosa 1994, esp. 86). The fact that women live and 116). Issues of race, ethnicity, and class are central in this effort since most of
work together in these FTZS is crucial in analyzing the ways in which they the homeworkers are of Asian or Third World origin. Tate identifies a num-
build community life, share resources and dreams, provide mutual support ber of simultaneous strategies used by the West Yorkshire Group to organize
and aid on the assembly line and in the street, and develop individual and col- homeworkers: pinpointing and making visible the "real" employer (or the
lective habits of resistance. Rosa claims that these forms of resistance and real enemy), rather than directing organizational efforts only against local
mutual aid are anchored in a "culture of subversion" in which women living subsidiaries; consumer education and pressure, which links the buying of
in patriarchal, authoritarian households where they are required to be obedi- goods to homeworker struggles; fighting for a code of work practice for sup-
ent and disciplined, acquire practice in "concealed forms of rebelling" (86). pliers by forming alliances between trade unions, women's, and consumer
Thus, women workers engage in "spontaneous" strikes in Sri Lanka, "wild- groups; linking campaigns to the development of alternative trade organi-
cat" strikes in Malaysia, and "sympathy" strikes in the Philippines. They also zations (for instance, SEWA); fighting for visibility in international bodies
support each other by systematically lowering the production target or help- like the International Labour Organisation; and, finally, developing trans-
ing slow workers meet the production targets on assembly lines. Rosa's analy- national links between local grassroots homeworker organizations—thus,
sis illustrates recognition of the common interests of women workers at a sharing resources, strategies, and working toward empowerment. The com-
formal "being among" level. While women are conscious of the contradic- mon interests of homeworkers are acknowledged in terms of their daily lives
tions of their daily lives as women and as workers and enact their resistance, as workers and as women—there is no artificial separation of the "worker"
they have not organized actively to identify their collective needs and to trans- and the "homemaker" or the "housewife" in this context. While the West York-
form the conditions of their daily lives. shire Homeworking Group has achieved some measure of success in orga-
While the earlier section on the ideological construction of work in terms nizing homeworkers, and there is a commitment to literacy, consciousness
of gender and racial/ ethnic hierarchies discussed homework as one of the raising, and empowerment of workers, this is still a feminist group that orga-
most acute forms of exploitation of poor Third World women, it is also the nizes women workers (rather than women workers organizing themselves,
area in which some of the most creative and transformative collective orga- with the impetus for organization emerging from the workers). It is in this
nizing has occurred. The two most visibly successful organizational efforts regard that SEWA and WWF emerge as important models for poor women
in this arena are the Working Women's Forum (ww F) and the Self Employed workers organizations.
Women's Association (sEwA) in India, both registered as independent trade Swasti Miner discusses the success of s EWA and WWF in terms of: (I) their
unions, and focusing on incorporating homeworkers, as well as petty traders, representing the potential for organizing powerful women workers' orga-
hawkers, and laborers in the informal economy into their membership (Miner nizations (the membership of wwF is 85,000 and that of SEWA is 46,000
1994, esp. 33). workers) when effective strategies are used; and (2) making these "hidden"
There has also been a long history of organizing homeworkers in Brit- workers visible as workers to national and international policy makers. Both
ain. Discussing the experience of the West Yorkshire Homeworking Group WWF and S EWA address the demands of poor women workers, and both in-

in the late 198os, Jane Tate states that "a homework campaign has to work clude a development plan for women' that includes leadership training, child
at a number of levels, in which the personal interconnects with the political, care, women's banks, and producer's cooperatives that offer alternative trad-
the family situation with work, lobbying Parliament with small local meet- ing opportunities. Renana Jhabvala, SEWA'S secretary, explains that, while
ings. . . . In practical terms, the homeworking campaigns have adopted a SEWA was born in 1972 in the Indian labor movement and drew inspiration

way of organising that reflects the practice of many women's groups, as well from the women's movement, it always saw itself as a part of the coopera-
as being influenced by the theory and practice of community work. It aims tive movement, as well (Jhabvala 1994). Thus, struggling for poor women
to bring out the strength of women, more often in small groups with a less workers' rights always went hand in hand with strategies to develop alterna-
formal structure and organisation than in a body such as a union" (Tate 1994, tive economic systems. Jhabvala states, "SEWA accepts the co-operative prin-

164 Feminism without Borders 165 The Politics of Solidarity

 7

ciples and sees itself as part of the co-operative movement attempting to ex- common needs and desires (the content aspect of interest) of Third World
tend these principles to the poorest women. . . . SEWA sees the need to bring women workers, which leads potentially to the construction of the identity of
poor women into workers' co-operatives. The co-operative structure has to Third World women workers, is what remains a challenge— a challenge that
be revitalised if they are to become truly workers' organisations, and thereby perhaps S EWA comes closest to identifying and addressing.
mobilise the strength of the co-operative movement in the task of organis- I have argued that the particular location of Third World women workers at
ing and strengthening poor women" (Jhabvala 1994, 116). This emphasis on this moment in the development of global capitalism provides a vantage point
the extension of cooperative (or democratic) principles to poor women, the from which to (I) make particular practices of domination and recolonization
focus on political and legal literacy, education for critical and collective con- visible and transparent, thus illuminating the minute and global processes
sciousness, and developing strategies for collective (and sometimes militant) of capitalist recolonization of women workers, and (2) understand the com-
struggle and for economic, social, and psychic development makes sEwA's monalities of experiences, histories, and identity as the basis for solidarityand
project a deeply feminist, democratic, and transformative one. Self-employed in organizing Third World women workers transnationally. My claim, here, is
women are some of the most disenfranchised in Indian society—they are vul- that the definition of the social identity of women as workers is not only class-
nerable economically, in caste terms, physically, sexually, and in terms of their based but, in fact, in this case, must be grounded in understandings of race,
health, and, of course, they are socially and politically invisible. Thus they are gender, and caste histories and experiences of work. In effect, I suggest that
also one of the most difficult constituencies to organize. The simultaneous homework is one of the most significant, and repressive, forms of "women's
focus on collective struggle for equal rights and justice (struggle against) work" in contemporary global capitalism. In pointing to the ideology of the
coupled with economic development on the basis of cooperative, democratic "Third World woman worker" created in the context of a global division of
principles of sharing, education, self-reliance, and autonomy (struggle for) labor, Iam articulating differences located in specific histories of inequality,
is what is responsible for SEWA'S success at organizing poor, home-based, that is, histories of gender and caste/class in the Narsapur context and his-
women workers. Jhabvala summarizes this when she says, "The combina- tories of gender, race, and liberal individualism in the Silicon Valley and in
tion of trade union and co-operative power makes it possible not only to de- Britain.
fend members but to present an ideological alternative. Poor women's co- However, my argument does not suggest that these are discrete and sepa-
operatives are a new phenomenon. SEWA has a vision of the co-operative as rate histories. In focusing on women's work as a particular form of Third
a form of society that will bring about more equal relationships and lead to a World women's exploitation in the contemporary economy, I also want to
new type of society" (135). foreground a particular history that Third and First World women seem
SEWA appears to come closest to articulating the common interests and to have in common: the logic and operation of capital in the contempo-
needs of Third World women workers in the terms that Jonasdottir elabo- rary global arena. I maintain that the interests of contemporary transna-
rates. The association organizes on the basis of the objective interests of poor tional capital and the strategies employed enable it to draw upon indigenous
women workers— both the trade union and cooperative development aspect social hierarchies and to construct, reproduce, and maintain ideologies of
of the organizational strategies illustrate this. The status of poor women masculinity/femininity, technological superiority, appropriate development,
workers as workers and as citizens entitled to rights and justice is primary. skilled/unskilled labor, and so on. Here I have argued this in terms of the cate-
But SEWA also approaches the deeper level of the articulation of needs and gory of "women's work," which I have shown to be grounded in an ideology
desires based on recognition of subjective, collective interests. As discussed of the Third World women worker. Thus, analysis of the location of Third
earlier, it is this level of the recognition and articulation of common interest World women in the new international division of labor must draw upon the
that is the challenge for women workers globally. While the common inter- histories of colonialism and race, class and capitalism, gender and patriarchy,
ests ofwomen workers as workers have been variously articulated in the forms and sexual and familial figurations. The analysis of the ideological definition
of struggles and organizations reviewed above, the transition to identifying and redefinition of women's work thus indicates a political basis for common

166 Feminism without Borders 167 The Politics of Solidarity

struggles and it is this particular forging of the political unity of Third World
women workers that I would like to endorse. This is in opposition to ahis-
torical notions of the common experience, exploitation, or strength of Third
World women or between Third and First World women, which serve to natu-
ralize normative Western feminist categories of sel f and other. If Third World
women are to be seen as the subjects of theory and of struggle, we must pay CHAPTER SEVEN

attention to the specificities of their/our common and different histories. Privatized Citizenship, Corporate
In summary, this chapter highlights the following analytic and political
issues pertaining to Third World women workers in the global arena: it writes Academies, and Feminist Projects
a particular group of women workers into history and into the operation of
contemporary capitalist hegemony; it charts the links and potential for soli-
darity between women workers across the borders of nation-states, based on The universities were places for self-perfection, places for the highest education in
demystifying the ideology of the masculinized worker; it exposes a domesti- life. Everyone taught everyone else. All were teachers, all were students. The sages
cated definition of Third World women's work to be in actuality a strategy of listened more than they talked; and when they talked it was to ask questions that
global capitalist recolonization; it suggests that women have common inter- would engage endless generations in profound and perpetual discovery.
ests as workers, not just in transforming their work lives and environments, The universities and the academies were also places where people sat and medi-
but in redefining home spaces so that homework is recognized as work to tated and absorbed knowledge from the silence. Research was a permanent activity,
earn a living rather than as leisure or supplemental activity; it foregrounds and all were researchers and appliers of the fruits of research. The purpose was to
the need for feminist liberatory knowledge as the basis of feminist organiz- discover the hidden unified law of all things, to deepen the spirit, to make more
ing and collective struggles for economic and political justice; it provides a profound the sensitivities of the individual to the universe, and to become more
working definition of the common interests of Third World women workers creative.—Ben Okri, Astonishing the Gods, 1995
based on theorizing the common social identity of Third World women as
women/workers; and finally, it reviews the habits of resistance, forms of col- Ben Okri's beautifully lyrical vision of the university highlights lifelong,
lective struggle, and strategies of organizing of poor, Third World women collective learning, the importance of listening, silence and meditation as
workers. Irma is right when she says that "the only way to get a little measure forms of learning, the connection of intellectual and spiritual labor to cre-
of power over your own life is to do it collectively, with the support of other ativity, and the process of research and knowledge acquisition as the discovery
people who share your needs" (quoted in Hossfeld 1993, 51). The question of ofthe principles and values of human existence in the context ofa larger physi-
defining common interests and needs such that the identity of Third World cal and cosmic environment. In the context of the U.S. academy of the late
women workers forms a potentially revolutionary basis for struggles against twentieth and early twenty-first century, however, Okri's description of the
capitalist recolonization, and for feminist self-determination and autonomy, purpose and pedagogy of university life seem impossibly utopian. Nonethe-
is a complex one. However, as maquiladora worker Veronica Vasquez and the less, I begin with this vision of the university community precisely because it
women in s EWA demonstrate, women are already waging such struggles. The is utopian and draws attention to the visionary aspects of the work of many
beginning of the twenty-first century may be characterized by the exacerba- teachers and scholars in academic settings around the world. It is also this
tion of the sexual politics of global capitalist domination and exploitation, vision of ethical pedagogy and true knowledge-seeking, in part, that compels
but it is also suggestive of the dawning of a renewed politics of hope and me to write about the increasingly corporate U.S. academy and its profound
solidarity. significance for feminist struggle.

168 Feminism without Borders

 The academy has always been the site of feminist struggle. It is that contra- practices and their effects on the location and experiences of marginalized
dictory place where knowledges are colonized but also contested—a place communities in the academy. Here I analyze the political economy of the U.S.
that engenders student mobilizations and progressive movements of various academy (or U.S. higher education in general) and the commoditization of
kinds. It is one of the few remaining spaces in a rapidly privatized world that knowledge in the context of global restructuring and economic and political
offers some semblance of a public arena for dialogue, engagement, and vision- realignments of power. Again, questions of power, difference, knowledge,
ing of democracy and justice. Although these spaces are shrinking rapidly, and democratic struggles dominate this analysis of my own primary place of
dialogue, disagreement, and controversy are still possible and sanctioned in work and struggle for the last two decades: questions about potential soli-
the academy. I believe the U.S. academy is one of a handful of contested sites darities, and about borders and their underlying relations of power preoccupy
crucial to feminist struggle in the United States. And it is one of the most me here as well, questions about where the unseen borders in the academy lie
significant sites in recent history for antiglobalization student movements, and how we can make them visible, about who crosses these borders and who
and post-ii September 2001, one of the major sites of antiwar organizing. cannot, about the kinds of passports/credentials needed to cross borders, and
Thus the increasing privatization of U.S. institutions of higher education has the building of communities of dialogue and dissent that democratize and
significant effects for feminist work in the academy, and antiracist feminists decolonize these borders so that all constituencies can access and utilize the
need to theorize our work in relation to this restructured academy. knowledges each need for autonomy and self-definition.
It is thus in the spirit of clarifying the limits and possibilities of eman- Globalization is a slogan, an overused and underunderstood concept, and
cipatory work in the academy that I undertake this analysis. This chapter it characterizes real shifts and consolidation of power around the world. In-
offers an antiracist, feminist critique of what Stanley Aronowitz (2000) calls stitutions, and people in power, rule and maintain inequality in part by hiding
"The Knowledge Factory," and others have variously referred to as "the corpo- or mystifying the workings of power. Understanding the political economy
rate university" (Giroux and Myrsiades 2001), "digital diploma mills" (Noble of higher education at the beginning of the twenty-first century is about see-
2001), "academic capitalism" (Slaughter and Leslie 1997), and "the academic ing and making visible the shifts and mystifications of power at a time when
globalization of North American universities" (Currie 1998). I attempt this global capitalism reigns supreme. I focus here on globalization as a process
analysis for two reasons—because I believe the discursive and pedagogical that combines a market ideology with a set of material practices drawn from
critiques of a Eurocentric, masculinist knowledge base have to be anchored in the business world. In this context the politics of difference, the production
the larger institutional context in which many feminist academics work, and of knowledge about (and the disciplining/colonizing of) difference, how we
because although there is a growing body of left scholarship on the debilitat- know what we know, and the consequences of our "knowing" on different
ing effects of a privatized, corporate academy, this scholarship by and large realities and communities of people around the world is one of the ways we
either ignores or erases questions of racialized gender. After all the Marxist- can trace the effects of globalization in the academy. Feminist literacy neces-
feminist, antiracist theorizing of the past few decades, we continue to inherit sitates learning to see (and theorize) differently—to identify and challenge
a left critique unmarked by racialized gender in terms of its theoretical pre- the politics of knowledge that naturalizes global capitalism and business-
suppositions. On the other hand, feminist scholars have made great inroads as-usual in North American higher education. Specifically it involves making
in discursive, curricular, and pedagogical terms within and across academic racialized gender visible and acknowledging its centrality to processes of gov-
disciplines, but we rarely link these concerns to a serious anticapitalist cri- ernance in the "new" corporate academy. While we have access to a wealth
tique of the corporate academy—an academy that determines the everyday of feminist and antiracist, multicultural scholarship on curricular and peda-
material and ideological conditions of our work as teachers and scholars in gogical issues in U.S. higher education,' there is very little scholarship that
the United States of America. connects pedagogical and curricular questions to those of governance, ad-
Chapter 8 addresses the politics of knowledge, curricular and pedagogical ministration, and educational policy; it is this link that this chapter explores.

170 Feminism without Borders 171 Privatized Citizenship

 Globalization, Academic Capitalism, and Democratic Education ster, and Healey (1998) call science policy and economic development policy
One of the most obvious ways in which globalization is understood is (2i). Etzkowitz and his colleagues claim that since the 198os, universities have
in terms of the production of an epoch of "borderlessness." The mobility, been undergoing a "second revolution" (the first being the humanities-based
and borderlessness, of technology (e.g., the Internet), financial capital, en- revolution of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century that introduced
vironmental wastes, modes of governance (e.g., the World Trade Organiza- a research mission into the university). This second academic revolution is
tion), as well as cross-national political movements (e.g., struggles against science-based and is "the translation of research findings into intellectual
the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund) characterizes global- property, a marketable commodity, and economic development" (21). Note
ization at the beginning of the twenty-first century. In 1989, Jonathan Feld- the reference to property, commodity exchange, and economic development
man argued pursuasively that U.S. universities are "part of a complex web —all fundamental aspects ofglobal capitalism.The moment we tie university-
based research to economic development—and describe this research as fun-
of intervention and militarism." Feldman showed how the university "par-
damentally driven by market forces—it becomes possible to locate the uni-
ticipates in both the U.S. war system and the transnational economy" (5;
versity as an important player in capitalist rule. Etzkowitz and colleagues
see also Soley 1995). What was referred to in the 196os, 197os, and 198os
talk about the "triple helix" model of knowledge "capitalization" in the sci-
as the "military-industrial complex" has now transmogrified into the "mili-
ences —with the university, industry, and the state forming the three strands
tary/prison/cyber/ corporate complex." Zillah Eisenstein's argument (1998)
of interdependency. The capitalization of knowledge here refers to the "trans-
linking cyber-media-corporate power and Angela Davis's analysis (in James
lation of knowledge into commercial property in the literal sense of capital-
1998) of the new "prison-industrial complex" provides the analytical basis for
izing on one's intellectual (scientific) assets; more generally, it refers to the
my formulation of the "military/prison/cyber/corporate complex." What con-
way in which society at large draws on, uses, and exploits its universities,
cerns me here is the place (literal and metaphorical) of U.S. universities in this
government-funded research labs, and so on to build the innovative capacity
complex. Along with many other scholars, I believe that the U.S. university is
of the future" (9). This capitalization of knowledge is one of the most pro-
one of the "scapes" (to use John Urry's [19981 term for networks of technolo-
found ways that universities serve as a catalyst for the onward march of global
gies, machines, organizations, texts, and actors) connected to this complex.
capitalism — a march ably facilitated by knowledge and information technolo-
Borderlessness in these terms engenders profound questions about power,
gies in the early years of this century.
access, justice, and accountability. After all, inequality can also be mobile in
There is nowa wide-ranging university/corporate alliance that sustains and
this particular world.
supports the military/prison/cyber/corporate complex. Thus immense power
John Urry suggests that new machines and technologies shrink time-
as well as oppression is dispersed, funneled through, recycled, consolidated,
space, creating scapes that partially transcend social control and regula-
and above all justified through the daily operation of U.S. universities newly
tion. These machines and technologies include "fiber-optic cables, jet planes,
restructured through the processes of economic globalization. It is this link
audio-visual transmissions, digital TV, computer networks including the
between the university and other scapes of global capitalism that recycle and
Internet, satellites, credit cards, faxes, electronic point-of-sale terminals, cell
exacerbate gender, race, class, and sexual hierarchies that concerns me.
phones, electronic stock exchanges, high speed trains, and virtual reality.
As scholars and critics of the effects of globalization on the university have
There are also large-scale increases in nuclear, chemical and conventional
argued, the last few decades have witnessed a profound shift in the vision
military technologies and weapons, as well as new waste products and health
and mission of the nineteenth-century public university to the model of an
risks" (6).
entrepreneurial, corporate university in the business of naturalizing capital-
Is the North American universitya similar global scape involved in the busi-
ist, privatized citizenship. The ideology of the market and of the consumer as
ness of economic and political capitalist rule? Evidence for this proposition
the global and North American citizen par excellence is actively consolidated
can be found in the increasingly close link between what Etzkowitz, Web-
in the restructured U.S. university—and this is bad news indeed for educa-

172 Feminism without Borders 173 Privatized Citizenship

tors and citizens concerned with social and economic justice. Further, it is the knowledge and the now normalized ties between university research and in-
racialized, and sexualized, systems of exploitation that underlie and consoli- dustry, we are faced with a major contradiction in the role of the new academy
date the everyday material workings of the corporatized university, and of the in crafting citizenship. In the context of the university/corporate complex,
production of consumer-citizens. These systems include unequal relations universities can no longer be heralded as sanctuaries of nonrepression—nor
of labor, exclusionary systems of access, Eurocentric canons and curricular can they be sites for "free scholarly inquiry," that is, free from the pressures
structures, sexist and racist campus cultures, and the simultaneous margin- of state or industrial and corporate profit making.
alization and cooptation of feminist, race and ethnic, and gay/lesbian/queer However since universities are about knowledge production and dissemi-
studies agendas in the service of the corporate academy. nation, they remain sites of struggle and contestation, thus making the corpo-
The values and ideologies underlying the corporate, entrepreneurial uni- rate academy a crucial locus of feminist engagement. In recent years there has
versity directly contradict the values and vision of a democratic, public univer- been a backlash against women and especially feminist scholars and teachers
sity engaged in crafting democratic citizenship though the practice of higher in academia. Feminist scholars are denied tenure on the basis ofthe "political"
education. Amy Gutmann in her now classic work on democratic education or unconventional nature of their work; university administrators claim that
(1987) argues that the university is particularly well suited for a type of edu- it is difficult to find "qualified" women and minority candidates to fill perma-
cation in which young people learn how to think critically and carefully about nent positions, while the revolving door policy for women, especially women
political problems, and about how to articulate their own views and defend of color, is firmly in place (see Sidhu 2001). This backlash needs to be analyzed
them before people with whom they disagree. Historically, the relative au- not just in the context of the hegemony of conservative and neoliberal dis-
tonomy of the university was rooted in its primary democratic purpose —pro- courses and practices in the academy but also in terms of the corporatization
tection against the threat of tyranny. Gutmann clarifies the "freedom of the of the academy.
academy" and the "academic freedom of scholar" in this way: Gutmann's sketch of democratic education (1987) is further complicated
if we add the values of justice and equality to the mission of the university in a
Control of the creation of ideas—whether by a majority or a minority—
democratic, just society. Here Iris Marion Young (199o) is especially helpful.
subverts the ideal of conscious social reproduction at the heart of demo- Claiming that interest group politics are defective in that "the privatized form
cratic education and democratic politics. As institutional sanctuaries for
of representation and decision making it encourages does not require these
free scholarly inquiry, universities can help prevent such subversion. They
expressions of interests to justice, and second that inequality of resources,
can provide a realm where new and unorthodox ideas are judged on their
organization, and power allows some interests to dominate while others have
intellectual merits; where men and women who defend such ideas, pro- little or no voice," (92) Young argues eloquently, that "democratic participa-
vided they defend them well, are not strangers but valuable members of the tion has an intrinsic value over and above the protection of interests, in pro-
community. Universities thereby serve democracy as sanctuaries of non- viding important means for the development and exercise of capacities" (92).
repression. (174)
This is similar to Gutmann's argument about the university providing a space
The idea of the university as a sanctuary for "free scholarly inquiry" sug- for the practice and development of democratic capacities by defining them-
gests the necessity of the relative autonomy of the university community in selves as sanctuaries of nonrepression (i.e., not participating in interest group
relation to the state and the market. Also, it is this autonomy and commitment politics). However, unlike Gutmann, Young introduces justice and equality,
to democratic practice within the university that allows it to be a "sanctuary of especially as they arise in relation to historically oppressed and marginalized
nonrepression." Furthermore, it is their role as sanctuaries of nonrepression peoples, as fundamental to conceiving democracy. Here is how Young defines
that provides universities their unique place in the crafting of democratic citi- the link between democratic citizenship and social justice: "A goal of social
zenship. Thus, if we contrast this vision of democratic citizenship fostered by justice, I will assume, is social equality. Equality refers not primarily to the dis-
universities with Etzkowitz et al.'s analysis of the capitalization of scientific tribution of social goods, though distributions are certainly entailed by social

174 Feminism without Borders 175 Privatized Citizenship

1
equality. It refers primarily to the full participation and inclusion of every- to by the IM F and the World Bank. And the privatization of higher education
one in a society's major institutions, and the socially supported substantive is linked to the privatization of prisons, hospitals, media, and so on. Thus
opportunity for all to develop and exercise their capacities and realize their the discussion of universities and globalization needs to be framed within the
choices" (173). larger context of the military/prison/cyber/corporate complex. Perhaps one
Thus, for Young, democratic citizenship in higher education would not of the only ways to fight the corporatization of the university (which has lead
just entail working to create a space for free scholarly inquiry and exchange to the rollback of affirmative action and the recolonization of marginalized
in a nonrepressive environment; it would also entail the just and equal par- peoples and our knowledges) is to link this struggle to other anticorporatiza-
ticipation of all social groups in the institutions that effect their lives. This don struggles (e.g., the anti-World Trade Organization movement).
just and equal participation is necessary for everyone to develop their capaci-
ties and exercise their choices. Young thus argues for attentiveness to gen-
Privatization, Labor, and the Entrepreneurial University
der, race, class, and sexual difference and inequality in theorizing democratic
citizenship. Like Ben Okri's vision, this idea of democratic citizenship in Privatization as it operates in the United States can mean dismantling wel-
higher education is fundamentally opposed to the ideas and values of the re- fare and social security, the sale or lease of public parks, recreation areas, hos-
structured, entrepreneurial university. Clarifying this particular contradiction pitals, and prisons, or simply contracting out landscaping, school bus driving,
in the vision and mission of the university then opens up some unexpected or data processing services.2 In a university setting it can mean contracting
spaces for antiracist feminist engagement. out food and janitorial services, as well as the contracting out of teaching and
If antiracist feminist agendas in the academy are predicated on the cre- curricular projects. It can mean the commoditization of higher education (the
ation and consolidation of democratic spaces attentive to questions of access, deliberate transformation of the educational process into commodity form
opportunities, power, and voice of different racial, sexual, class-based com- for the purpose of profit making), as David Noble (2ooi) argues, through, for
munities, the privatized, restructured university becomes an urgent locus of instance, prepackaged distance learning programs.
struggle. The restructuring of the university occurs on several levels: (I) the Ideologically, privatization is rooted in the economic theory of Milton
nature of jobs for faculty are restructured leading to a major shift in relations Friedman and the Chicago School of Economics, which since the 198os has
of labor among different faculty constituencies; (2) the nature ofjobs for sup- developed a conservative rhetoric of efficiency, cost savings, and the disman-
port personnel and administrative personal also change and take on new and ding of corrupt, intrusive, and ineffective big government. This ideology is ap-
often reduced dimensions; (3) there are corresponding shifts in the organiza- plied to public policy and influenced by conservative, right-wing think tanks
tion and delivery of knowledge, that is, curricular priorities and pedagogical such as the Heritage Foundation, the John Locke Foundation, the Reason
strategies undergo realignment; and (4) the place of the university in relation Foundation, the Cato Institute, and the American Enterprise Institute. The
to corporate interests and priorities, on the one hand, and to national/state fundamental ethical shift that occurs as a result of the ideology of privatiza-
interests and priorities, on the other, undergoes some realignment as well. tion is the replacement of public participation and institutional responsibility
The glue that works to bind all this is the increasing privatization of the uni- and accountability with a profit motive. Privatization recasts the principles of
versity, resulting in the erosion of public spaces and decreased accountability, democratic governance into the principles of the capitalist marketplace and
responsibility, and autonomy of the university. turns citizens into consumers. It is about the abdication of responsibility, and
Privatization, the transfer of public assets and services owned and per- it necessitates looking at who benefits (corporations and the neoconservative
formed by the government to businesses and individuals in the private sector, movement) and who is adversely affected —workers of all kinds, people of
is one of the most explicit forms taken by economic and political globalization color, poor women, and anyone concerned about democracy and citizenship.
in the United States. Privatization in the United States is the flip side of the Sheila Slaughter and Larry Leslie (1997) argue that the American univer-
Structural Adjustment Programs Third World/South countries are subjected sity has been undergoing a restructuring like that of the U.S. economy, sub-

176 Feminism without Borders 177 Privatized Citizenship

ject to government deregulation and increasing privatization in the name of all classes nationally are now taught by part-time faculty, while 45 percent of
efficiency and cost cutting. In the early 1990s two-thirds of U.S. public re- all undergraduate faculty are part-time.3 In contrast, in 1970 only 22 percent
search institutions faced substantial cuts and many private universities en- of faculty worked part-time. This shift in employment status marks the cre-
gaged in various forms of retrenchment. Thus, like the U.S. economy, higher ation of a permanent underclass of professional workers in higher education.
education had to restructure to deal with this retrenchment. Restructuring Once again, the familiar story of this stage of contemporary global capital-
has usually taken the form of "academic capitalism," where universities have ism: women workers of all colors in U.S. higher education are the hardest hit
moved closer to the market ideologically, financially, and in terms of policy (National Center for Educational Statistics 2001). This is a slow but inexorable
and practice, creating more links with industry, establishing commercial shift in roles, intellectual project, and identity for faculty in higher educa-
arms, selling education to foreign students, and restructuring campuses. Aca- tion—and making the shift visible is an important way to read the operation
demic capitalism is entirely commensurate with the ideology and politics of powerand relations of rule in the academy. Here is one place where borders
of privatization, and it lays the groundwork for a market-based capitalist are being redrawn and discourses of retrenchment, funding, and efficiency
citizenship. mystify and cover-up the drawing of the lines in the sand. Thus citizenship
In her work on universities and globalization (1998), Jan Currie argues is actively redefined for university faculty through this restructuring of aca-
thus: "The major factor affecting universities has been the economic ideology demic labor, making the corporate academy an important area of struggle
prevalent in globalization that calls for the primacy of the market, privatiza- for feminist, antiracist intellectuals and educators. For instance, Department
tion, and a reduced role for the public sphere. It deregulates the economy and of Education statistics summarized in the Chronicle of Higher Education Alma-
restructures work, which leads to an intensification of work for the remain- nac zocu indicate that there has been no change since 1977 in the percent of
ing 'core' workers" (15). A global markets focus replaces commitments to women professors that have tenure, and full professors across all schools and
sexual, racial, and class equality. The "management" of race, gender, sexual, disciplines are 79 percent male, and almost 90 percent white. And since 1995,
and class conflict stands in foran active commitment to struggle against these the year its report was published, the disparities between the salaries of men
inherited and disabling structures (that is, for social justice). One effect of and women academics has actually increased (Sidhu 2001, 38). In terms of
this substitution is that while the discourse of multiculturalism is in full force faculty of color, the percentage of black faculty has remained the same in the
in the academy these days, the practice of multiculturalism actually facili- last thirtyyears— less than 5 percent, with half of these at historically black in-
tates the recolonization of communities marginalized on the basis of class, stitutions. Asian faculty constitute 5.5 percent and Latinos 2.6 percent of the
and racialized gender. The practice and pedagogy of accommodation is pro- total faculty in the U.S. academy. In contrast, in 2001, the student body in the
foundly different if not incommensurate with the practice and pedagogy of United States was 56 percent women, II percent African American, 8 percent
dissent and transformation. And a management perspective is profoundly dif- Latino, and 6 percent Asian American (see Chait and Trower 2001).
ferent from a social justice perspective, one that takes the weight of history In addition to the restructuring of academic labor, many scholars of educa-
seriously and is anchored in a commitment to racial, gender, sexual, and class tion and globalization predict another alarming set of changes. Currie (1998)
equity. summarizes these: "an intensification of work practices, a loss of autonomy,
The restructuring (privatization) of the academy as we know it results in closer monitoring and appraisal, less participation in decision-making, and a
a truncated professoriate, since the commoditization of the educational pro- lack of personal development through work" (r5). The current popularity of
cess requires shifting attention from educators to the products of education distance learning, and the rush to technologize and commodify curricula on
that can now be sold in discrete units. Another result is a growing division the part of large state universities such as Wisconsin and California (Berke-
between a small core group of workers with higher pay, job security, and ley) is one example of the profound changes in intellectual labor. Noble (zoo°
benefits, and a larger group of peripheral contract workers, predominantly argues that distance learning parallels an earlier incarnation of commodified
women, with lower pay, job insecurity, and no benefits. Almost 30 percent of education in the late nineteenth century—correspondence education:

178 Feminism without Borders 179 Privatized Citizenship

 For-profit commercial firms are once again emerging to provide vocational subjects of the United States (this was the task of the nineteenth-century
training to working people via computer-based distance education. Uni- vision of the university). The end of the cold war means that national culture
versities are once again striving to meet the challenge of these commercial no longer needs to be legitimated.
enterprises, generate new revenue streams, and extend the range and reach This is an important argument about citizenship. What Readings argues
of their offerings. And although trying somehow to distinguish themselves is that with the demise of the vision of the university as tied to the creation
from their commercial rivals—while collaborating even more closely with of citizens of a democratic nation, the corresponding vision of the univer-
them, they are once again coming to resemble them, this time as digital sity as a corporation is put in place. How do we understand citizenship in
diploma mills. (5) the context of corporations? In the context of corporate culture and values,
Noble examines the involvement of the Universities of Wisconsin, California, citizenship is defined not in terms of civil rights or democratic participation
Columbia, and Chicago in the creation of these new digital diploma mills. Re- or shared vision but in terms of financial stakes and the ability to consume
cently, Cornell University joined this illustrious list through the creation of a goods and services. As Readings and Noble state, students at the corporate
university are citizen-consumers. Citizen-consumers, a proletarianized pro-
for-profit distance learning corporation, e-Cornell. Distance learning shifts
fessoriate, and newly empowered corporate administrators are thus the re-
the focus from the actors in the educational process to the products (syllabi,
sult of the restructuring of the university. As Edward Berman notes, in his
lectures, etc.) of educational labor, which are then classified and marketed for
extensive analysis of the transformation of the University of Louisville into a
profit. Education is thus transformed into "a set of deliverable commodities,
model entrepreneurial university, "Today's higher education system operates
and the end of education has become not self-knowledge but the making of
within a market economy distinguished by fierce competition among many
money" (3). In other words, pedagogy as we know it becomes obsolete.
purveyors (colleges and universities) of similar products (singly, a course; col-
In a 2001 radio interview David Noble spoke about a Clinton-Gore initia-
lectively, an education), which vie with one another for increasingly fickle and
tive that offered distance education for active duty military personnel through
demographically changing consumers (students)" (Berman 1998, 213).
the Department of Defense. Now the Department of Defense is the largest
In his study, Berman suggests three examples of university/corporate alli-
consumer of distance learning programs — another clear connection between
ances between some of the most influential universities and the most power-
changing educational priorities and the governing functions of the U.S. state
ful corporations that raise fundamental ethical questions about the role of the
— since this is a tax payer-supported (military) market.4 The role of teachers
university in the military/prison/cyber/corporate complex. First he analyzes
has shifted radically in this process from being educators with control over our
alliances such as Carnegie Mellon and Westinghouse in robotics research,
own labor and the products of our labor to commodity producers and deliver-
Harvard University with Dupont and Monsanto in chemical and genetic re-
ers. Correspondingly, students have become consumers of yet another com-
search, and Stanford's multiple alliances with, among other corporations,
modity—education. This is then a formula for the "deprofessionalization" or
IBM, Texas Instruments, and General Electric. MIT recently established a
"proletarianization" of the professoriate.
"New Products Program" in which corporations pay a specified fee in ex-
William Readings (1996) discusses the "proletarianization of the profes-
change for new products to be developed over the next two years. Endowed
soriate" with the deskilling of faculty, and administrators not professors driv-
professorships linked to the corporate world also generate revenue for uni-
ing the curriculum. Reading's provocative thesis deserves attention. He ar-
versities. Thus, there are new chairs to honor corporate executives or the free
gues that as an effect of economic globalization, the university is becoming a
enterprise system such as the "Reliance Professorship of Private Enterprise"
transnational bureaucratic corporation either tied to transnational governing
at the University of Pennsylvania, where it is stipulated that the chair holder
bodies such as the European Economic Union, or analogous to transnational
be a "spokesperson for the free enterprise system." Berman also discusses
corporations that operate outside the purview of national accountability. Thus
how athletic programs generate revenue for the university, as for instance at
the twenty-first-century university is no longer called upon to craft citizen-
the University of Wisconsin, which has a contract with Reebok to use Reebok

r8o Feminism without Borders 181 Privatized Citizenship

 clothing and gear in exchange for $2.3 million for scholarships, payments to cial relations and values—why not focus on "sexist" or "racist" citizenship?
coaches, sports programming, and community service projects. There are no The answer to these questions lies in my belief that capitalism is a founda-
similar corporate-sponsored "chairs" in feminist studies yet. tional principle of social organization at this time (see Dirlik i997). This does
Etzkowitz, Webster, and Healey (1998) develop the corporate/industry/ not mean that capitalism functions as a "master narrative" or that all forms
university links even more explicitly by drawing attention to the way in the of domination are reducible to capitalist hierarchies, or that the temporal and
field of sciences, "universities assume entrepreneurial tasks such as market- spatial effects of capital are the same around the globe. It does mean that at
ing knowledge and creating companies even as firms take on an academic di- this particular stage of global capitalism, the particularities of its operation
mension, sharing knowledge among each other" (6). It is this increasing link (unprecedented deterritorialization, abstraction and concentration of capi tal,
between creating knowledge and creating wealth (profit) that raises profound transnationalization of production and mobility through technology, con-
ethical questions about the privatized university. Etzkowitz and his colleagues solidation of supranational corporations that link capital flows globally, etc.)
further argue that "universities and firms have become more alike in that both necessitate naming capitalist hegemony and culture as a foundational prin-
are involved in translating knowledge into marketable products, even though ciple of social life. To do otherwise is to obfuscate the way power and hege-
they still retain their distinctive missions for education and research on the mony function in the world — and certainly at the university. Thus, an anticapi-
one hand, and production and research on the other" (8). talist feminist critique is the logical way to go here. Also, there are questions
Thus there is a growing conflict of interest between the public and pri- to be raised regarding the place of programs such as women's studies, race
vate interests of scientific research. The expectations and standards of the and ethnic studies, and so on, in the corporate university. How are these pro-
academy are in direct conflict with those of private enterprise. This is most grams marketed? How do we/they collude in this restructuring of the univer-
evident in the biotechnology field and specifically in the context of the Human sity? How do we benefit, and what have we lost as a result of these changes. For
Genome Project, which led to a huge increase in academic-based firms work- instance, many schools assume that so long as there is a women's studies pro-
ing on the research and knowledge needs of the project. gram there is no need to hire feminist scholars in other departments (Sidhu
Why do these alliances matter? And why worry about the "entrepreneu- 2001, 38). In conjunction with the backlash against feminist scholars and the
rial" university? Besides the ethics of profit making and corporate influence revolving door policy for hiring us, these are difficult times for many of us in
on knowledge production at the university, the alliances raise some profound the academy. With the simultaneous downsizing, commodification, and tech-
questions about the role and accountability of governments in funding and nicization of education in the corporate university, it is likely that interdis-
sustaining public institutions. Privatization of higher education results in the ciplinary programs, and humanities and arts curricula will be slowly phased
State of California allotting 18 percent of its budget to prisons, and only i per- out because our "role in the market will be seen as ornamental" (Giroux 2001,
cent to education. It leads to a 25 percent reduced state appropriation for the 40). Anticapitalist feminism links capitalism as an economic system and cul-
University of California over a five-year period, and a corresponding 25 per- ture of consumption centrally to racist, sexist, heterosexist, and nationalist
cent tuition hike (Martinez 1998, chs. 14, 15, and z6).Privatization of public relations of rule in the production of capitalist/corporate citizenship.
institutions of higher education essentially implies institutional governance How does one theorize capitalist citizenship? And how is the university
by the market, which, contrary to the rhetoric of the privatization movement, implicated in engendering this kind of citizenship? To draw on the above dis-
usually leads to monopoly and a reduction of choice. cussion about privatization and the entrepreneurial university, one of the most
significant shifts in what Etzkowitz and his colleagues call the "second aca-
demic revolution" is the growing link between money, the ability to consume
Capitalist Citizenship and Feminist Projects
and own goods, and participation in public life (democratic citizenship). If the
What does it mean to speak about a notion of capitalist citizenship? How market provides the ethical and moral framework for university life, educators
is this idea different from democratic citizenship? Why privilege capitalist so- and students exercise choices as consumers in a marketplace, not as citizens

182 Feminism without Borders 183 Privatized Citizenship

in a democratic polity (Starr 1987; Emspak 1997).This is a desiccated vision scent capitalists whose work involves marketing and generating profit for the
of democratic politics where "free choice" in the market is available only to university. This reinvention of the vision of the public university ties into the
those with economic capacities. Private sector decision making is private— larger military/prison/cyber/corporate complex, since the corporate univer-
citizens have no rights to discuss and make policy. Thus, wealth determines sity now generates the knowledges needed to keep this complex in place.
citizenship. Instead of people governing, markets govern—it is not citizens The effects of this recrafted vision of the university on the construction of
who make decisions, it is consumers. So those who lack economic capaci- curricula, distribution of knowledge, and self-image of the university, not to
ties are noncitizens. This results in a profound recolonization of historically mention the shift in relations of labor and educational access and opportuni-
marginalized communities, usually poor women and people of color. ties for marginalized communities thus become urgent sites of struggle for
Capitalist corporate culture thus privatizes citizenship, defining the values, anticapitalist, antiracist feminists as well as other radical educators.
rights, and responsibilities of citizenship as a private good, substituting the This critique maps my understanding of anticapitalist feminist struggle
language of personal responsibility and private initiative for the commitments in the U.S. academy, a struggle that fundamentally entails a critique of the
to social responsibility and public service. Henry Giroux argues similarly: discourse and values of capitalism and their naturalization through a corpo-
rate culture and discourses of neoliberalism. It involves an anti-imperialist
I use the term corporate culture to refer to an ensemble of ideological and
understanding of feminist praxis, that is, a critique of the way global capital-
institutional forces that function politically and pedagogically both to gov-
ism has facilitated corporate citizenship, Eurocentrism, and nativism in the
ern organizational life though senior managerial control and to produce
academy. In addition to decolonizing and actively challenging discourses of
compliant workers, depoliticized consumers, and passive citizens. Within
consumerism, privatization and ownership, the collapse of public into private
the language and images of corporate culture, citizenship is portrayed
good, and the refashioning of social into consumer identities, feminist anti-
as an utterly privatized affair whose aim is to produce competitive self-
capitalist critique at this site involves theorizing difference and pluralism as
interested individuals vying for their own material and ideological gain.
genuinely complex and contradictory rather than as commodified variations
(Giroux 2001, 30) on Eurocentric themes.
To summarize, capitalist or corporate models of citizenship craft loyalty to Ido not privilege a purist notion of the university in making this critique.
the nation in the image of capitalist market relations, folding the ideas of This is not an argument against all forms of joint corporate/education ven-
democracy and freedom into the logic of the market. Ideas of the public good, tures—but in the absence of a strong, democratic, civil society the hegemony
collective service and responsibility, democratic rights, freedom, and justice of corporate cultures in the academy necessitate serious attention and debate.
are privatized and crafted into commodities to be exchanged via the market. Also, I want to draw attention to the ethics and politics of decision making
The institutionalization of capitalist citizenship at the corporate university when American higher education undergoes this kind of fundamental re-
thus profoundly transforms the vision of the university as a democratic public structuring in response to economic globalization trends. Analyzing the re-
space, a sanctuary for nonrepression (in Amy Gutmann's terms [1987, 174]). structuring of higher education and the deeply naturalized effects of capitalis t
Neoliberalism, linked to corporate culture thus emerges as the master nar- processes provides a rich point of entry into seeing(and theorizing) the power
rative in the U.S. academy. In the context of this redefinition of the public shifts and consolidations at the beginning of the twenty-first century. Here I
sphere and of democratic citizenship in the academy, what are the stakes for have tried to make this shift visible for antiracist feminist scholars and teach-
antiracist feminist and radical educators? ers so that we can reflect on our particular place and accountability in this new
Specifically, the shift in the ideologies and institutional practices of the vision of the university and determine how we can create dialogic spaces of
university from liberal democratic notions of citizenship to corporate client/ dissent and transformation in this institutional climate. Now we can address
consumer notions of citizenship situates students as clients and consumers, the questions about borders and border crossings posed at the beginning of
faculty as service providers, and administrators as conflict managers and na- this chapter. In the context of the analysis above, it is clear which commu-

184 Feminism without Borders 185 Privatized Citizenship

nities can cross which borders and which communities are held in place by notions of citizenship, belonging, and democracy are at stake here. Self-
relations of dominationirecolonization. This focus on the political economy critical hard work is necessary to transform these unjust educational regimes.
of the U.S. university thus illustrates that it is crucial for feminist academics to However, cultures of dissent exist and can be nurtured. Of course the dan-
connect our pedagogical and curricular initiatives to larger institutional and ger and the risks continue to exist. Speaking truth to power continues to be
administrative concerns of the corporate university. dangerous.
If American higher education is in the process of undergoing a fundamen- In this postscript I reflect on the political, intellectual, and institutional
tal restructuring such that yet again it is women and people of color who . stakes involved in carving and defending curricular, disciplinary, and rela-
are at risk (peripheral workers), not to mention the restructuring of knowl- tional borders in academic sites. It originates in an experience that serves to
edge bases so that curricular decisions become dependant on corporate fund- locate me, as well as to raise larger political and epistemological questions
ing and priorities, surely this is a crisis deserving our attention. The rhetoric pertinent to the project of the next chapterand the book as a whole.The experi-
of educational policy makers however, would have us believe that the chal- ence (a visit to the Netherlands, to attend the 1993 European Women's Studies
lenges of globalization lie in "internationalizing" curricula so that American Conference) focuses on the potential pitfalls and danger of our intellectual
education can provide "global competency." But the most powerful push to and curricular practices around "multiculturalism," difference and justice,
globalize comes from outside the academy—from business and government and illustrates the significance of borders in understanding the relations of
critiques of the (ir)relevance of U.S. higher education. power/knowledge in the consolidation of particular regimes of gender, race,
In fact, going "global" has led to U.S. education's becoming export- class, and sexuality. It also foregrounds for me the significance of the "idea"
oriented to global markets: redesigning, repackaging, managing, and deliv- of Europe, and the "idea" of America (nation making) in the construction of
ering educational "products" at offshore sites and for consumers in foreign knowledge, curricula, and citizenship in the 19905 and beyond. The African
markets. This is the opposite of the traditional practice, in which foreign stu- American philosopher W. E. B. Du Bois spoke of the problem of the twentieth
dents came to the United States for higher education (Gagliano 1992, 325- century being the problem of "the color line." We carry this "problem" into
34). Some of these questions of pedagogy, curriculum, and difference in the the twenty-first century. What analytical and strategic knowledges and con-
context of the corporate academy are explored in the next chapter. ceptual tools do we need to not relive the violence of our inherited histories?
A week before I left for the Netherlands I discovered I needed a visa to
enter the country. I was then an Indian citizen and a permanent resident of
Postscript: The Stakesfor Radical Education
the United States. Procuring a visa involved a substantial fee (sixty dollars),
To conclude, I reflect on the "dangerous territories" encountered by radical a letter from my employer (the letter of invitation from the conference orga-
educators in new globalized, Eurocentric academies at this time.5 Specifically, nizers was inadequate) indicating I had a permanent job in the United States,
I am interested in the question of cultures and politics of dissent in increas- that I was going to Utrecht for a professional conference, that my employer
ingly conservative national and transnational educational locations. What is at would be financially responsible for me while I was in the Netherlands, and
stake in the way intellectual, institutional, pedagogical, and relational territo- last but not least, a notarized copy of my green card, which was the "proof" of
ries are drawn, legitimated, regulated, and consolidated in educational insti- my permanent residency in the United States. The process of legitimation re-
tutions and systems? What dangers inhere in these cartographies? To whom? quired ofme encapsulated the dilemmas of citizenship, (im)migration, work,
What knowledges and identities are legitimated/delegitimized as a result of and economic privilege that underlie the concept and power of the European
the struggles over territorial boundaries and borders? Union—and for that matter, the idea of American "multicultural" democ-
Struggles over difference and equality in education clearly matter. The racy. National (and perhaps racial and imperial) borders are reconsolidated at
struggles against domination and for social justice have to be waged situa- the same time as economic borders dissolve in the name of a greater Europe.
tionally and regionally as well as globally, and the very basic ethical and moral While earlier I had worried about whether my experiences and thinking about
186 Feminism without Borders 187 Privatized Citizenship
feminist studies in the United States would seem significant in this context, siders in this community? What notions of legitimacy and gendered and
after this process of being constructed as an illegitimate outsider who needed racialized citizenship are being actively constructed within this community?
proof of employment, citizenship, residency, and economic viability, I de- This struggle and other similar struggles are fundamentally about redefin-
cided it wasn't all that different from a number of different border crossings — ing borders, about including "outsiders" and reformulating what counts as
even disciplinary ones in the academy. Defining insiders and outsiders is what the inside. Borders, especially those drawn to mark legitimate and illegitimate
nation-states and other credentialing institutions do. knowledges are often porous. While the geographical and cultural borders of
The challenges of an antiracist, anticapitalist feminist praxis that is genu- nation-states since World War H and the decolonization of the Third World
inely and ethically cross-cultural are similar in both the European and North were carefully drawn, economic, political, and ideological processes always
American context, however one is defined in terms of racialized gender. Prac- operated as if these borders were porous. The academy operates in similar
tices of ruling and domination may vary across geographical and historical ways. While the boundaries around and inside institutions of higher learning
landscapes, but the effects of these practices and forms of opposition or re- are invisibly but carefully drawn, the economic, cultural, and ideological im-
sistance to them are related and similar. Thus one of the major challenges in peratives of the academy establish relations of rule that consolidate and natu-
constructing a European women's studies curriculum that is radically interna- ralize the dominant values of a globalized capitalist consumer culture where
tional rather than merely the sum of its national parts (British/French/Dutch, the new citizen of the world is a consumer par excellence.
etc.) is the very challenge that faces women's studies programs in the United If economic and cultural globalization creates a context where material,
States. How do we reconcile the economic ascendancy of the European Union economic, and even psychic borders are porous, no longer neatly con-
with the very history of imperialism and colonialism that made this ascen- tained within the geographical boundaries of nation-states, then questions of
dancy possible? How do we rewrite/undo "Britishness," "Dutchness," "white- democracy and citizenship also cannot be neatly charted within these bound-
ness" so that the practice of feminist studies is a fundamentally antiracist, aries. Thus questions of difference and equality in education take on a certain
anticapitalist practice? What would it take to create a radically transnational urgency in a world where the fate of First World citizens is inextricably tied to
feminist practice attentive to the unequal histories of rule in the European the fate of the refugees, exiles, migrants, immigrants in the First World/North
Union countries? Leslie Roman and Timothy Stanley's discussion (1997) of and of similar constituencies in the rest of the world. The struggle over repre-
the construction of a "nationalist" curriculum in Canada (the creation of the sentation is always also a struggle over knowledge. What knowledges do we
image of a fictive, harmonious family ruled by civility) provides a disturbing need for education to be the practice of liberation? What does it mean for edu-
example of a counterpoint to this argument. How does a nationalist curricu- cators to create a democratic public space in this context? And what kinds of
lum connect with an transnational oppositional feminist practice? intellectual, scholarly, and political work would it take to actively work against
This is the very same challenge we face in the North American academy— the privatization of the academy, and for social and economic justice? Finally,
how do we undermine the notions of multiculturalism as melting pot, or how do we hold educational institutions, our daily pedagogic practices, and
multiculturalism as cultural relativism that so permeate U.S. consumer cul- ourselves accountable to the truth? These then are some of my questions for
ture and that are mobilized by the corporate academy as a form of contain- an anticapitalist feminist project in the context of the corporate U.S. academy.
ment, and practice a multiculturalism that is about the decolonization of
received knowledges, histories and identities, a multiculturalism that fore-
grounds questions of social justice and material interests, which actively com-
bats the hegemony of global capital. One of the primary questions feminist
teachers and scholars have to face in the European Union women's studies
network, is the meaning of "community" —who are the insiders and the out-

188 Feminism without Borders 189 Privatized Citizenship

 States, and I turn to theory, and to the potential of political education, for
some way to link my "personal" story with larger stories. Fora way to under-
stand the profoundly collective and historical context within which my per-
sonal story and journey through difference, and through the inequities of
power, privilege, discrimination, marginalization, exclusion, colonization,
CHAPTER EIGHT and oppression, make sense. Iam speaking of howl came to recognize, under-
stand, think through, and organize against sexism, racism, heterosexism,
Race, Multiculturalism, and Pedagogies of Dissent
xenophobia, and elitism in the United States.
I "do" feminist and antiracist theory as a scholar, teacher, and activist in the
U.S. academy—so how do! understand the significance of theory and analy-
Preamble
sis? I believe that meanings of the "personal" (as in my story) are not static,
Growing up in India, I was Indian; teaching high school in Nigeria, I was a but that they change through experience, and with knowledge. Iam not talk-
foreigner (still Indian), albeit a familiar one. As a graduate student in Illinois, ing about the personal as "immediate feelings expressed confessionally" but
I was first a "Third World" foreign student, and then a person of color. Doing as something that is deeply historical and collective—as determined by our
research in London, I was black. As a professor at an American university, Iam involvement in collectivities and communities and through political engage-
an Asian woman—although South Asian racial profiles fit uneasily into the ment. In fact it is this understanding of experience and of the personal that
"Asian" category—and because I choose to identify myself as such, an anti- makes theory possible. So for me, theory is a deepening of the political, not a
racist feminist of color. In North America I was also a "resident alien" with moving away from it: a distillation of experience, and an intensification of the
an Indian passport—I am now a U.S. citizen whose racialization has shifted personal. The best theory makes personal experience and individual stories
dramatically (and negatively) since the attacks on the World Trade Center and communicable. I think this kind of theoretical, analytical thinking allows us
the Pentagon on II September zoo" to mediate between different histories and understandings of the personal.
Of course through all these journeys into and across the borders of coun- One of the fundamental challenges of "diversity" after all is to understand our
tries, educational institutions, and social movements, I was and am a femi- collective differences in terms of historical agency and responsibility so that
nist. But along with the changing labels and self-identifications came new we can understand others and build solidarities across divisive boundaries.
questions and contradictions which I needed to understand. Paying attention Even ifwe think we are not personally racist or sexist, we are clearly marked
to the processes of my own racialization, for instance, transformed my under- by the burdens and privileges of our histories and locations. So what does
standings of the meaning of feminist praxis. Was being a feminist in India it mean to think through, theorize, and engage questions of difference and
the same as being a feminist in the United States of America? In terms of per- power? It means that we understand race, class, gender, nation, sexuality, and
sonal integrity, everyday political and personal practices, and the advocacy of colonialism not just in terms of static, embodied categories but in terms of
justice, equity and autonomy for women, yes. But in terms of seeing myself histories and experiences that tie us together— that are fundamentally inter-
as a woman of color (not just Indian, but of Indian origin) and being treated woven into our lives. So "race" or "Asianness" or "brownness" is not em-
as one, there are vast differences in howl engage in feminist praxis. After all, bodied in me, but a history of colonialism, racism, sexism, as well as of privi-
living as an immigrant, conscious of and engaged with the script of Amen. lege (class and status) is involved in my relation to white people as well as
can racism and imperialism is quite different from living as a "color blind" people of color in the United States.
foreigner. This means untangling whiteness, Americanness, as well as blackness in
Difference, diversity, multiculturalism, globalization, and how we think the United States, in trying to understand my own story of racialization. So
about them complicate my intellectual and political landscape in the United the theoretical insights! find useful in thinking about the challenges posed by

191 Pedagogies of Dissent

a radical multiculturalism in the United States —as well as, in different ways, assumptions of feminist scholarship that are uncritically grounded in West-
early twenty-first century India —are the need to think relationallyabout ques- ern humanism and its modes of "disinterested scholarship," I have tried to
tions of power, equality, and justice, the need to be inclusive in our thinking, demonstrate that this scholarship inadvertently produces Western women as
and the necessity of our thinking and organizing being contextual, deeply the only legitimate subjects of struggle, while Third World women are heard
rooted in questions of historyand experience. The challenge of race and multi- as fragmented, inarticulate voices in (and from) the dark. Arguing against a
culturalism now lies in understanding a color line that is global—not con- hastily derived notion of "universal sisterhood" that assumes a commonality
tained anymore within the geography of the United States, if it ever was. I of gender experience across race and national lines, I have suggested the com-
begin with this preamble because it locates my own intellectual and political plexity of our historical (and positional) differences and the need for creating
genealogy in a chapter that addresses questions of curricular, pedagogical, an analytical space for understanding Third World women as the "subjects"
policy, and institutional practices around antiracist feminist education. of our various struggles "in history." I posit solidarity rather than sisterhood
as the basis for mutually accountable and equitable relationships among dif-
ferent communities of women. Other scholars have made similar arguments,
Feminism and the Language of Difference
and the question of what we might provisionally call "Third World women's
"Isn't the whole point to have a voice?" This is the last sentence of an essay voices" has begun to be addressed seriously in feminist scholarship.
by Marnia Lazreg on writing as a woman on women in Algeria (1988, 81-107). In the last few decades there has been a blossoming of feminist discourse
Lazreg examines academic feminist scholarship on women in the Middle East around questions of "racial difference" and "pluralism." While this work is
and North Africa in the context of what she calls a "Western gynocentric" often an important corrective to earlier middle-class (white) characterizations
notion of the difference between First and Third World women. Arguing for of sexual difference, the goal of the analysis of difference and the challenge
an understanding of "intersubjectivity" as the basis for comparison across of race was not pluralism as the proliferation of discourse on ethnicities as
cultures and histories, Lazreg formulates the problem of ethnocentrism and discrete and separate cultures. The challenge of race resides in a fundamen-
the related question of voice in this way: tal reconceptualization of our categories of analysis so that differences can
be historically specified and understood as part of larger political processes
To take intersubjectivity into consideration when studying Algerian
and systems.2 The central issue, then, is not one of merely "acknowledging"
women or other Third World women means seeing their lives as meaning-
difference; rather, the most difficult question concerns the kind of difference
ful, coherent, and understandable instead of being infused "by us" with
that is acknowledged and engaged. Difference seen as benign variation (diver-
doom and sorrow. It means that their lives like "ours" are structured byeco-
sity), for instance, rather than as conflict, struggle, or the threat of disruption,
nomic, political, and cultural factors. It means that these women, like "us,"
bypasses power as well as history to suggest a harmonious, empty pluralism.3
are engaged in the process of adjusting, often shaping, at times resisting
On the other hand, difference defined as asymmetrical and incommensurate
and even transforming their environment. It means they have their own
cultural spheres situated within hierarchies of dom ination and resistance can-
individuality; they are "for themselves" instead of being "for us." An ap-
not be accommodated within a discourse of "harmony in diversity." A strate-
propriation of their singular individuality to fit the generalizing categories
gic critique of the contemporary language of difference, diversity, and power
of "our" analyses is an assault on their integrity and on their identity. (98)
thus would be crucial to a feminist project concerned with revolutionary social
In my own work I have argued in a similar way against the use of ana- change.
lytic categories and political positioning in feminist studies that discursively In the best, self-reflexive traditions of feminist inquiry, the production of
present Third World women as a homogeneous, undifferentiated group lead- knowledge about cultural and geographical others is no longer seen as apo-
ing truncated lives, victimized by the combined weight of their traditions, cul- litical and disinterested. But while feminist activists and progressive schol-
tures, and beliefs, and "our" (Eurocentric) history.1 In examining particular ars have made a significant dent in the colonialist and colonizing feminist

igz Feminism without Borders 193 Pedagogies of Dissent

scholarship of the late seventies and eighties, this does not mean that ques- lations. Thus, education becomes a central terrain where power and politics
tions of what Lazreg calls "intersubjectivity" or of history vis-a-vis Third operate out of the lived culture of individuals and groups situated in asym-
World peoples have been successfully articulated.4 metrical social and political spaces. This way of understanding the academy
In any case, "scholarship" — feminist, Marxist, postcolonial, or Third entails a critique ofeducation as the mere accumulation ofdisciplinary knowl-
World—is not the only site for the production of knowledge about Third edges that can be exchanged on the world market for upward mobility. There
World womenipeoples.5 The very same questions (as those suggested in re- are much larger questions at stake in the academy these days, not the least of
lation to scholarship) can be raised in relation to our teaching and learning which are questions of self- and collective knowledge of marginal peoples and
practices in the classroom, as well as the discursive and managerial practices the recovery of alternative, oppositional histories of domination and struggle.
of U. S. colleges and universities. Feminists writing about race and racism have Here, disciplinary parameters matter less than questions of power, history,
had a lot to say about scholarship, but perhaps our pedagogical and institu- and self-identity. For knowledge, the very act of knowing, is related to the
tional practices and their relation to scholarship have not been examined with power of self-definition. This definition of knowledge is central to the peda-
quite the same care and attention. Radical educators have long argued that gogical projects of fields such as women's studies, black studies, and ethnic
the academy and the classroom itself are not mere sites of instruction. They studies. By their very location in the academy, fields such as women's studies
are also political and cultural sites that represent accommodations and con- are grounded in definitions of difference, difference that attempts to resist
testations over knowledge by differently empowered social constituencies.6 incorporation and appropriation by providing a space for historically silenced
Thus teachers and students produce, reinforce, recreate, resist, and transform peoples to construct knowledge. These knowledges have always been funda-
ideas about race, gender, and difference in the classroom. Also, the academic mentally oppositional, while running the risk of accommodation and assimi-
institutions in which we are located create similar paradigms, canons, and lation and consequent depoliticization in the academy. It is only in the late
voices that embody and transcribe race and gender. twentieth century, on the heels of domestic and global oppositional politi-
It is this frame of institutional and pedagogical practice that I examine cal movements, that the boundaries dividing knowledge into its traditional
in this chapter. Specifically, I analyze the operation and management of dis- disciplines have been shaken loose, and new, often heretical, knowledges have
courses of race and difference in two educational sites: the women's studies emerged, modifying the structures of knowledge and power as we have in-
classroom and the workshops on "diversity" for upper-level (largely white) herited them. In other words, new analytic spaces have been opened up in
administrators. The links between these two educational sites lie in the (often the academy, spaces that make possible thinking of knowledge as praxis, of
active) creation of discourses of "difference." In other words, I suggest that knowledge as embodying the very seeds of transformation and change. The
educational practices as they are shaped and reshaped at these sites cannot appropriation of these analytic spaces and the challenge of radical educational
be analyzed as merely transmitting already codified ideas of difference. These practice are thus to involve the development of critical knowledges (what
practices often produce, codify, and even rewrite histories of race and colo- women's, black, and ethnic studies attempt) and, simultaneously, to critique
nialism in the name of difference. Chapter 7 discussed the corporatization of knowledge itself.
the academy and the production of privatized citizenship. Here I begin the Education for critical consciousness or critical pedagogy, as it is some-
analysis from a different place, with a brief discussion of the academy as the times called, requires a reformulation of the knowledge-as-accumulated-
site of political struggle and radical transformation. capital model of education and focuses instead on the link between the his-
torical configuration of social forms and the way they work subjectively. This
issue of subjectivity represents a realization of the fact that who we are, how
Knowledge and Location in the U.S. Academy
we act, what we think, and what stories we tell become more intelligible within
A number of educators, Paulo Freire among them, have argued that edu- an epistemological framework that begins by recognizing existing hegemonic
cation represents both a struggle for meaning and a struggle over power re- histories. The issue of subjectivity and voice thus concerns the effort to under-

194 Feminism without Borders 195 Pedagogies of Dissent

stand our specific locations in the educational process and in the institutions neoconservatism of the United States, and the need for Third World feminists
through which we are constituted. Resistance lies in self-conscious engage- to move outside the arena of (sometimes) exclusive engagement with racism
ment with dominant, normative discourses and representations and in the in white women's movements and scholarship and to broaden the scope of
active creation of oppositional analytic and cultural spaces. Resistance that our struggles to the academy as a whole.
is random and isolated is clearly not as effective as that which is mobilized The management of gender, race, class, and sexuality are inextricably
through systematic politicized practices of teaching and learning. Uncovering linked in the public arena. The New Right agenda since the mid-I97os makes
and reclaiming subjugated knowledges is one way to lay claim to alternative this explicit: busing, gun rights, and welfare are clearly linked to the issues
histories. But these knowledges need to be understood and defined "peda- of reproductive and sexual rights.8 And the links between abortion rights
gogically," as questions of strategy and practice as well as of scholarship, in (gender-based struggles) and affirmative action (struggles over race and
order to transform educational institutions radically. And this, in turn, re- racism) are clearer in the 19905 and in the early 20005. While the most chal-
quires taking the questions of experience seriously. lenging critiques of hegemonic feminism were launched in the late 1970s and
To this effect, I draw on scholarship on and by Third World educators in the 198os, the present historical moment necessitates taking on board insti-
higher education, on an analysis of the effects of my own pedagogical prac- tutional discourses that actively construct and maintain a discourse of dif-
tices, on documents about "affirmative action" and "diversity in the curricu- ference and pluralism. This in turn calls for assuming responsibility for the
lum" published by the administration of the college where I worked a number politics ofvoice as it is institutionalized in the academy's "liberal" response to
of years ago, and on my own observations and conversations over the past the very questions feminism and other oppositional discourses have raised.9
number of years.7 I do so in order to suggest that the effect of the prolifera-
tion of ideologies of pluralism in the 196os, 197os, and 1990s in the context
Black/Ethnic Studies and Women's Studies:
of the (limited) implementation ofaffirmative action in institutions of higher
Intersections and Confluences
education, and of the corporate transformation of the academy, has been to
create what might be called the race industry, an industry that is responsible For us, there is nothing optional about "black experience" and/or "black studies":
for the management, commodification, and domestication of race on Ameri- we must know ourselves.—June Jordan, Civil Wars, 1981
can campuses. This commodification of race determines the politics of voice
The origins of black, ethnic, and women's studies programs, unlike those
for Third World peoples, whether they/we happen to be faculty, students, ad-
of most academic disciplines, can be traced to oppositional social move-
ministrators, or service staff. This, in turn, has long-term effects on the defi-
ments. In particular, the civil rights movement, the women's movement, and
nitions of the identity and agency of nonwhite people in the academy. The
other Third World liberation struggles fueled the demand for a knowledge
race industry is also of course an excellent example of the corporatization of
and history "of our own." June Jordan's claim that "we must know ourselves"
the academy—a visible if somewhat depressing site to explore in terms of the
suggests the urgency embedded in the formation of black studies in the late
effects of capitalist commodity culture and citizenship on curricular, research
196os. Between 1966 and 1970 most American colleges and universities added
and pedagogical priorities in the academy.
courses on Afro-American experience and history to their curricula. This was
There are a number of urgent reasons for undertaking such an analysis:
the direct outcome of a number of sociohistorical factors, not the least of
the need to assess the material and ideological effects of affirmative action
which was an increase in black student enrollment in higher education and
policies within liberal (rather than conservative Bloom- or Hirsch-style) dis-
the broad-based call for a fundamental transformation of a racist, Eurocen-
courses and institutions that profess a commitment to pluralism and so-
tric curriculum. Among the earliest programs were the black and African
cial change, the need to understand this management of race in the liberal
American studies programs at San Francisco State and Cornell, both of which
academy in relation to a larger discourse on race and discrimination within the
came into being in 1968, on the heels of militant political organizing on the

196 Feminism without Borders 197 Pedagogies of Dissent

part of students and faculty at these institutions.10 A symposium on black In fact, it is precisely in the face of the pressure to assimilate that questions of
studies in early 1968 at Yale University not only inaugurated African Ameri- political strategy and of pedagogical and institutional practice assume para-
can studies at Yale, but also marked a watershed in the national develop- mount importance.
ment of black studies programs.li In the spring of 1969, the University of For such programs, progress (measured by institutional power, number of
California at Berkeley instituted a department of ethnic studies, divided into people of color in faculty and administrations, effect on the general curricula,
Afro-American, Chicano, contemporary Asian American, and Native Ameri- etc.) has been slow. Since the 197os, there have also been numerous conflicts
can studies divisions. among ethnic, black, and women's studies programs. One example of these
A number of women's studies programs also came into being around tensions is provided by Niara Sudarkasa. Writing in 1986 about the effect ofaf-
this time. The first women's studies program was formed in 1969 at San firmative action on black faculty and administrators in higher education, she
Diego State University. Over nine hundred such programs exist now across argues: "As a matter of record, . . . both in the corporate world and in higher
the United States (Sheftall 1995).Women's studies programs often drew on education, the progress of white females as a result of affirmative action has
the institutional frameworks and structures of existing interdisciplinary pro- far outstripped that for blacks and other minorities" (3-4). Here Sudarkasa
grams such as black and ethnic studies. In addition, besides sharing political is pointing to a persistent presence of racism in the differential access and
origins, an interdisciplinary project, and foregrounding questions of social mobility of white women and people of color in higher education. She goes
and political inequality in their knowledge base, women's, black, and ethnic on to argue that charges of "reverse discrimination" against white people are
studies programs increasingly share pedagogical and research methods. Such unfounded because affirmative action has had the effect of privileging white
programs thus create the possibility of a counterhegemonic discourse and women above men and women of color. Thus, for Sudarkasa, charges of re-
oppositional analytic spaces within the institution. Of course, since these pro- verse discrimination leveled at minorities "amount to a sanction of continued
grams are most often located within the boundaries of conservative or liberal discrimination by insisting that inequalities resulting from privileges histori-
white-male-dominated institutions, they face questions of cooptation and cally reserved for whites as a group must now be perpetuated in the name of
accommodation. justice for the individual" (6). This process of individualization of histories
In an essay examining the relations among ethnicity, ideology, and the of dominance is also characteristic of educational institutions and processes
academy (1987), Rosaura Sanchez maintains that new academic programs in general, where the experiences of different constituencies are defined ac-
arise out of specific interests in bodies of knowledge. She traces the origins cording to the logic of cultural pluralism.
of ethnic and women's studies programs, however, to a defensive political In fact, this individualization of power hierarchies and of structures of dis-
move, the state's institutionalization of a discourse of reform in response to crimination suggests the convergence of liberal and neoconservative ideas
the civil rights movement: about gender and race in the academy. Individualization, in this context, is
accomplished through the fundamentally class-based process of profession-
Ethnic studies programs were instituted at a moment when the university alization. In any case, the post-Reagan years (characterized by financial cut-
had to speak a particular language to quell student protests and to ensure backs in education, the consolidation of the New Right and the right-to-life
that university research and business could be conducted as usual. The uni- lobby, the increasing legal challenges to affirmative action regulations, etc.)
versity was able to create and integrate these programs administratively suggest that it is alliances among women's, black, and ethnic studies pro-
under its umbrella, allowing on the one hand, for a potential firecracker to grams that will ensure the survival of such programs. This is not to imply
diffuse itself and, on the other, moving on to prepare the ground for future that these alliances do not already exist, but, in the face of the active corro-
assimilation of the few surviving faculty into existing departments. (86) sion of the collective basis of affirmative action by the federal government in
Sanchez identifies the pressures (assimilation and cooptation versus isola- the name of "reverse discrimination," it is all the more urgent that our insti-
tion and marginalization) that ethnic studies programs inherited in the 1990s. tutional self-examinations lead to concrete alliances. Those of us who teach

198 Feminism without Borders 199 Pedagogies of Dissent

in some of these programs know that, in this context, questions of voice — student and teacher experience, on the other. In fact, the theorization and
indeed, the very fact of claiming a voice and wanting to be heard—are very politicization of experience is imperative if pedagogical practices are to focus
complicated indeed. on more than the mere management, systematization, and consumption of
To proceed with the first location or site, I move from one narrative, an disciplinary knowledge.
analysis of the effect of my own pedagogical practices on students when Iam
teaching about Third World peoples in a largely white institution, to a sec- NARRATIVE

ond narrative, of decolonization —astory about a student project at Hamilton I teach courses on gender, race, and education, on international devel-
College. I suggest that a partial (and problematic) effect of my pedagogy, the opment, on feminist theory, and on Third World feminisms, as well as core
location of my courses in the curriculum and the liberal nature of the institu- women's studies courses such as "Introduction to Women's Studies" and a
tion as a whole, is the sort of attitudinal engagement with diversity that en- senior seminar. All of the courses are fundamentally interdisciplinary and
courages an empty cultural pluralism and domesticates the historical agency cross-cultural. At its most ambitious, this pedagogy is an attempt to get stu-
of Third World people. This attitudinal engagement, or, rather, the disruption dents to think critically about their place in relation to the knowledge they
of it, is at the center of the student project I will discuss. gain and to transform their worldview fundamentally by taking the politics of
knowledge seriously. It is a pedagogy that attempts to link knowledge, social
responsibility, and collective struggle. And it does so by emphasizing the risks
Pedagogies ofAccommodation/Pedagogies of Dissent
that education involves, the struggles for institutional change, and the strate-
How do we construct oppositional pedagogies of gender and race? Teach- gies for challenging forms of domination and by creating more equitable and
ing about histories of sexism, racism, imperialism, and homophobia poten- just public spheres within and outside educational institutions.
tially poses very fundamental challenges to the academy and its traditional Thus pedagogy from the point of view of a radical teacher does not entail
production of knowledge, since it has often situated Third World peoples merely processing received knowledges (however critically one does this) but
as populations whose histories and experiences are deviant, marginal, or in- also actively transforming knowledges. In addition, it involves taking respon-
essential to the acquisition of knowledge. And this has happened systemati- sibility for the material effects of these very pedagogical practices on students.
cally in our disciplines as well as in our pedagogies. Thus the task at hand Teaching about "difference" in relation to power is thus extremely compli-
is to decolonize our disciplinary and pedagogical practices. The crucial ques- cated and involves not only rethinking questions of learning and authority but
tion is how we teach about the West and its others so that education becomes also questions of center and margin. In writing about her own pedagogical
the practice of liberation. This question becomes all the more important in practices in teaching African American women's history (1989), Elsa Barkley
the context of the significance of education as a means of liberation and ad- Brown formulates her intentions and method in this way:
vancement for Third World and postcolonial peoples and their/our historical
How do our students overcome years of notions of what is normative?
belief in education as a crucial form of resistance to the colonization of hearts
While trying to think about these issues in my teaching, I have come to
and minds.
understand that this is not merely an intellectual process. It is not merely
As a number of educators have argued, however, decolonizing educational
a question of whether or not we have learned to analyze in particular kinds
practices requires transformations at a number of levels, both within and out-
of ways, or whether people are able to intellectualize about a variety of ex-
side the academy. Curricular and pedagogical transformation has to be ac-
periences. It is also about coming to believe in the possibility of a variety
companied by a broad-based transformation of the culture of the academy, as
of experiences, a variety of ways of understanding the world, a variety of
well as by radical shifts in the relation of the academy to other state and civil
frameworks of operation, without imposing consciously or unconsciously
institutions. In addition, decolonizing pedagogical practices requires taking
a notion of the norm. What I have tried to do in my own teaching is to ad-
seriously the relation between knowledge and learning, on the one hand, and

2oo Feminism without Borders 201 Pedagogies of Dissent

 dress both the conscious level through the material, and the unconscious ality characteristics: complex ethical and political issues are glossed over, and
level through the structure of the course, thus, perhaps, allowing my stu- an ambiguous and more easily manageable ethos of the "personal" and the
dents, in Bettina Apthekar's words, to "pivot the center": to center in an- "interpersonal" takes their place.
other experience. (921) Thus a particularly problematic effect of certain pedagogical codifications
of difference is the conceptualization of race and gender in terms of personal
Clearly, this process is very complicated pedagogically, for such teaching
or individual experience. Students often end up determining that they have to
must address questions of audience, voice, power, and evaluation while re-
"be more sensitive" to Third World peoples. The formulation of knowledge
taining a focus on the material being taught. Teaching practices must also
and politics through these individualistic, attitudinal parameters indicates an
combat the pressures of professionalization, normalization, and standard-
erasure of the very politics of knowledge involved in teaching and learning
ization, the very pressures or expectations that implicitly aim to manage and
about difference. It also suggests an erasure of the structural and institutional
discipline pedagogies so that teacher behaviors are predictable (and perhaps
parameters of what it means to understand difference in historical terms. If
controllable) across the board.
all conflict in the classroom is seen and understood in personal terms, it leads
Barkley Brown draws attention to the centrality of experience in the class-
to a comfortable set of oppositions: people of color as the central voices and
room. While this is an issue that merits much more consideration than I
the bearers of all knowledge in class, and white people as "observers" with no
can give here, a particular aspect of it ties into my general argument. Femi-
responsibility to contribute and/or nothing valuable to contribute. In other
nist pedagogy has always recognized the importance of experience in the
words, white students are constructed as marginal observers and students of
classroom. Since women's and ethnic studies programs are fundamentally
color as the real "knowers" in such a liberal or left classroom. While it may
grounded in political and collective questions of power and inequality, ques-
seem like people of color are thus granted voice and agency in the classroom,
tions of the politicization of individuals along race, gender, class, and sexual
it is necessary to consider what particular kind of voice it is that is allowed
parameters are at the very center of knowledges produced in the classroom.
them/us. It is a voice located in a different and separate space from the agency
This politicization often involves the "authorization" of marginal experiences
of white students.12 Thus, while it appears that in such a class the histories
and the creation of spaces for multiple, dissenting voices in the classroom.
and cultures of marginalized peoples are now "legitimate" objects of study
The authorization of experience is thus a crucial form of empowerment for
and discussion, the fact is that this legitimation takes place purely at an atti-
students—away for them to enter the classroom as speaking subjects. How-
tudinal, interpersonal level rather than in terms of a fundamental challenge
ever, this focus on the centrality of experience can also lead to exclusions: it
to hegemonic knowledge and history. Often the culture in such a class vac-
often silences those whose "experience" is seen to be that of the ruling-class
illates between a high level of tension and an overwhelming desire to create
groups. This more-authentic-than-thou attitude to experience also applies to
harmony, acceptance of "difference," and cordial relations in the classroom.
the teacher. For instance, in speaking about Third World peoples, I have to
Potentially this implicitly binary construction (Third World students vs. white
watch constantly the tendency to speak "for" Third World peoples. For I often
students) undermines the understanding of coimplication that students must
come to embody the "authentic" authority and experience for many of my
take seriously in order to understand "difference" as historical and relational.
students; indeed, they construct me as a native informant in the same way
Coimplication refers to the idea that all of us (First and Third World) share
that left-liberal white students sometimes construct all people of color as the
certain histories as well as certain responsibilities: ideologies of race define
authentic voices of their people. This is evident in the classroom when the
both white and black peoples, just as gender ideologies define both women
specific "differences" (of personality, posture, behavior, etc.) of one woman
and men. Thus, while "experience" is an enabling focus in the classroom, un-
of color stand in for the difference of the whole collective, and a collective
less it is explicitly understood as historical, contingent, and the result of in-
voice is assumed in place of an individual voice. In effect, this results in the
terpretation, it can coagulate into frozen, binary, psychologistic positions.'3
reduction or averaging of Third World peoples in terms of individual person-
To summarize, this effective separation of white students from Third

202 Feminism without Borders 203 Pedagogies of Dissent

World students in such an explicitly politicized women's studies classroom is In which we are the subjects. We, the hero of the tales. Our lives preserved. How it
problematic because it leads to an attitudinal engagement that bypasses the was, how it be. Passing it along in the relay. That is what I work to do: to produce
complexly situated politics of knowledge and potentially shores up a particu- stories that save our lives. —Toni Cade Bambara, "Salvation is the Issue," 1984
lar individual-oriented codification and commodification of race. It implicitly
In the intellectual, political and historical context I have sketched thus far,
draws on and sustains a discourse of cultural pluralism, or what Henry Giroux
decolonization as a method of teaching and learning is crucial in envision-
(1988) calls "the pedagogy of normative pluralism" (95), a pedagogy in which
ing democratic education. My own political project involves trying to connect
we all occupy separate, different, and equally valuable places and where ex-
educational discourse to questions of social justice and the creation of citi-
perience is defined not in terms of individual qua individual, but in terms of
zens who are able to conceive of a democracy which is not the same as "the
an individual as representative of a cultural group. This results in a depoliti-
free market." Pedagogy in this context needs to be revolutionary to combat
cization and dehistoricization of the idea of culture and makes possible the
business as usual in educational institutions. After all, the politics of com-
implicit management of race in the name of cooperation and harmony.
modification allows the cooptation of most dissenting voices in this age of
Cultural pluralism is an inadequate response, however, because the acad-
multiculturalism. Cultures of dissent are hard to create. Revolutionary peda-
emy as well as the larger social arena are constituted through hierarchical
gogy needs to lead to a consciousness of injustice, self-reflection on the rou-
knowledges and power relations. In this context, the creation of oppositional
tines and habits of education in the creation of an "educated citizen," and
knowledges always involves both fundamental challenges and the risk of co-
action to transform one's social space in a collective setting. In other words,
optation. Creating counterhegemonic pedagogies and combating attitudinal,
the practice of decolonization as defined above.
pluralistic appropriations of race and difference thus involves a delicate and
I turn now to a narrative in the tradition of Toni Cade Bambara, a story
ever-shifting balance between the analysis of experience as lived culture and
that "keeps me alive— a story which saves our lives." The story is about a per-
as textual and historical representations of experience. But most of all, it calls
formance by a student at Hamilton College. Yance Ford, an African American
for a critical analysis of the contradictions and incommensurability of so-
studio art major and feminist activist, based her performance, called "This In-
cial interests as individuals experience, understand, and transform them. De-
visible World," on her three-plus years as a student at the col1ege.14 She built
colonizing pedagogical practices requires taking seriously the different logics
an iron cage that enclosed her snugly, suspended it ten feet off the ground in
of cultures as they are located within asymmetrical power relations. It in-
the lobby of the social sciences building, She shaved her head and—barefoot
volves understanding that culture, especially academic culture, is a terrain
and without a watch, wearing a sheet that she had cut up—spent five hours
of struggle (rather than an amalgam of discrete consumable entities). And
in the cage in total silence. The performance required unimaginable physical
finally, within the classroom, it requires that teachers and students develop
and psychic endurance, and it dramatically transformed a physical space that
a critical analysis of how experience itself is named, constructed, and legiti-
is usually a corridor between offices and classrooms. It had an enormous im-
mated in the academy. Without this analysis of culture and of experience in
pact on everyone walking through — no mundane response was possible. Nor
the classroom, there is no way to develop and nurture oppositional practices.
was business as usual possible. It disrupted educational routines—many fac-
After all, critical education concerns the production of subjectivities in rela-
ulty (including me) sent their classes to the performance and later attempted
tion to discourses of knowledge and power.
discussions that proved profoundly unsettling.
For the first time in my experience at Hamilton, students, faculty, and staff
NARRATIVE 2
were faced with a performance that could not be "consumed" or assimilated
Stories are important. They keep us alive. In the ships, in the camps, in the quarters, as part of the "normal" educational process. We were faced with the knowl-
field, prisons, on the road, on the run, underground, under siege, in the throes, on edge that it was impossible to "know" what led to such a performance, and
the verge—the storyteller snatches us back from the edge to hear the next chapter. that the knowledge we had, of black women's history of objectification, of

204 Feminism without Borders 205 Pedagogies of Dissent

slavery, invisibility, and so on, was a radically inadequate measure of the intent monic narrative of a liberal arts education, and its markers of success came
or courage and risk it took for Yance to perform "This Invisible World." under collective scrutiny. This was then a profoundly unsettling and radically
In talking at length with Yance, other students, and colleagues, and think- decolonizing educational act.
ing through the effects of this performance on the campus, I have realized that This story illustrates the difference between thinking about social justice
this is potentially a very effective story. Here is how Yance, writing in October and radical transformation in our frames of analysis and understanding in
1993, described her project: relation to race, gender, class, and sexuality versus a multiculturalist con-
sumption and assimilation into a supposedly "democratic" frame of educa-
What is it? I guess or rather I know that it is about survival. About trauma,
tion as usual. It suggests the need to organize to create collective spaces for
about loss, about suffering and pain, and about being lost within all of
dissent and challenges to consolidation of white heterosexual masculinity in
those things. About trying to find the way back to yourself. The way back
academy.
to your sanity, a way to get away from those things which have driven you
beyond a point of recognition. Past the point where you no longer recog-
nize or even want to recognize yourself or your past or the possibility that The Race Industry and Prejudice-Reduction Workshops
your present may also be your future. That is what my project is about. I call
In his incisive critique of current attempts at minority canon formation
it refuge but I really think I mean rescue or even better, survival, escape,
(5987), Cornet West locates the following cultural crises as circumscrib-
saved. My work to me is about all the things that push you to the edge. Its
ing the present historical moment: the decolonization of the Third World
about not belonging, not liking yourself, not loving yourself, not feeling
that signaled the end of the European Age; the repoliticization of literary
loved or safe or accepted or tolerated or respected or valued or useful or
studies in the 196os; the emergence of alternative, oppositional, subaltern
important or comfortable or safe or part of a larger community. It's about
histories; and the transformation of everyday life through the rise of a pre-
how all these things cause us to hate ourselves into corners and boxes and
dominantly visual, technological culture. West locates contests over Afro-
addictions and traps and hurtful relationships and cages. It's about how
American canon formation in the proliferation of discourses of pluralism
people can see you and look right through you. Most of the time not know-
in the American academy, thus launching a critique of the class interests
ing you are there. It is about fighting the battle of your life, for your life.
of Afro-American critics who "become the academic superintendents of a
And this place that I call refuge is the only place where I am sacred. It is
segment of an expanded canon or a separate canon" (197). A similar cri-
the source of my strength, my fortitude, my resilience, my ability to be for
tique, on the basis of class interests and "professionalization," can be leveled
myself what no one else will ever be for me.
against feminist scholars (First or Third World) who specialize in "reading"
This is most directly Yance's response and meditation on her three years the lives/experiences of Third World women. What concerns me here, how-
at a liberal arts college—on her education. In extensive conversations with ever, is the predominately white upper-level administrators at our institutions
her, two aspects of this project became clearer to me: her consciousness of and their "reading" of the issues of racial diversity and pluralism. I agree with
being colonized at the college, expressed through the act of being caged like West's internal critique of a black managerial class, but I think it is impor-
"animals in a science experiment," and the performance as an act of libera- tant not to ignore the power of a predominantly white managerial class (men
tion, of active decolonization of the self, ofvisibility and empowerment. Yance and women) who, in fact, frame and hence determine our voices, livelihoods,
found a way to tell another story, to speak through a silence that screamed and sometimes even our political alliances. Exploring a small piece of the cre-
for engagement. However, in doing so, she also created a public space for ation and institutionalization of this race industry, prejudice reduction work-
the collective narratives of marginalized peoples, especially other women of shops involving upper-level administrators, counselors, and students in nu-
color. Educational practices became the object of public critique as the hege- merous institutions of higher education—including the college where I used

206 Feminism without Borders 207 Pedagogies of Dissent

to teach—shed light on a particular aspect of this industry. Interestingly, the Briefly, prejudice reduction workshops draw on a psychologically based
faculty often do not figure in these workshops at all; they are directed either "race relations" analysis and focus on "prejudice" rather than on institutional
at students and resident counselors or at administrators. or historical domination. Theworkshops draw on cocounseling and reevalua-
To make this argument, I draw upon the institution where I used to teach tion counseling techniques and theory and often aim for emotional release
(Oberlin College) that has an impressive history of progressive and liberal rather than political action. The name of this approach is itself somewhat
policies. But my critique applies to liberal/humanistic institutions of higher problematic, since it suggests that "prejudice" (rather than domination, ex-
education in general. While what follows is a critique of certain practices at ploitation, or structural inequality) is the core problem and that we have to
the college, I undertake it out of a commitment to and engagement with the "reduce" it. The language determines and shapes the ideological and political
academy. The efforts of Oberlin College to take questions of difference and content to a large extent. In focusing on "the healing of past wounds" this
diversity on board should not be minimized. However, these efforts should approach also equates the positions of dominant and subordinate groups,
also be subject to rigorous examination because they have far-reaching impli- erasing all power inequities and hierarchies. And finally, the location of the
cations for the institutionalization of multiculturalism in the academy. While source of "oppression" and "change" in individuals suggests an elision be-
multiculturalism itself is not necessarily problematic, its definition in terms tween ideological and structural understandings of power and domination
of an apolitical, ahistorical cultural pluralism needs to be challenged. and individual, psychological understandings of power.
In the last few decades there has been an increase in this kind of activity, Here again, the implicit definition of experience is important. Experience
often as a response to antiracist student organizing and demands or in relation is defined as fundamentally individual and atomistic, subject to behavioral
to the demand for and institutionalization of "non-Western" requirements at and attitudinal change. Questions of history, collective memory, and social
prestigious institutions in a number of academic institutions nationally. More and structural inequality as constitutive of the category of experience are inad-
precisely, however, these issues of multiculturalism arise in response to the missible within this framework. Individuals speak as representatives of ma-
recognition of changing demographics in the United States. For instance, the jority or minority groups whose experience is predetermined within an op-
prediction that by the year woo almost 42 percent of all public school stu- pressor/victim paradigm. These questions are addressed in A. Sivanandan's
dents would be minority children or other impoverished children and that by incisive critique (199o) of the roots of racism awareness training in the United
the year 2000 women and people of color would account for nearly 75 per- States (associated with the work of Judy Katz et al.) and its embodiment in
cent of the labor force are crucial in understanding institutional imperatives multiculturalism in Britain.
concerning "diversity." 15 As Rosaura Sanchez suggests, for the university to Sivanandan draws attention to the dangers of the actual degradation and
conduct "research and business as usual" in the face of the overwhelming refiguration of antiracist, black political struggles as a result of the racism
challenges posed by even the very presence of people of color, it has to enact awareness training focus on psychological attitudes. Thus, while these work-
policies and programs aimed at accommodation rather than transformation shops can indeed be useful in addressing deep-seated psychological attitudes
(Sanchez 1987). and thus creating a context for change, the danger resides in remaining at
In response to certain racist and homophobic incidents in the spring of the level of personal support and evaluation, and thus often undermining the
1988, Oberlin College instituted a series of "prejudice reduction" workshops necessity for broad-based political organization and action.16
aimed at students and upper- and middle-level administrative staff. These Prejudice reduction workshops have also made their way into the upper
sometimes took the form of "unlearning racism" workshops conducted by echelons of the administration at the college. At this level, however, they take
residential counselors and psychologists in dorms. Workshops such as these a very different form: presidents and their male colleagues do not go to work-
are valuable in "sensitizing" students to racial conflict, behavior, and atti- shops; they "consult" about issues of diversity. Thus, this version of "preju-
tudes, but an analysis of their historical and ideological bases indicates their dice reduction" takes the form of "managing diversity" (another semantic
limitations. gem that suggests that "diversity" [a euphemism for people of color] will be

208 Feminism without Borders 209 Pedagogies of Dissent

out of control unless it is managed). Consider the following passage from the strategy sessions which assist professionals in understanding themselves, di-
publicity brochure of a consultant: versity, and their options in the workplace" (Prindle 1988, 8).
The key ideas in this statement involve an awareness of race issues (the
Program in Conflict Management Alternatives: A team of applied scholars
problem is assumed to be cultural misunderstanding or lack of information
is creating alternative theoretical and practical approaches to the peaceful
about othercultures), understanding yourself and people unlike you (diversity
resolution of social conflicts. A concern for maximizing social justice, and
—we must respect and learn from each other; this may not address economic
redressing major social inequities that underlie much social conflict, is a
exploitation, but it will teach us to treat each other civilly), negotiating con-
central organizing principle of this work. Another concern is to facilitate
flicts, altering organizational sexism and racism, and devising strategies to
the implementation of negotiated settlements, and therefore contribute
assess and manage the challenges of diversity (which results in an additive ap-
to long-term change in organizational and community relations. Research
proach: recruiting "diverse" people, introducing "different" curriculum units
theory development, organizational and community change efforts, net-
while engaging in teaching as usual—that is, not shifting the normative-
working, consultations, curricula, workshops and training programs are
culture-vs.-subcultures paradigm). This is, then, the "professionalization" of
all part of the Program.17
prejudice reduction, where culture is a supreme commodity. Culture is seen as
This passage foregrounds the primary focus on conflict resolution, nego- noncontradictory, as isolated from questions of history, and as a storehouse
tiated settlement, and organizational relations—all framed in a language of nonchanging facts, behaviors, and practices. This particular definition of
of research, consultancy, and training. All three strategies—conflict resolu- culture and of cultural difference is what sustains the individualized discourse
tion, settlement negotiation, and long-term organizational relations—can be of harmony and civility that is the hallmark of cultural pluralism.
carried out between individuals and between groups. The point is to under- Prejudice reduction workshops eventually aim for the creation of this dis-
stand the moments of friction and to resolve the conflicts "peacefully"; in course of civility. Again, this is not to suggest that there are no positive effects
other words, domesticate race and difference by formulating the problems in of this practice—for instance, the introduction of new cultural models can
narrow, interpersonal terms and by rewriting historical contexts as manage- cause a deeper evaluation of existing structures, and clearly such consultan-
able psychological ones. cies could set a positive tone for social change. However, the baseline is still
As in the example of the classroom discussed earlier, the assumption here maintaining the status quo; diversity is always and can only be added on.
is that individuals and groups, as individual atomistic units in a social whole So what does all this mean? Diversity consultants are not new. Private in-
composed essentially of an aggregate of such units, embody difference. Thus, dustry has been using these highly paid management consulting firms since
conflict resolution is best attempted by negotiating between individuals who the civil rights movement. When upper-level administrators in higher educa-
are dissatisfied as individuals. One very important ideological effect of this is tion inflect discourses of education and "academic freedom" with discourses
the standardization of behaviors and responses so as to make them predict- of the management of race, however, the effects are significant enough to
able (and thus manageable) across a wide variety of situations and circum- warrant close examination. There is a long history of the institutionalization
stances. If complex structural experiences of domination and resistance can of the discourse of management and control in American education, but the
be ideologically reformulated as individual behaviors and attitudes, they can management of race requires a somewhat different inflection at this histori-
be managed while carrying on business as usual. cal moment. As a result of historical, demographic, and educational shifts in
Another example of this kind of program is the approach of the company the racial makeup of students and faculty in the last twenty years, some of us
that was consulted for the report just quoted, which goes by the name Diver- even have public voices that have to be "managed" for the greater harmony of
sity Consultants: "Diversity Consultants believe one of the most effective ways all. The hiring of consultants to "sensitize educators to issues of diversity" is
to manage multicultural and race awareness issues is through assessment of part of the post-196os proliferation of discourses of pluralism. But it is also a
individual environments, planned educational programs, and management specific and containing response to the changing social contours of the U.S.
210 Feminism without Borders aal Pedagogies of Dissent
polity and to the challenges posed by Third World and feminist studies in the of higher education] responded to the affirmative action guidelines with
academy. By using the language of the corporation and the language of cog- token positions for only a handful of minority scholars in nonacademic
nitive and affectional psychology (and thereby professionalizing questions of and/or "soft" money programs. For example, many Blacks and Hispanics
sexism, racism, and class conflict), new alliances are consolidated. Educators were hired as directors for programs such as Upward Bound, Talent Search,
who are part of the ruling administrative class are now managers of conflict, and Equal Opportunity Programs. Other minority faculty were hired for
but they are also agents in the construction of race — a word that is signifi- bilingual programs and ethnic studies programs, but affirmative action
cantly redefined through the technical language that is used.18 hires did not commonly extend to tenure-track faculty positions. The new
presence of minorities on college campuses, however, which occurred dur-
ing the period when attention to affirmative action regulations reached its
Race, Voice, and Academic Culture
peak, left all minority professionals and academics with a legacy of token-
The effects of this relatively new discourse in the higher levels of liberal arts ism—a stigma that has been difficult to dispel. (303)
colleges and universities are quite real. Affirmative action hires are now highly
De la Luz Reyes and Halcon go on to argue that we are still living with
visible and selective; every English department is looking for a black woman
the effects of the implementation of these policies. They examine the prob-
scholar to teach Toni Morrison's writings. What happens to such scholars
lems associated with tokenism and the ghettoization of Third World people
after they are hired, and particularly when they come up for review or tenure,
in the academy, detailing the complex forms of racism that minority faculty
is another matter altogether. A number of scholars have documented the de-
face today. To this characterization, I would add that one of the results of
bilitating effects of affirmative action hiring policies that seek out and hire
the Reagan-Bush years has been that black, women's, and ethnic studies pro-
only those Third World scholars who are at the top of their fields—hence the
grams are often further marginalized, since one of the effects of the man-
pattern of musical chairs in which selected people of color are bartered at very
agement of race is that individuals come to embody difference and diversity,
high prices. Our voices are carefully placed and domesticated: one in history,
while programs that have been historically constituted on the basis of collec-
one in English, perhaps one in the sociology department. Clearly these hiring
tive oppositional knowledges are labeled "political," "biased," "shrill," and
practices do not guarantee the retention and tenure of Third World faculty.
"unrigorous." 19 Any inroads made by such programs and departments in the
In fact, while the highly visible bartering for Third World "stars" serves to
seventies were slowly undermined in the eighties and the nineties by the man-
suggest that institutions of higher education are finally becoming responsive
agement of race through attitudinal and behavioral strategies, with their logi-
to feminist and Third World concerns, this particular commodification and
cal dependence on individuals seen as appropriate representatives of their
personalization of race suggests there has been very little change since the
"race" or some other equivalent political constituency. Race and gender were
197os, in terms of either a numerical increase of Third World faculty or our
reformulated as individual characteristics and attitudes, and thus an individu-
treatment in white institutions.
alized, ostensibly "unmarked" discourse of difference was put into place. This
In their 1988 article on racism faced by Chicano faculty in institutions of
shift in the academic discourse on gender and race actually rolls back any
higher education, Maria de la Luz Reyes and John J. Halcon characterize the
progress that has been made in carving out institutional spaces for women's
effects of the 1970s policies of affirmative action:
and black studies programs and departments.
In the mid-r97os, when minority quota systems were being implemented Earlier, it was these institutional spaces that determined our collective
in many nonacademic agencies, the general public was left with the im- voices. Our programs and departments were by definition alternative and op-
pression that Chicano or minority presence in professional or academic positional. Now they are often merely alternative, one among many. Without
positions was due to affirmative action, rather than to individual qualifica- being nostalgic about the good old days (and they were problematic in their
tions or merit. But that impression was inaccurate. Generally [institutions own ways), Iam suggesting that there has been an erosion of the politics of

212 Feminism without Borders 213 Pedagogies of Dissent

collectivity through the reformulation of race and difference in individualis- clearly based on a particular individualist politics that domesticates race and
tic terms. By no means is this a conspiratorial scenario. The discussion of the gender. This is an example of the convergence of neoconservative and liberal
effects of my own classroom practices indicates my complicity in this con- agendas concerning race and gender inequalities.
test over definitions of gender and race in discursive and representational as Those of us who are in the academy also potentially collude in this do-
well as personal terms. The 196os and 1970s slogan "The personal is political" mestication of race by allowing ourselves to be positioned in ways that con-
was recrafted in the 198os as "The political is personal." In other words, all tribute to the construction of these images of pure and innocent diversity,
politics is collapsed into the personal, and questions of individual behaviors, to the construction of these managerial discourses. For instance, since the
attitudes, and lifestyles stand in for the political analysis of the social. Indi- category of race is not static but a fluid social and historical formation, Third
vidual political struggles are seen as the only relevant and legitimate form of World peoples are often located in antagonistic relationships with one an-
political struggle. other. Those of us who are from Third World countries are often played off
There is, however, another, more crucial reason to be concerned about against Third World peoples native to the United States. As an Indian immi-
(and to challenge) this management of race in the liberal academy: this pro- grant woman in the United States, for instance, in most contexts I am not
cess of the individualization of race and its effects dovetail rather neatly with as potentially threatening as an African American woman. Yes, we are both
the neoconservative politics and agenda of the Reagan-Bush years and now nonwhite and other, subject to various forms of overt or disguised racism, but
the Bush-Cheney years, an agenda that is constitutively recasting the fab- Ido not bring with me a history of slavery, a direct and constant reminder
ric of American life in the pre-196os mold. The 198os Supreme Court deci- of the racist past and present of the United States. Of course my location in
sions on "reverse discrimination" are based on precisely similar definitions of the British academy would be fimdamentally different because of the history
"prejudice," "discrimination," and "race." In an essay that argues that the U.S. of British colonization, because of its specific patterns of immigration and
Supreme Court's rulings on reverse discrimination are fundamentally tied to labor force participation, and because of the existence ofworking-class, trade
the rollback of reproductive freedom, Zillah Eisenstein (199o) discusses the union, and antiracist politics—all of which define the position of Indians dif-
individualist framework on which these decisions are based: ferently in Britain. An interesting parallel in the British context is the focus
on and celebration of African American women as the "true" radical black
The court's recent decisions pertaining to affirmative action make quite
feminists who have something to say, while black British feminists are mar-
clear that existing civil rights legislation is being newly reinterpreted. Race,
ginalized and rendered voiceless by the publishing industry and the academy
or sex (gender) as a collective category is being denied and racism, and/or
("black" in Britain often refered to British citizens of African, Asian, or Carib-
sexism, defined as a structural and historical reality has been erased. Sta-
bean origin, although this alliance has unravelled in recent years). These loca-
tistical evidence of racial and/or sexual discrimination is no longer accept-
tions and potential collusions thus have an impact on how our voices and
able as proof of unfair treatment of "black women as a group or class." agencies are constituted.
Discrimination is proved by an individual only in terms of their specific
case. The assault is blatant: equality doctrine is dismantled. (5)
Critical Pedagogy and Cultures of Dissent
Eisenstein goes on to analyze how the government's attempts to redress
racism and sexism are at the core of the struggle for equality and how, in gut- If my argument in this essay is convincing, it suggests why we need to
ting the meaning of discrimination and applying it only to individual cases take on questions of race and gender as they are being managed and com-
and not statistical categories, it has become almost impossible to prove dis- modified in the liberal U.S. academy. One mode of doing this is actively cre-
crimination because there are always "other" criteria to excuse discriminatory ating public cultures of dissent where these issues can be debated in terms
practices. Thus, the Supreme Court decisions on reverse discrimination are of our pedagogies and institutional practices.2° Creating such cultures in the

214 Feminism without Borders 215 Pedagogies of Dissent

liberal academy is a challenge in itself, because liberalism allows and even oppositional, and collective voice that takes seriously the commodification
and domestication of Third World people in the academy. Thus cultures of
welcomes "plural" or even "alternative" perspectives. However, a public cul-
dissent must work to create pedagogies of dissent rather than pedagogies of
ture of dissent entails creating spaces for epistemological standpoints that
accommodation. And this is a task open to all—to people of color as well as
are grounded in the interests of people and that recognize the materiality
progressive white people in the academy.
of conflict, of privilege, and of domination. Thus creating such cultures is
fundamentally about making the axes of power transparent in the context
of academic, disciplinary, and institutional structures as well as in the inter-
personal relationships (rather than individual relations) in the academy. It is
about taking the politics of everyday life seriously as teachers, students, ad-
ministrators, and members of hegemonic academic cultures. Culture itself
is thus redefined to incorporate individual and collective memories, dreams,
and history that are contested and transformed through the political praxis
of day-to-day living.
Cultures of dissent are also about seeing the academy as part of a larger
sociopolitical arena that itself domesticates and manages Third World people
in the name of liberal capitalist democracy. They are about working to reshape
and reenvision community and citizenship in the face of overwhelming cor-
poratization. The struggle to transform our institutional practices fundamen-
tally also involves the grounding of the analysis of exploitation and oppression
in accurate history and theory, seeing ourselves as activists in the academy,
drawing links between movements for social justice and our pedagogical and
scholarly endeavors and expecting and demanding action from ourselves, our
colleagues, and our students at numerous levels. This requires working hard
to understand and to theorize questions of knowledge, power, and experi-
ence in the academy so that one effects both pedagogical empowerment and
transformation. Racism, sexism, and homophobia are very real, day-to-day
practices in which we all engage. They are not reducible to mere curricular or
policy decisions—that is, to management practices. In this context we need
to actively rethink the purpose of liberal education in antiracist, anticapitalist
feminist ways.
I said earlier that what is at stake is not the mere recognition of difference.
The sort of difference that is acknowledged and engaged has fundamental sig-
nificance for the decolonization of educational practices. Similarly, the point
is not simply that one should have a voice; the more crucial question concerns
the sort of voice one comes to have as the result of one's location, both as an
individual and as part of collectives. The important point is that it be an active,

216 Feminism without Borders

217 Pedagogies of Dissent
PART THREE

Reorienting Feminism
 CHAPTER NINE

"Under Western Eyes" Revisited: Feminist

Solidarity through Anticapitalist Struggles

I write this chapter at the urging of a number of friends' and with some
trepidation, revisiting the themes and arguments of an essay written some
sixteen years ago. This is a difficult chapter to write,2 and I undertake it hesi-
tantly and with humility—yet feeling that I must do so to take fuller respon-
sibility for my ideas, and perhaps to explain whatever influence they have had
on debates in feminist theory.
"Under Western Eyes" was not only my very first "feminist studies" publi-
cation, it remains the one that marks my presence in the international femi-
nist community. I had barely completed my Ph.D. when I wrote this essay; I
am now a professor of women's studies. The "under" of Western eyes is now
much more an "inside" in terms of my own location in the U.S. academy.3 The
site from which I wrote the essay consisted of a very vibrant, transnational
women's movement, while the sue I write from today is quite different. With
the increasing privatization and corporatization of public life, it has become
much harder to discern such a women's movement from the United States
(although women's movements are thriving around the world), and my site
of access and struggle has increasingly come to be the U.S. academy. In the
United States, women's movements have become increasingly conservative,
and much radical, antiracist feminist activism occurs outside the rubric of
such movements. Thus, much of what I say here is influenced by the primary
site I occupy as an educator and scholar. It is time to revisit "Under Western
Eyes," to clarify ideas that remained implicit and unstated in 1986 and to fur-
ther develop and historicize the theoretical framework I outlined then. I also
want to assess how this essay has been read and misread and to respond to
the critiques and celebrations. And it is time for me to move explicitly from
critique to reconstruction, to identify the urgent issues facing feminists at the
beginning of the twenty-first century, to ask the question: How would "Under row self-interest of Western feminism. As well, I thought it crucial to high-
Western Eyes"—the Third World inside and outside the West—be explored light the connection between feminist scholarship and feminist political
and analyzed almost two decades later? What do I consider to be the urgent organizing while drawing attention to the need to examine the "political
theoretical and methodological questions facing a comparative feminist poli- implications of our analytic strategies and principles." I also wanted to chart
tics at this moment in history? the location of feminist scholarship within a global political and economic
Given the apparent and continuing life of "Under Western Eyes" and my framework dominated by the "First World." 4
own travels through transnational feminist scholarship and networks, I begin My most simple goal was to make clear that cross-cultural feminist work
with a summary of the central arguments of "Under Western Eyes," contex- must be attentive to the micropolitics of context, subjectivity, and struggle,
tualizing them in intellectual, political, and institutional terms. Basing my as well as to the macropolitics of global economic and political systems and
account on this discussion, I describe ways the essay has been read and situ- processes. I discussed Maria Mies's study of the lacemakers of Narsapur as a
ated in a number of different, often overlapping, scholarly discourses. I en- demonstration of how to do this kind of multilayered, contextual analysis to
gage with some useful responses to the essay in an attempt to further clarify reveal how the particular is often universally significant—without using the
the various meanings of the West, Third World, and so on, to reengage ques- universal to erase the particular, or positing an unbridgeable gulf between the
tions of the relation of the universal and the particular in feminist theory, and two terms. Implicit in this analysis was the use of historical materialism as
to make visible some of the theses left obscure or ambiguous in my earlier a basic framework, and a definition of material reality in both its local and
writing. micro-, as well as global, systemic dimensions. I argued at that time for the
I look, first, to see how my thinking has changed over the past sixteen years definition and recognition of the Third World not just through oppression but
or so. What are the challenges facing transnational feminist practice at the in terms of historical complexities and the many struggles to change these
beginning of the twenty-first century? How have the possibilities of feminist oppressions. Thus I argued for grounded, particularized analyses linked with
cross-cultural work developed and shifted? What is the intellectual, political, larger, even global, economic and political frameworks. I drew inspiration
and institutional context that informs my own shifts and new commitments from a vision of feminist solidarity across borders, although it is this vision
at the time of this writing? What categories of scholarly and political iden- that has remained invisible to many readers. In a perceptive analysis of my
tification have changed since 1986? What has remained the same? I wish to argument of this politics of location, Sylvia Walby (2000) recognizes and re-
begin a dialogue between the intentions, effects, and political choices that fines the relation between difference and equality of which I speak. She draws
underwrote "Under Western Eyes" in the mid-ig8os and those I would make further attention to the need for a shared frame of reference among Western,
today. I hope it provokes others to ask similar questions about our individual postcolonial, Third World feminists in order to decide what counts as differ-
and collective projects in feminist studies. ence. She asserts, quite insightfully, that

Mohanty and other postcolonial feminists are often interpreted as ar-

Revisiting "Under Western Eyes" guing only for situated knowledges in popularisations of their work. In
fact, Mohanty is claiming, via a complex and subtle argument, that she
DECOLONIZING FEMINIST SCHOLARSHIP: 1986
is right and that (much) white Western feminism is not merely different,
I wrote "Under Western Eyes" to discover and articulate a critique of "West-
but wrong. In doing this she assumes a common question, a common set
ern feminist" scholarship on Third World women via the discursive coloni-
of concepts and, ultimately the possibility of, a common political project
zation of Third World women's lives and struggles. I also wanted to expose
with white feminism. She hopes to argue white feminism into agreeing
the power-knowledge nexus of feminist cross-cultural scholarship expressed
with her. She is not content to leave white Western feminism as a situated
through Eurocentric, falsely universalizing methodologies that serve the nar-
knowledge, comfortable with its local and partial perspective. Not a bit of

222 Feminism without Borders 223 "Under Western Eyes" Revisited

 it. This is a claim to a more universal truth. And she hopes to accomplish feminist scholarship and their communities. It has been a source of deep
this by the power of argument. (199) satisfaction that I was able to begin to open an intellectual space to Third
World/immigrant women scholars, as was done at the international con-
Walby's reading of the essay challenges others to engage my notion of a com- ference I helped organize, "Common Differences: Third World Women and
mon feminist political project, which critiques the effects of Western femi- Feminist Perspectives" (Urbana, Illinois, 1983). This conference allowed for
nist scholarship on women in the Third World, but within a framework of the possibility of a decolonized, cross-border feminist community and ce-
solidarity and shared values. My insistence on the specificity of difference is mented for me the belief that "common differences" can form the basis of
based on a vision of equality attentive to power differences within and among deep solidarity, and that we have to struggle to achieve this in the face of un-
the various communities of women. I did not argue against all forms of gen. equal power relations among feminists.
eralization, nor was I privileging the local over the systemic, difference over There have also been many effects—personal and professional—in my
commonalities, or the discursive over the material. writing this essay. These effects range from being cast as the "nondutiful
I did not write "Under Western Eyes" as a testament to the impossibility daughter" of white feminists to being seen as a mentor for Third World/
of egalitarian and noncolonizing cross-cultural scholarship, nor did I define immigrant women scholars; from being invited to address feminist audiences
"Western" and "Third World" feminism in such oppositional ways that there at various academic venues, to being told I should focus on my work in early
would be no possibility of solidarity between Western and Third World femi- childhood education and not dabble in "feminist theory." Practicing active
nists.5 Yet, this is often how the essay has been read and utilized.6 I have won- disloyalty has its price as well as its rewards. Suffice it to say, however, that
dered why such a sharp opposition has developed in this form. Perhaps map- I have no regrets and only deep satisfaction in having written "Under West-
ping the intellectual and institutional context in which I wrote back then and ern Eyes."
the shifts that have affected its reading since would clarify the intentions and I attribute some of the readings and misunderstandings of the essay to the
claims of the essay. triumphal rise of postmodernism in the U.S. academy in the past three de-
Intellectually, I was writing in solidarity with the critics of Eurocentric cades. Although I have never called myselfa "postmodernist," some reflection
humanism who drew attention to its false universalizing and masculinist as- on why my ideas have been assimilated under this label is important! In fact,
sumptions. My project was anchored in a firm belief in the importance of the one reason to revisit "Under Western Eyes" at this time is my desire to point
particular in relation to the universal—a belief in the local as specifying and to this postmodernist appropriation.8 I am misread when I am interpreted as
illuminating the universal. My concerns drew attention to the dichotomies being against all forms of generalization and as arguing for difference over
embraced and identified with this universalized framework, the critique of
commonalities. This misreading occurs in the context of a hegemonic post-
"white feminism" by women of color and the critique of "Western feminism"
modernist discourse that labels as "totalizing" all systemic connections, and
by Third World feminists working within a paradigm of decolonization. I was
emphasizes only the mutability and constructedness of identities and social
committed, both politically and personally, to building a noncolonizing femi-
structures.
nist solidarity across borders. I believed in a larger feminist project than the
Yes, I did draw on Foucault to outline an analysis of power/knowledge,
colonizing, self-interested one I saw emerging in much influential feminist
but I also drew on Anour Abdel Malek to show the directionality and material
scholarship and in the mainstream women's movement.
effects of a particular imperial power structure. I drew too on Maria Mies
My newly found teaching position at a primarily white U.S. academic in-
to argue for the need for a materialist analysis that linked everyday life and
stitution also deeply affected my writing at this time. I was determined to
local gendered contexts and ideologies to the larger, transnational political
make an intervention in this space in order to create a location for Third
and economic structures and ideologies of capitalism. What is interesting for
World, immigrant, and other marginalized scholars like myself who saw
me is to see how and why "difference" has been embraced over "common-
themselves erased or misrepresented within the dominant Euro-American

224 Feminism without Borders n5 "Under Western Eyes" Revisited

ality," and I realize that my writing leaves open this possibility. In 1986 'wrote the pathways of transnational capital and "South" to the marginalized poor
mainly to challenge the false universality of Eurocentric discourses and was of the world regardless of geographical distinction.10
perhaps not sufficiently critical of the valorization of d ifference over common- I find the language of "One-Third World" versus "Two-Thirds World"
ality in postmodernist discourse.° Now I find myself wanting to reemphasize as elaborated by Gustavo Esteva and Madhu Suri Prakash (1998) particu-
the connections between local and universal. In 1986 my priority was on dif- larly useful, especially in conjunction with "Third World/South" and "First
ference, but now I want to recapture and reiterate its fuller meaning, which World/North." These terms represent what Esteva and Prakash call social mi-
was always there, and that is its connection to the universal. In other words, norities and social majorities—categories based on the quality of life led by
this discussion alloWs me to reemphasize the way that differences are never peoples and communities in both the North and the South.11 The advantage of
just "differences." In knowing differences and particularities, we can better one-third/two-thirds world in relation to terms like "Western/Third World"
see the connections and commonalities because no border or boundary is ever and "North/South" is that they move away from misleading geographical and
complete or rigidly determining. The challenge is to see how differences allow ideological binarisms.
us to explain the connections and border crossings better and more accurately, By focusing on quality of life as the criteria for distinguishing between
how specifying difference allows us to theorize universal concerns more fully. social minorities and majorities, "One-Third/Two-Thirds Worlds" draws at-
It is this intellectual move that allows for my concern for women of different tention to the continuities as well as the discontinuities between the haves
communities and identities to build coalitions and solidarities across borders. and have-nots within the boundaries of nations and between nations and
So what has changed and what remains the same for me? What are the indigenous communities. This designation also highlights the fluidity and
urgent intellectual and political questions for feminist scholarship and orga- power of global forces that situate communities of people as social majori-
nizing at this time in history? First, let me say that the terms "Western" and ties/minorities in disparate form. "One-Third/Two-Thirds" is a nonessential-
"Third World" retain a political and explanatory value in a world that appro- ist categorization, but it incorporates an analysis of power and agency that
priates and assimilates multiculturalism and "difference" through commodi- is crucial. Yet what it misses is a history of colonization that the terms West-
fication and consumption. However, these are not the only terms I would ern/Third World draw attention to.
choose to use now. With the United States, the European Community, and As the above terminological discussion serves to illustrate, we are still
Japan as the nodes of capitalist power in the early twenty-first century, the in- working with a very imprecise and inadequate analytical language. All we can
creasing proliferation of Third and Fourth Worlds within the national borders have access to at given moments is the analytical language that most clearly
of these very countries, as well as the rising visibility and struggles for sover- approximates the features of the world as we understand it. This distinction
eignty by First Nations/indigenous peoples around the world, "Western" and between One-Third/Two-Thirds World and, at times, First World/North and
"Third World" explain much less than the categorizations "North/South" or Third World/South is the language I choose to use now. Because in fact our
"One-Third/Two-Thirds Worlds." language is imprecise, I hesitate to have any language become static. My own
"North/South" is used to distinguish between affluent, privileged nations language in 1986 needs to be open to refinement and inquiry—but not to in-
and communities, and economically and politically marginalized nations and stitutionalization.
communities, as is "Western/non-Western." While these terms are meant to Finally, I want to reflect on an important issue not addressed in "Under
loosely distinguish the northern and southern hemispheres, affluent and mar- Western Eyes": the question of native or indigenous struggles. Radhika Mo-
ginal nations and communities obviously do not line up neatly within this hanram's critique of my work (1999) brings this to our attention. She points
geographical frame. And yet, as a political designation that attempts to dis- out the differences between a "multicultural" understanding of nation (preva-
tinguish between the "haves" and the "have-nots," it does have a certain po- lent in the United States) and a call for a "bicultural" understanding of na-
litical value. An example of this is Arif Dirlik's formulation of North/South as tion on the part of indigenous people in Aotearoa/New Zealand. She argues
a metaphorical rather than geographical distinction, where "North" refers to that my notion of a common context of struggle suggests logical alliances

226 Feminism without Borders 227 "Under Western Eyes" Revisited

among the various black women: Maori, Asian, Pacific Islander. However, ments in the 1970s and 198os. Women's studies is now a well-established field
Maori women see multiculturalism — alliances with Asian women — as under- of study with over eight hundred degree-granting programs and departments
mining indigenous rights and biculturalism and prefer to ally themselves with in the U.S. academy.13 Feminist theory and feminist movements across na-
Pakeha (white, Anglo-Celtic people [Mohanram 1999, 92-96]). tional borders have matured substantially since the early 198os, and there is
I agree that the distinction between biculturalism and multiculturalism now a greater visibility of transnational women's struggles and movements,
does pose a practical problem of organizing and alliance building, and that brought on in part by the United Nations world conferences on women held
the particular history and situation of Maori feminists cannot be subsumed over the last two decades.
within the analysis I offer so far. Native or indigenous women's struggles, Economically and politically, the declining power of self-governance
which do not follow a postcolonial trajectory based on the inclusions and ex- among certain poorer nations is matched by the rising significance of trans-
clusions of processes of capitalist, racist, heterosexist, and nationalist domi- national institutions such as the World Trade Organization and governing
nation, cannot be addressed easily under the purview of categories such as bodies such as the European Union, not to mention the for-profit corpora-
"Western" and "Third World." 12 But they become visible and even central to tions. Of the world's largest economies, fifty-one happen to be corporations,
the definition of One-Third/Two-Thirds Worlds because indigenous claims not countries, and Amnesty International now reports on corporations as
for sovereignty, their lifeways and environmental and spiritual practices, situ- well as nations (Eisenstein 1998b, I). Also, the hegemony of neoliberalism,
ate them as central to the definition of "social majority" (Two-Thirds World). alongside the naturalization of capitalist values, influences the ability to make
While a mere shift in conceptual terms is not a complete response to Mohan- choices on one's own behalf in the daily lives of economically marginalized
ram's critique, I think it clarifies and addresses the limitations of my earlier as well as economically privileged communities around the globe.
use of "Western" and "Third World." Interestingly enough, while I would The rise of religious fundamentalisms with their deeply masculinist and
have identified myself as both Western and Third World — in all my complexi- often racist rhetoric poses a huge challenge for feminist struggles around the
ties—in the context of "Under Western Eyes," in this new frame, Iam clearly world. Finally, the profoundly unequal "information highway" as well as the
located within the One-Third World. Then again, now, as in my earlier writ- increasing militarization (and masculinization) of the globe, accompanied by
ing, I straddle both categories. I am of the Two-Thirds World in the One- the growth of the prison industrial complex in the United States, poses pro-
Third World. I am clearly a part of the social minority now, with all its privi- found contradictions in the lives of communities of women and men in most
leges; however, my political choices, struggles, and vision for change place parts of the world. I believe these political shifts to the right, accompanied
me alongside the Two-Thirds World. Thus, I am for the Two-Thirds World, by global capitalist hegemony, privatization, and increased religious, ethnic,
but with the privileges of the One-Third World. I speak as a person situated and racial hatreds, pose very concrete challenges for feminists. In this con-
in the One-Thirds World, but from the space and vision of, and in solidarity text, I ask what would it mean to be attentive to the micropolitics of everyday
with, communities in struggle in the Two-Thirds World. life as well as to the larger processes that recolonize the culture and identi-
ties of people across the globe. How we think of the local in/of the global and
UNDER AND (INSIDE) WESTERN EYES: vice versa without falling into colonizing or cultural relativist platitudes about
AT THE TURN OF THE CENTURY difference is crucial in this intellectual and political landscape. And for me,
There have been a number of shifts in the political and economic land- this kind of thinking is tied to a revised race-and-gender-conscious historical
scapes of nations and communities of people in the last two decades. The materialism.
intellectual maps of disciplines and areas of study in the U.S. academy have The politics of feminist cross-cultural scholarship from the vantage point
shifted as well during this time. The advent and institutional visibility of post- of Third World/South feminist struggles remains a compelling site of analy-
colonial studies for instance is a relatively recent phenomenon—as is the sis for me.14 Eurocentric analytic paradigms continue to flourish, and I re-
simultaneous rollback of the gains made by race and ethnic studies depart- main committed to reengaging in the struggles to criticize openly the effects

228 Feminism without Borders 229 "Under Western Eyes" Revisited

of discursive colonization on the lives and struggles of marginalized women. scholars and activists, I believe capital as it functions now depends on and
My central commitment is to build connections between feminist scholarship exacerbates racist, patriarchal, and heterosexist relations of rule.
and political organizing. My own present-day analytic framework remains
very similar to my earliest critique of Eurocentrism. However, I now see the FEMINIST METHODOLOGIES: NEW DIRECTIONS
politics and economics of capitalism as a far more urgent locus of struggle. I What kinds of feminist methodology and analytic strategy are useful in
continue to hold to an analytic framework that is attentive to the micropoli- making power (and women's lives) visible in overtly nongendered, nonracial-
tics of everyday life as well as to the macropolitics of global economic and ized discourses? The strategy discussed here is an example of how capital-
political processes. The link between political economy and culture remains ism and its various relations of rule can be analyzed through a transnational,
crucial to any form of feminist theorizing—as it does for my work. It isn't anticapitalist feminist critique, one that draws on historical materialism and
the framework that has changed. It is just that global economic and politi- centralizes racialized gender. This analysis begins from and is anchored in the
cal processes have become more brutal, exacerbating economic, racial, and place of the most marginalized communities of women — poor women of all
gender inequalities, and thus they need to be demystified, reexamined, and colors in affluent and neocolonial nations; women of the Third World/South
theorized. or the Two-Thirds World.15 I believe that this experiential and analytic anchor
While my earlier focus was on the distinctions between "Western" and in the lives of marginalized communities of women provides the most inclu-
"Third World" feminist practices, and while I downplayed the commonalities sive paradigm for thinking about social justice. This particularized viewing
between these two positions, my focus now, as must be evident in part 2 of allows for a more concrete and expansive vision of universal justice.
this book, is on what I have chosen to call an anticapitalist transnational femi- This is the very opposite of "special interest" thinking. If we pay attention
nist practice—and on the possibilities, indeed on the necessities, of cross- to and think from the space of some of the most disenfranchised communi-
national feminist solidarity and organizing against capitalism. While "Under ties of women in the world, we are most likely to envision a just and demo-
Western Eyes" was located in the context of the critique of Western human- cratic society capable of treating all its citizens fairly. Conversely, if we begin
ism and Eurocentrism and ofwhite, Western feminism, a similar essay written our analysis from, and limit it to, the space of privileged communities, our
now would need to be located in the context of the critique of global capi- visions ofjustice are more likely to be exclusionary because privilege nurtures
talism (on antiglobalization), the naturalization of the values of capital, and blindness to those without the same privileges. Beginning from the lives and
the unacknowledged power of cultural relativism in cross-cultural feminist interests of marginalized communities of women, I am able to access and
scholarship and pedagogies. make the workings of power visible— to read up the ladder of privilege. It is
"Under Western Eyes" sought to make the operations of discursive power more necessary to look upward—colonized peoples must know themselves
visible, to draw attention to what was left out of feminist theorizing, namely, and the colonizer. This particular marginalized location makes the politics of
the material complexity, reality, and agency of Third World women's bodies knowledge and the power investments that go along with it visible so that we
and lives. This is in fact exactly the analytic strategy I now use to draw at- can then engage in work to transform the use and abuse of power. The analy-
tention to what is unseen, undertheorized, and left out in the production of sis draws on the notion of epistemic privilege as it is developed by feminist
knowledge about globalization. While globalization has always been a part of standpoint theorists (with their roots in the historical materialism of Marx
capitalism, and capitalism is not a new phenomenon, at this time I believe the and Lukacs) as well as postpositivist realists, who provide an analysis of ex-
theory, critique, and activism around antiglobalization has to be a key focus perience, identity, and the epistemic effects of social location.16 My view is
for feminists. This does not mean that the patriarchal and racist relations and thus a materialist and "realist" one and is antithetical to that of postmod-
structures that accompany capitalism are any less problematic at this time, ernist relativism. I believe there are causal links between marginalized social
or that antiglobalization is a singular phenomenon. Along with many other locations and experiences and the ability of human agents to explain and ana-

230 Feminism without Borders 231 "Under Western Eyes" Revisited

 lyze features of capitalist society. Methodologically, this analytic perspective framework that says the knowledge of the Third World and the knowl-
is grounded in historical materialism. My claim is not that all marginalized edge of people of color is not knowledge. When that knowledge is taken
locations yield crucial knowledge about power and inequity, but that within a by white men who have capital, suddenly creativity begins. . .. Patents are
tightly integrated capitalist system, the particular standpoint of poor indige- a replay of colonialism, which is now called globalization and free trade.
nous and Third World/South women provides the most inclusive viewing of (2000, 32)
systemic power. In numerous cases of environmental racism, for instance,
The contrast between Western scientific systems and indigenous epistemolo-
where the neighborhoods of poor communities of color are targeted as new
gies and systems of medicine is not the only issue here. It is the colonialist
sites for prisons and toxic dumps, it is no coincidence that poor black, Native
and corporate power to define Western science, and the reliance on capitalist
American, and Latina women provide the leadership in the fight against cor-
values of private property and profit, as the only normative system that results
porate pollution. Three out of five Afro-Americans and Latinos live near toxic
in the exercise of immense power. Thus indigenous knowledges, which are
waste sites, and three of the five largest hazardous waste landfills are in com-
often communally generated and shared among tribal and peasant women
munities with a population that is 8o percent people of color (Pardo 2ooi,
for domestic, local, and public use, are subject to the ideologies of a corpo-
504-II). Thus, it is precisely their critical reflections on their everyday lives as
rate Western scientific paradigm where intellectual property rights can only
poor women of color that allow the kind of analysis of the power structure
be understood in possessive or privatized form. All innovations that happen
that has led to the many victories in environmental racism struggles.17 Herein
to be collective, to have occurred over time in forests and farms, are appro-
lies a lesson for feminist analysis.
priated or excluded. The idea of an intellectual commons where knowledge is
Feminist scientist Vandana Shiva, one of the most visible leaders of the
collectively gathered and passed on for the benefit of all, not owned privately,
antiglobalization movement, provides a similar and illuminating critique of
is the very opposite of the notion of private property and ownership that is the
the patents and intellectual property rights agreements sanctioned by the
basis for the vvTo property rights agreements. Thus this idea of an intellec-
World Trade Organization (wTo) since 1995.18 Along with others in the envi-
tual commons among tribal and peasant women actually excludes them from
ronmental and indigenous rights movements, she argues that the WTO sanc-
ownership and facilitates corporate biopiracy.
tions biopiracy and engages in intellectual piracy by privileging the claims of
Shiva's analysis of intellectual property rights, biopiracy, and globalization
corporate commercial interests, based on Western systems of knowledge in
is made possible by its very location in the experiences and epistemologies of
agriculture and medicine, to products and innovations derived from indige-
peasant and tribal women in India. Beginning from the practices and knowl-
nous knowledge traditions. Thus, through the definition of Western scien-
edges of indigenous women, she "reads up" the power structure, all the way to
tific epistemologies as the only legitimate scientific system, the WTO is able
the policies and practices sanctioned by the WTO. This is a very clear example
to underwrite corporate patents to indigenous knowledge (as to the Neem
then of a transnational, anticapitalist feminist politics.
tree in India) as their own intellectual property, protected through intellec-
However, Shiva says less about gender than she could. She is after all talk-
tual property rights agreements. As a result, the patenting of drugs derived
ing in particular about women's work and knowledges anchored in the epis-
from indigenous medicinal systems has now reached massive proportions. I
temological experiences of one of the most marginalized communities of
quote Shiva:
women in the world — poor, tribal, and peasant women in India. This is a com-
Mhrough patenting, indigenous knowledge is being pirated in the name munity ofwomen made invisible and written out of national and international
of protecting knowledge and preventing piracy. The knowledge of our an- economic calculations. An analysis that pays attention to the everyday experi-
cestors, of our peasants about seeds is being claimed as an invention of ences of tribal women and the micropolitics of their ultimately anticapitalist
U.S. corporations and U.S. scientists and patented by them. The only rea- struggles illuminates the macropolitics of global restructuring. It suggests
son something like that can work is because underlying it all is a racist the thorough embeddedness of the local and particular with the global and

232 Feminism without Borders 233 "Under Western Eyes" Revisited

universal, and it suggests the need to conceptualize questions of justice and placed persons of the Third World/South in Africa, Asia and Latin America.
equity in transborder terms. In other words, this mode of reading envisions Women own less than one-hundredth of the world's property, while they are
a feminism without borders, in that it foregrounds the need for an analysis the hardest hit by the effects of war, domestic violence, and religious perse-
and vision of solidarity across the enforced privatized intellectual property cution. Feminist political theorist Zillah Eisenstein says that women do two-
borders of the WTO. thirds of the world's work and earn less than one-tenth of its income. Global
These particular examples offer the most inclusive paradigm for under- capital in racialized and sexualized guise destroys the public spaces of democ-
standing the motivations and effects of globalization as it is crafted by the racy, and quietly sucks power out of the once social/public spaces of nation-
WTO. Of course, if we were to attempt the same analysis from the epistemo- states. Corporate capitalism has redefined citizens as consumers — and global
logical space of Western, corporate interests, it would be impossible to gen- markets replace the commitments to economic, sexual, and racial equality
erate an analysis that values indigenous knowledge anchored in communal (Eisenstein 1998b, esp. ch. 5).
relationships rather than profit-based hierarchies. Thus, poor tribal and peas- It is especially on the bodies and lives of women and girls from the
ant women, their knowledges and interests, would be invisible in this analytic Third World/South — the Two-Thirds World — that global capitalism writes its
frame because the very idea of an intellectual commons falls outside the pur- script, and it is by paying attention to and theorizing the experiences of these
view of privatized property and profit that is a basis for corporate interests. communities of women and girls that we demystify capitalism as a system
The obvious issue fora transnational feminism pertains to the visions ofprofit of debilitating sexism and racism and envision anticapitalist resistance. Thus
and justice embodied in these opposing analytic perspectives. The focus on any analysis of the effects of globalization needs to centralize the experiences
profit versus justice illustrates my earlier point about social location and ana- and struggles of these particular communities of women and girls.
lytically inclusive methodologies. It is the social location of the tribal women Drawing on Arif Dirlik's notion of "place consciousness as the radical
as explicated by Shiva that allows this broad and inclusive focus on justice. other of global capitalism" (Dirlik 1999), Grace Lee Boggs makes an impor-
Similarly, it is the social location and narrow self-interest of corporations that tant argument for place-based civic activism that illustrates how centralizing
privatizes intellectual property rights in the name of profit for elites. the struggles of marginalized communities connects to larger antiglobaliza-
Shiva essentially offers a critique of the global privatization of indigenous don struggles. Boggs suggests that " [p] lace consciousness... encourages us
knowledges. This is a story about the rise of transnational institutions such to come together around common, local experiences and organize around our
as the WTO, the World Bank, and the International Monetary Fund, of bank- hopes for the future of our communities and cities. While global capitalism
ing and financial institutions and cross-national governing bodies like the doesn't give a damn about the people or the natural environment of any par-
M AI (Multinational Agreement on Investments). The effects of these govern- ticular place because it can always move on to other people and other places,
ing bodies on poor people around the world have been devastating. In funda- place-based civic activism is concerned about the heath and safety of people
mental ways, it is girls and women around the world, especially in the Third and places" (Boggs z000, 19). Since women are central to the life of neighbor-
World/South, that bear the brunt of globalization. Poor women and girls are hood and communities they assume leadership positions in these struggles.
the hardest hit by the degradation of environmental conditions, wars, fam- This is evident in the example of women of color in struggles against envi-
ines, privatization of services and deregulation of governments, the disman- ronmental racism in the United States, as well as in Shiva's example of tribal
tling of welfare states, the restructuring of paid and unpaid work, increasing women in the struggle against deforestation and foran intellectual commons.
surveillance and incarceration in prisons, and so on. And this is why a femi- It is then the lives, experiences, and struggles of girls and women of the Two-
nism without and beyond borders is necessary to address the injustices of Thirds World that demystify capitalism in its racial and sexual dimensions—
global capitalism. and that provide productive and necessary avenues of theorizing and enacting
Women and girls are still 70 percent of the world's poor and the majority anticapitalist resistance.
of the world's refugees. Girls and women comprise almost So percent of dis- I do not wish to leave this discussion of capitalism as a generalized site

234 Feminism without Borders 235 "Under Western Eyes" Revisited

without contextualizing its meaning in and through the lives it structures. them. This shift in my focus from "under Western eyes" to "under and in-
Disproportionately, these are girls' and women's lives, although I am com- side" the hegemonic spaces of the One-Third World necessitates recrafting
mitted to the lives of all exploited peoples. However, the specificity of girls' the project of decolonization.
and women's lives encompasses the others through their particularized and My focus is thus no longer just the colonizing effects of Western feminist
contextualized experiences. If these particular gendered, classed, and racial- scholarship. This does not mean the problems I identified in the earlier essay
ized realities of globalization are unseen and undertheorized, even the most do not occur now. But the phenomenon I addressed then has been more than
radical critiques ofglobalization effectively render Third World/South women adequately engaged by other feminist scholars. While feminists have been in-
and girls as absent. Perhaps it is no longer simplyan issue of Western eyes, but volved in the antiglobalization movement from the start, however, this has
rather how the West is inside and continually reconfigures globally, racially, not been a major organizing locus for women's movements nationally in the
and in terms of gender. Without this recognition, a necessary link between West/North. It has, however, always been a locus of struggle for women of the
feminist scholarship/analytic frames and organizing/activist projects is im- Third World/South because oftheir location. Again, this contextual specificity
possible. Faulty and inadequate analytic frames engender ineffective political should constitute the larger vision. Women of the Two-Thirds World have
action and strategizing for social transformation. always organized against the devastations of globalized capital, just as they
What does the above analysis suggest? That we—feminist scholars and have always historically organized anticolonial and antiracist movements. In
teachers — must respond to the phenomenon ofglobalization as an urgent site this sense they have always spoken for humanity as a whole.
for the recolonization of peoples, especially in the Two-Thirds World. Glob- I have tried to chart feminist sites for engaging globalization, rather than
alization colonizes women's as well as men's lives around the world, and we providing a comprehensive review of feminist work in this area. I hope this
need an anti-imperialist, anticapitalist, and contextualized feminist project exploration makes my own political choices and decisions transparent and
to expose and make visible the various, overlapping forms of subjugation of that it provides readers with a productive and provocative space to think and
women's lives. Activists and scholars must also identify and reenvision forms act creatively for feminist struggle. So today my query is slightly different al-
of collective resistance that women, especially, in their different communi- though much the same as in 1986. I wish to better see the processes of cor-
ties enact in their everyday lives. It is their particular exploitation at this time, porate globalization and how and why they recolonize women's bodies and
their potential epistemic privilege, as well as their particular forms of soli- labor. We need to know the real and concrete effects of global restructuring
darity that can be the basis for reimagining a liberatory politics for the start on raced, classed, national, sexual bodies of women in the academy, in work-
of this century. places, streets, households, cyberspaces, neighborhoods, prisons, and social
movements.
What does it mean to make antiglobalization a key factor for feminist theo-
Antiglobalization Struggles rizing and struggle? To illustrate my thinking about antiglobalization, let me
Although the context for writing "Under Western Eyes" in the mid-198os focus on two specific sites where knowledge about globalization is produced.
was a visible and activist women's movement, this radical movement no longer The first site is a pedagogical one and involves an analysis of the various strate-
exists as such. Instead, I draw inspiration from a more distant, but signifi- gies being used to internationalize (or globalize)19 the women's studies cur-
cant, antiglobalization movement in the United States and around the world. riculum in U.S. colleges and universities. I argue that this move to interna-
Activists in these movements are often women, although the movement is not tionalize women's studies curricula and the attendant pedagogies that flow
gender-focused. So I wish to redefine the project of decolonization, not reject from this is one of the main ways we can track a discourse of global femi-
it. It appears more complex to me today, given the newer developments of nism in the United States. Other ways of tracking global feminist discourses
global capitalism. Given the complex interweaving of cultural forms, people include analyzing the documents and discussions flowing out of the Beijing
of and from the Third World live not only under Western eyes but also within United Nations conference on women, and of course popular television and

236 Feminism without Borders 237 "Under Western Eyes" Revisited

print media discourses on women around the world. The second site of anti- It is through this model that we can put into practice the idea of "common
globalization scholarship I focus on is the emerging, notably ungendered and differences" as the basis for deeper solidarity across differences and unequal
deracialized discourse on activism against globalization. power relations.

ANTIGLOBALIZATION PEDAGOGIES Feminist-as-Tourist Model. This curricular perspective could also be called the
Let me turn to the struggles over the dissemination of a feminist cross- "feminist as international consumer" or, in less charitable terms, the "white
cultural knowledge base through pedagogical strategies "internationalizing" women's burden or colonial discourse" mode1.22 It involves a pedagogical
the women's studies curriculum. The problem of "the (gendered) color line" strategy in which brief forays are made into non-Euro-American cultures, and
remains, but is more easily seen today as developments of transnational and particular sexist cultural practices addressed from an otherwise Eurocentric
global capital. While I choose to focus on women's studies curricula, my ar- women's studies gaze. In other words, the "add women as global victims or
guments hold for curricula in any discipline or academic field that seeks to powerful women and stir" perspective. This is a perspective in which the pri-
internationalize or globalize its curriculum. I argue that the challenge for mary Euro-American narrative of the syllabus remains untouched, and ex-
"internationalizing" women's studies is no different from the one involved in amples from non-Western or Third World/South cultures are used to supple-
"racializing" women's studies in the 198os, for very similar politics of knowl- ment and "add" to this narrative. The story here is quite old. The effects of
edge come into play here.2° this strategy are that students and teachers are left with a clear sense of the
So the question I want to foreground is the politics of knowledge in bridg- difference and distance between the local (defined as self, nation, and West-
ing the "local" and the "global" in women's studies. How we teach the "new" ern) and the global (defined as other, non-Western, and transnational). Thus
scholarship in women's studies is at least as important as the scholarship the local is always grounded in nationalist assumptions—the United States
itself in the struggles over knowledge and citizenship in the U.S. academy. or Western European nation-state provides a normative context. This strategy
After all, the way we construct curricula and the pedagogies we use to put leaves power relations and hierarchies untouched since ideas about center and
such curricula into practice tell a story—or tell many stories. It is the way we margin are reproduced along Eurocentric lines.
position historical narratives of experience in relation to each other, the way For example, in an introductory feminist studies course, one could in-
we theorize relationality as both historical and simultaneously singular and clude the obligatory day or week on dowry deaths in India, women workers in
collective that determines how and what we learn when we cross cultural and Nike factories in Indonesia, or precolonial matriarchies in West Africa, while
experiential borders. leaving the fundamental identity of the Euro-American feminist on her way
Drawing on my own work with U.S. feminist academic communities,21 I to liberation untouched. Thus Indonesian workers in Nike factories or dowry
describe three pedagogical models used in "internationalizing" the women's deaths in India stand in for the totality of women in these cultures. These
studies curriculum and analyze the politics of knowledge at work. Each of women are not seen in their everyday lives (as Euro-American women are) —
these perspectives is grounded in particular conceptions of the local and the just in these stereotypical terms. Difference in the case of non-Euro-American
global, ofwomen's agency, and of national identity, and each curricular model women is thus congealed, not seen contextually with all of its contradictions.
presents different stories and ways of crossing borders and building bridges. This pedagogical strategy for crossing cultural and geographical borders is
I suggest that a "comparative feminist studies" or "feminist solidarity" model based on a modernist paradigm, and the bridge between the local and the
is the most useful and productive pedagogical strategy for feminist cross- global becomes in fact a predominantly self-interested chasm. This perspec-
cultural work. It is this particular model that provides a way to theorize a com- tive confirms the sense of the "evolved U.S./Euro feminist." While there is
plex relational understanding of experience, location, and history such that now more consciousness about not using an "add and stir" method in teach-
feminist cross-cultural work moves through the specific context to construct ing about race and U.S. women of color, this does not appear to be the case in
a real notion of universal and of democratization rather than colonization. "internationalizing" women's studies. Experience in this context is assumed

238 Feminism without Borders 239 "Under Western Eyes" Revisited

 to be static and frozen into U.S.- or Euro-centered categories. Since in this
edge base. These courses can be quite sophisticated and complex studies, but
paradigm feminism is always/already constructed as Euro-American in ori-
they are viewed as entirely separate from the intellectual project of U.S. race
gin and development, women's lives and struggles outside this geographical
and ethnic studies." The United States is not seen as part of "area studies,"
context only serve to confirm or contradict this originary feminist (master) as white is not a color when one speaks of people of color. This is probably re-
narrative. This model is the pedagogical counterpart of the orientalizing and lated to the particular history of institutionalization of area studies in the U.S.
colonizing Western feminist scholarship of the past decades. In fact it may academy and its ties to U.S. imperialism. Thus areas to be studied/conquered
remain the predominant model at this time. Thus implicit in this pedagogi- are "out there," never within the United States. The fact that area studies in
4
cal strategy is the crafting of the "Third World difference," the creation of U.S. academic settings were federally funded and conceived as having a po-
monolithic images of Third World/South women. This contrasts with images litical project in the service of U.S. geopolitical interests suggests the need
of Euro-American women who are vital, changing, complex, and central sub- to examine the contemporary interests of these fields, especially as they re-
jects within such a curricular perspective. late to the logic of global capitalism. In addition, as Ella Shohat argues, it is
time to "reimagine the study of regions and cultures in a way that transcends
Feminist-as-Explorer Model. This particular pedagogical perspective origi- the conceptual borders inherent in the global cartography of the cold war"
nates in area studies, where the "foreign" woman is the object and subject (2ooi, 1271). The field of American studies is an interesting location to exam-
of knowledge and the larger intellectual project is entirely about countries ine here, especially since its more recent focus on U.S. imperialism. However,
other than the United States. Thus, here the local and the global are both American studies rarely falls under the purview of "area studies."
defined as non-Euro-American. The focus on the international implies that The problem with the feminist-as-explorer strategy is that globalization
it exists outside the U.S. nation-state. Women's, gender, and feminist issues is an economic, political, and ideological phenomenon that actively brings
are based on spatial/geographical and temporal/historical categories located the world and its various communities under connected and interdependent
elsewhere. Distance from "home" is fundamental to the definition of inter- discursive and material regimes. The lives of women are connected and inter-
national in this framework. This strategy can result in students and teachers dependent, albeit not the same, no matter which geographical area we happen
being left with a notion of difference and separateness, a sort of "us and them" to live in.
attitude, but unlike the tourist model, the explorer perspective can provide Separating area studies from race and ethnic studies thus leads to under-
a deeper, more contextual understanding of feminist issues in discretely de- standing or teaching about the global as a way of not addressing internal
fined geographical and cultural spaces. However, unless these discrete spaces racism, capitalist hegemony, colonialism, and heterosexualization as cen-
are taught in relation to one another, the story told is usually a cultural rela- tral to processes of global domination, exploitation, and resistance. Global
tivist one, meaning that differences between cultures are discrete and relative or international is thus understood apart from racism —as if racism were
with no real connection or common basis for evaluation. The local and the not central to processes of globalization and relations of rule at this time.
global are here collapsed into the international that by definition excludes An example of this pedagogical strategy in the context of the larger cur-
the United States. If the dominant discourse is the discourse of cultural rela- riculum is the usual separation of "world cultures" courses from race and
tivism, questions of power, agency, justice, and common criteria for critique ethnic studies courses. Thus identifying the kinds of representations of (non-
and evaluation are silenced.23 Euro-American) women mobilized by this pedagogical strategy, and the rela-
In women's studies curricula this pedagogical strategy is often seen as tion of these representations to implicit images of First World/North women
the most culturally sensitive way to "internationalize" the curriculum. For are important foci for analysis. What kind of power is being exercised in
instance, entire courses on "Women in Latin America" or "Third World this strategy? What kinds of ideas of agency and struggle are being consoli-
Women's Literature" or "Postcolonial Feminism" are added on to the pre- dated? What are the potential effects of a kind of cultural relativism on our
dominantly U.S.-based curriculum as a way to "globalize" the feminist knowl- understandings of the differences and commonalities among communities of
240 Feminism without Borders 241 "Under Western Eyes" Revisited
women around the world? Thus the feminist-as-explorer model has its own of women in particular substantive areas like sex work, militarization, en-
problems, and I believe this is an inadequate way of building a feminist cross- vironmental justice, the prison/industrial complex, and human rights, and
cultural knowledge base because in the context of an interwoven world with looking for points of contact and connection as well as disjunctures. It is
clear directionalities of power and domination, cultural relativism serves as important to always foreground not just the connections of domination but
an apology for the exercise of power. those of struggle and resistance as well.
In the feminist solidarity model the One-Third/Two-Thirds paradigm
The Feminist Solidarity or Comparative Feminist Studies Model. This curricular makes sense. Rather than Western/Third World, or North/South, or local/
strategy is based on the premise that the local and the global are not defined in global seen as oppositional and incommensurate categories, the One-Third/
terms of physical geography or territory but exist simultaneously and consti- Two-Thirds differentiation allows for teaching and learning about points
tute each other. It is then the links, the relationships, between the local and the of connection and distance among and between communities of women
global that are foregrounded, and these links are conceptual, material, tem- marginalized and privileged along numerous local and global dimensions.
poral, contextual, and so on. This framework assumes a comparative focus Thus the very notion of inside/outside necessary to the distance between
and analysis of the directionality of power no matter what the subject of the local/global is transformed through the use of a One-Third/Two-Thirds para-
women's studies course is —and it assumes both distance and proximity (spe- digm, as both categories must be understood as containing difference/
cific/universal) as its analytic strategy. similarities, inside/outside, and distance/proximity. Thus sex work, militari-
Differences and commonalities thus exist in relation and tension with zation, human rights, and so on can be framed in their multiple local and
each other in all contexts. What is emphasized are relations of mutuality, co- global dimensions using the One-Third/Two-Thirds, social minority/social
responsibility, and common interests, anchoring the idea of feminist soli- majority paradigm. I am suggesting then that we look at the women's studies
darity. For example, within this model, one would not teach a U.S. women curriculum in its entirety and that we attempt to use a comparative feminist
of color course with additions on Third World/South or white women, but a studies model wherever possible.25
comparative course that shows the interconnectedness of the histories, ex- I refer to this model as the feminist solidarity model because, besides its
periences, and struggles of U.S. women of color, white women, and women focus on mutuality and common interests, it requires one to formulate ques-
from the Third World/South. By doing this kind of comparative teaching that tions about connection and disconnection between activist women's move-
is attentive to power, each historical experience illuminates the experiences ments around the world. Rather than formulating activism and agency in
of the others. Thus, the focus is not just on the intersections of race, class, terms of discrete and disconnected cultures and nations, it allows us to frame
gender, nation, and sexuality in different communities of women but on mu- agency and resistance across the borders of nation and culture. I think femi-
tuality and coimplication, which suggests attentiveness to the interweaving nist pedagogy should not simply expose students to a particularized academic
of the histories of these communities. In addition the focus is simultaneously scholarship but that it should also envision the possibility of activism and
on individual and collective experiences of oppression and exploitation and struggle outside the academy. Political education through feminist pedagogy
of struggle and resistance. should teach active citizenship in such struggles for justice.
Students potentially move away from the "add and stir" and the relativist My recurring question is how pedagogies can supplement, consolidate, or
"separate but equal" (or different) perspective to the coimplication/solidarity resist the dominant logic of globalization. How do students learn about the
one. This solidarity perspective requires understanding the historical and inequities among women and men around the world? For instance, traditional
experiential specificities and differences of women's lives as well as the liberal and liberal feminist pedagogies disallow historical and comparative
historical and experiential connections between women from different na- thinking, radical feminist pedagogies often singularize gender, and Marxist
tional, racial, and cultural communities. Thus it suggests organizing syllabi pedagogy silences race and gender in its focus on capitalism. I look to cre-
around social and economic processes and histories of various communities ate pedagogies that allow students to see the complexities, singularities, and

242 Feminism without Borders 243 "Under Western Eyes" Revisited

interconnections between communities of women such that power, privilege, separation. These are the kinds of stories we need to weave into a feminist
agency, and dissent can be made visible and engaged with. solidarity pedagogical model.
In an instructive critique of postcolonial studies and its institutional loca-
tion, Arif Dirlik argues that the particular institutional history of postcolo- ANTIGLOBALIZATION SCHOLARSHIP AND MOVEMENTS

nial studies, as well as its conceptual emphases on the historical and local
Women's and girls' bodies determine democracy: free from violence and sexual
as against the systemic and the global, permit its assimilation into the logic
abuse, free from malnutrition and environmental degradation, free to plan their
of globalism.26 While Dirlik somewhat overstates his argument, deradical-
families, free to not have families, free to choose their sexual lives and prefer-
ization and assimilation should concern those of us involved in the femi-
ences.—Zillah Eisenstein, Global Obscenities, 1998
nist project. Feminist pedagogies of internationalization need an adequate
response to globalization. Both Eurocentric and cultural relativist (postmod- There is now an increasing and useful feminist scholarship critical of the
ernist) models of scholarship and teaching are easily assimilated within the practices and effects of globalization.29 Instead of attempting a comprehen-
logic of late capitalism because this is fimdamentally a logic of seeming de- sive review of this scholarship, I want to draw attention to some of the most
centralization and accumulation of differences. What I call the comparative useful kinds of issues it raises. Let me turn, then, to a feminist reading of anti-
feminist studies/feminist solidarity model on the other hand potentially coun- globalization movements and argue for a more intimate, closer alliance be-
ters this logic by setting up a paradigm of historically and culturally specific tween women's movements, feminist pedagogy, cross-cultural feminist theo-
"common differences" as the basis for analysis and solidarity. Feminist peda- rizing, and these ongoing anticapitalist movements.
gogies of antiglobalization can tell alternate stories of difference, culture, I return to an earlier question: What are the concrete effects of global re-
power, and agency. They can begin to theorize experience, agency, and justice structuring on the "real" raced, classed, national, sexual bodies of women
from a more cross-cultural lens.22 in the academy, in workplaces, streets, households, cyberspaces, neighbor-
After almost two decades of teaching feminist studies in U.S. classrooms, hoods, prisons, and in social movements? And how do we recognize these
it is clear to me that the way we theorize experience, culture, and subjectivity gendered effects in movements against globalization? Some of the most com-
in relation to histories, institutional practice, and collective struggles deter- plex analyses of the centrality of gender in understanding economic glob-
mines the kind of stories we tell in the classroom. If these varied stories are alization attempt to link questions of subjectivity, agency, and identity with
to be taught such that students learn to democratize rather than colonize those of political economy and the state. This scholarship argues persuasively
the experiences of different spatially and temporally located communities of fora need to rethink patriarchies and hegemonic masculinities in relation to
women, neither a Eurocentric nor a cultural pluralist curricular practice will present-day globalization and nationalisms, and it also attempts to retheo-
do. In fact narratives of historical experience are crucial to political thinking rize the gendered aspects of the refigured relations of the state, the market,
not because they present an unmediated version of the "truth" but because and civil society by focusing on unexpected and unpredictable sites of resis-
they can destabilize received truths and locate debate in the complexities and tance to the often devastating effects ofglobal restructuring on women 30 And
contradictions of historical life. It is in this context that postpositivist realist it draws on a number of disciplinary paradigms and political perspectives in
theorizations of experience, identity, and culture become useful in construct- making the case for the centrality of gender in processes of global restructur-
ing curricular and pedagogical narratives that address as well as combat glob- ing, arguing that the reorganization of gender is part of the global strategy of
alization.28 These realist theorizations explicitly link a historical materialist capitalism.
understanding of social location to the theorization of epistemic privilege Women workers of particular caste/class, race, and economic status are
and the construction of social identity, thus suggesting the complexities of necessary to the operation of the capitalist global economy. Women are
the narratives of marginalized peoples in terms of relationality rather than not only the preferred candidates for particular sobs. but particular kinds

244 Feminism without Borders 245 "Under Westerr. ;

of women — poor, Third and Two-Thirds World, working-class, and immi- are left out of the economic circuit, and this "absence of connections to a
grant/migrant women—are the preferred workers in these global, "flexible" structure of opportunity" results in young African American men turning to
temporary job markets. The documented increase in the migration of poor, dangerous and creative survival strategies while struggling to reinvent new
One-Third/Two-Thirds World women in search of labor across national bor- forms of masculinity.
ders has led to a rise in the international "maid trade" (Parrefias 2001) and There is also increased feminist attention to the way discourses of glob-
in international sex trafficking and tourism.33 Many global cities now require alization are themselves gendered and the way hegemonic masculinities are
and completely depend on the service and domestic labor of immigrant and produced and mobilized in the service of global restructuring. Marianne Mar-
migrant women. The proliferation of structural adjustment policies around chand and Anne Runyan (2000) discuss the gendered metaphors and symbol-
the world has reprivatized women's labor by shifting the responsibility for so- ism in the language of globalization whereby particular actors and sectors are
cial welfare from the state to the household and to women located there. The privileged over others: market over state, global over local, finance capital over
rise of religious fundamentalisms in conjunction with conservative nation- manufacturing, finance ministries over social welfare, and consumers over
alisms, which are also in part reactions to global capital and its cultural de- citizens. They argue that the latter are feminized and the former masculinized
mands has led to the policing of women's bodies in the streets and in the (9) and that this gendering naturalizes the hierarchies required for globaliza-
workplaces. tion to succeed. Charlotte Hooper (2000) identifies an emerging hegemonic
Global capital also reaffirms the color line in its newly articulated class Anglo-American masculinity through processes of global restructuring—a
structure evident in the prisons in the One-Third World. The effects of global- masculinity that affects men and women workers in the global economy.32
ization and deindustrialization on the prison industry in the One-Third World Hooper argues that this Anglo-American masculinity has dualistic tenden-
leads to a related policing of the bodies of poor, One-Third/Two-Thirds World, cies, retaining the image of the aggressive frontier masculinity on the one
immigrant and migrant women behind the concrete spaces and bars of pri- hand, while drawing on more benign images of c EOS with (feminized) non-
vatized prisons. Angela Davis and Gina Dent (2001) argue that the political hierarchical management skills associated with teamwork and networking on
economy of U.S. prisons, and the punishment industry in the West/North, the other.
brings the intersection of gender, race, colonialism, and capitalism into sharp While feminist scholarship is moving in important and useful directions
focus. Just as the factories and workplaces of global corporations seek and in terms of a critique of global restructuring and the culture of globalization, I
discipline the labor of poor, Third World/South, immigrant/migrant women, want to ask some of the same questions I posed in 1986 once again. In spite of
the prisons of Europe and the United States incarcerate disproportionately the occasional exception, I think that much of present-day scholarship tends
large numbers of women of color, immigrants, and noncitizens of African, to reproduce particular "globalized" representations of women. Just as there
Asian, and Latin American descent. is an Anglo-American masculinity produced in and by discourses of globaliza-
Making gender and power visible in the processes of global restruc- tion,33 it is important to ask what the corresponding femin inities being pro-
turing demands looking at, naming, and seeing the particular raced, and duced are. Clearly there is the ubiquitous global teenage girl factory worker,
classed communities of women from poor countries as they are constituted the domestic worker, and the sex worker. There is also the migrant/immigrant
as workers in sexual, domestic, and service industries; as prisoners; and as service worker, the refugee, the victim ofwar crimes, the woman-of-color pris-
household managers and nurturers. In contrast to this production ofworkers, oner who happens to be a mother and drug user, the consumer-housewife, and
Patricia Fernández-Kelly and Diane Wolf (2001, esp. 1248) focus on commu- so on. There is also the mother-of-the-nation / religious bearer of traditional
nities of black U.S. inner-city youth situated as "redundant" to the global culture and morality.
economy. This redundancy is linked to their disproportionate representation Although these representations of women correspond to real people, they
in U.S. prisons. They argue that these young men, who are potential workers, also often stand in for the contradictions and complexities of women's lives

246 Feminism without Borders 247 "Under Western Eyes" Revisited

and roles. Certain images, such as that of the factory or sex worker, are often nous rights, etc.) and the transformed U.S. labor movement of the I99os
geographically located in the Third World/South, but many of the represen- also playa significant part in terms of the history of antiglobalization move-
tations identified above are dispersed throughout the globe. Most refer to ments.35
women of the Two-Thirds World, and some to women of the One-Third World. While women are present as leaders and participants in most of these anti-
And a woman from the Two-Thirds World can live in the One-Third World. The globalization movements, a feminist agenda only emerges in the post-Beijing
point I am making here is that women are workers, mothers, or consumers in "women's rights as human rights" movement and in some peace and environ-
the global economy, but we are also all those things simultaneously. Singu- mental justice movements. In other words, while girls and women are central
lar and monolithic categorizations of women in discourses of globalization to the labor of global capital, antiglobalization work does not seem to draw on
circumscribe ideas about experience, agency, and struggle. While there are feminist analysis or strategies. Thus, while I have argued that feminists need
other, relatively new images ofwomen that also emerge in this discourse—the to be anticapitalists, I would now argue that antiglobalization activists and
human rights worker or the NG o advocate, the revolutionary militant and the theorists also need to be feminists. Gender is ignored as a category of analysis
corporate bureaucrat— there is also a divide between false, overstated images and a basis for organizing in most of the antiglobalization movements, and
of victimized and empowered womanhood, and they negate each other. We antiglobalization (and anticapitalist critique) does not appear to be central to
need to further explore how this divide plays itself out in terms of a social ma- feminist organizing projects, especially in the First World/North. In terms of
jority/minority, One-Third/Two-Thirds World characterization. The concern women's movements, the earlier "sisterhood is global" form of internation-
here is with whose agency is being colonized and who is privileged in these alization of the women's movement has now shifted into the "human rights"
pedagogies and scholarship. These then are my new queries for the twenty- arena. This shift in language from "feminism" to "women's rights" has been
first century.34 called the mainstreaming of the feminist movement —a successful attempt
Because social movements are crucial sites for the construction of knowl- to raise the issue of violence against women on to the world stage.
edge, communities, and identities, it is very important for feminists to direct If we look carefully at the focus of the antiglobalization movements, it is
themselves toward them. The antiglobalization movements of the last five the bodies and labor of women and girls that constitute the heart of these
years have proven that one does not have to be a multinational corporation, struggles. For instance, in the environmental and ecological movements such
controller of financial capital, or transnational governing institution to cross as Chipko in India and indigenous movements against uranium mining and
national borders. These movements form an important site for examining the breast-milk contamination in the United States, women are not only among
construction of transborder democratic citizenship. But first a brief charac- the leadership: their gendered and racialized bodies are the key to demystify-
terization of antiglobalization movements is in order. ing and combating the processes of recolonization put in place by corporate
Unlike the territorial anchors of the anticolonial movements of the early control of the environment. My earlier discussion of Vandana Shiva's analysis
twentieth century, antiglobalization movements have numerous spatial and of the WTO and biopiracy from the epistemological place of Indian tribal and
social origins. These include anticorporate environmental movements such peasant women illustrates this claim, as does Grace Lee Boggs's notion of
as the Narmada Bachao Andolan in central India and movements against en- "place-based civic activism" (Boggs z000, 19). Similarly, in the anticorporate
vironmental racism in the U.S. Southwest, as well as the antiagribusiness consumer movements and in the small farmer movements against agribusi-
small-farmer movements around the world. The 196os consumer movements, ness and the antisweatshop movements, it is women's labor and their bodies
people's movements against the IMF and World Bank for debt cancelation that are most affected as workers, farmers, and consumers/household nur-
and against structural adjustment programs, and the antisweatshop student turers.
movements in Japan, Europe, and the United States are also a part of the ori- Women have been in leadership roles in some of the cross-border alliances
gins of the antiglobalization movements. In addition, the identity-based so- against corporate injustice. Thus, making gender, and women's bodies and
cial movements of the late twentieth century (feminist, civil rights, indige- labor visible, and theorizing this visibility as a process of articulating a more
248 Feminism without Borders 149 "Under Western Eyes" Revisited
inclusive politics are crucial aspects of feminist anticapitalist critique. Begin- more than they sever. So the enterprise here is to forge informed, self-reflexive
ning from the social location of poor women of color of the Two-Thirds World solidarities among ourselves.
is an important, even crucial, place for feminist analysis; it is precisely the I no longer live simply under the gaze of Western eyes. I also live inside it
potential epistemic privilege of these communities of women that opens up and negotiate it every day. I make my home in Ithaca, New York, but always as
the space for demystifying capitalism and for envisioning transborder social from Mumbai, India. My cross-race and cross-class work takes me to inter-
and economic justice. connected places and communities around the world—to a struggle contex-
The masculinization of the discourses of globalization analyzed by Mar- tualized by women of color and of the Third World, sometimes located in the
chand and Runyan (2000) and Hooper (2000) seems to be matched by the Two-Thirds World, sometimes in the One-Third. So the borders here are not
implicit masculinization of the discourses of antiglobalization movements. really fixed. Our minds must be as ready to move as capital is, to trace its paths
While much of the literature on antiglobalization movements marks the cen- and to imagine alternative destinations.
trality of class and race and, at times, nation in the critique and fight against
global capitalism, racialized gender is still an unmarked category. Racialized
gender is significant in this instance because capitalism utilizes the raced and
sexed bodies of women in its search for profit globally, and, as I argued earlier,
it is often the experiences and struggles of poor women of color that allow
the most inclusive analysis as well as politics in antiglobalization struggles.
On the other hand, many of the democratic practices and process-oriented
aspects of feminism appear to be institutionalized into the decision-making
processes of some of these movements. Thus the principles of nonhierarchy,
democratic participation, and the notion of the personal being political all
emerge in various ways in this antiglobal politics. Making gender and femi-
nist agendas and projects explicit in such antiglobalization movements thus
is a way of tracing a more accurate genealogy, as well as providing potentially
more fertile ground for organizing. And of course, to articulate feminism
within the framework of antiglobalization work is also to begin to challenge
the unstated masculinism of this work. The critique and resistance to global
capitalism, and uncovering of the naturalization of its masculinist and racist
values, begin to build a transnational feminist practice.
A transnational feminist practice depends on building feminist solidari-
ties across the divisions of place, identity, class, work, belief, and so on. In
these very fragmented times it is both very difficult to build these alliances
and also never more important to do so. Global capitalism both destroys the
possibilities and also offers up new ones.
Feminist activist teachers must struggle with themselves and each other to
open the world with all its complexity to their students. Given the new multi-
ethnic racial student bodies, teachers must also learn from their students. The
differences and borders of each of our identities connect us to each other,

250 Feminism without Borders 251 "Under Western Eyes" Revisited

 NOTES

Introduction
1 I find the vision embodied in the old left notion of internationalism inspiring,
and although I critique the use of the category "international" in social science
discourse, preferring to use the term "transnational," I very much aspire to an
internationalist vision of feminist commitments and struggle. For an important
analysis of internationalism and solidarity, see Waterman 1998.
2 I refer to antiracist feminism rather than simply feminism, since in the context in
which I write, racializing feminism is a political and epistemological act of great
significance. Much of my early work has focused on racializing feminism. Anti-
racist feminism is simply a feminist perspective that encodes race and opposition
to racism as central to its definition.
3 I find Zillah Eisenstein's use of Third World/South, and First World/North in Global
Obscenities (1998b) very useful and choose to use those terms in a similar way.
4 While my vision of feminist transformation is not that different from a number
of the feminist collectivities and organizations I draw inspiration from (such as
Women Against Fundamentalism in the United Kingdom, DAWN, seww, WING
WM, Women's Eyes on the Bank, and the Center for Third World Organizing
[crwo) in the United States, among others), the two theoretical and pedagogical
paradigms I choose to highlight and explore in this book are decolonization and
anticapitalist critique. Interestingly enough, neither colonization/decolonization
or capitalism/anticapitalist critique (nor, for that matter, solidarity) appear as
entries in the recent Encyclopedia of Feminist Theories (Code z000), suggesting that
these concepts have been less than central to envisioning feminist transformation
in the First World/North.
5 See Barrett and McIntosh 1982, Barrett 1991, Mies 1986, Eisenstein 1978.
6 Joseph and Lewis 1981, Moraga and Anzaldtía 1981.
7 See Vance 1984.
8 Harding 1986, Harding and Hintikka 1983, Hartsock 1983, Jayawardena 1986,
Jayawardena 1995, Letelier 1985, Mernissi 1992, Pala 1995 and 1976.
9 For the works of these feminist thinkers, see the bibliography.
10 Iam thinking here of the appearance of such feminist gurus as Camile Paglia,
Naomi Wolf, and Katie Roiphe on the U.S. media's favorite talk shows.
11 See the essays in Moya and Hames-Garcia 2000, for a useful, cogent theoretical
 and political alternative to essentialist and postmodernist formulations of iden- ters in part i have been previously published in the same or somewhat different
tity. form. See Mohanty 1984, Mohanty 1991, Martin and Mohanty 1986, and Mohanty
12 For instance, Fanon writes eloquently (in a clearly masculine language) about 1987. Chapters 6 and 8 are substantially revised from their earlier publication —
dreams of liberation: "The first thing which a native learns is to stay in his place, see Mohanty 1989-90 and Mohanty 1997.
and not go beyond certain limits. This is why the dreams of the native are always
of muscular prowess; his dreams are of action, and of aggression. I dream Iam Chapter One. Under Western Eyes: Feminist Scholarship and Colonial Discourses
jumping, swimming, running, climbing; I dream that I burst out laughing, that t Terms such as "Third World" and "First World" are very problematic, both in sug-
I span a river in one stride, or that Iam followed by a flood of motor-cars which gesting oversimplified similarities between and among countries labeled thus and
never catch up with me" (1996, 40). The point is not that women do not orcannot in implicitly reinforcing existing economic, cultural, and ideological hierarchies
dream of "muscular prowess" but rather that in the context of colonial practices thatare conjured up in using such terminology. I use the term "Third World" with
of the emasculation of native men, muscular prowess gains a particularly mascu- full awareness of its problems, only because this is the terminology available to
line psychic weight. us at the moment. Throughout this book, then, I use the term critically.
13 See Alexander and Mohanty 1997, esp. xxxvi—xlii. For interesting and provocative 2 lam indebted to Teresa de Lauretis for this particular formulation of the project of
discussions about anticapitalism, see Socialist Review 2001. feminist theorizing. See especially her introduction to her book Alice Doesn't (1984).
14 In discussing the centrality of decolonization to envisioning feminist democracy 3 This argument is similar to Homi Bhabha's definition of colonial discourse as stra-
we argued thus: "In fact, feminist thinking, here, draws on and endorses socialist tegically creating a space for a subject people through the production of knowl-
principles of collectivized relations of production and organization. It attempts edge and the exercise of power: " (C)olonial discourse is an apparatus of power, an
to reenvision socialism as a part of feminist democracy with decolonization at apparatus that turns on the recognition and disavowal of racial/cultural/historical
its center. However, while feminist collectives struggle against hegemonic power differences. Its predominant strategic function is the creation of a space fora sub-
structures at various levels, they are also marked by these very structures—it is ject people through the production of knowledge in terms of which surveillance
these traces of the hegemonic which the practice of decolonization addresses" is exercised and a complex form of pleasureiunpleasure is incited. It (i.e., colonial
(Alexander and Mohanty 1997, xxxvi). We went on to analyze Gloria Wekker's discourse) seeks authorization for its strategies by the production of knowledge
essay on Afro-Suninamese women's critical agency to illustrate an important as- by coloniser and colonised which are stereotypical but antithetically evaluated"
pect of decolonization: "Wekker . . . explores what appears to be a different con- (Bhabha 1983, 23).
figuration of self, anchored in an 'alternative vision of female subjectivity and 4 A number of documents and reports on the U.N. International Conferences on
sexuality, based on West African principles' (Wekker, 339). Her analysis of Mati Women in Mexico City (1975) and Copenhagen (1980), as well as the 1976 Welles-
work in terms of alternative female relationships, ones that have simultaneous ley Conference on Women and Development, attest to this. El Saadawi, Mernissi,
affectional, cultural, economic, social, spiritual, and obligational components, and Vajarathon (1978) characterize the Mexico City conference as "American-
suggests a decolonized oppositional script for feminist struggle and for prac- planned and organized," situating Third World participants as passive audiences.
tices of governance. Decolonization involves both engagement with the everyday They focus especially on Western women's lack of self-consciousness about their
issues in our own lives so that we can make sense of the world in relation to hege- implication in the effects of imperialism and racism, a lack revealed in their as-
monic power, and engagement with collectivities that are premised on ideas of sumption of an "international sisterhood." Euro-American feminism that seeks
autonomy and self-determination, in other words, democratic practice. For the to establish itself as the only legitimate feminism has been characterized as "im-
Creole working-class women Wekker speaks about, this is precisely the process perial" by Amos and Parmar (1984, 3).
engaged in. It creates what she calls a 'psychic economy of female subjectivity, 5 The Zed Press Women in the Third World series is unique in its conception. I
(which) . . . induces working-class women to act individually and collectively in focus on it because it is the only contemporary series I have found that assumes
ways that counteract the assault of the hegemonic knowledge regime, which privi- that women in the Third World are a legitimate and separate subject of study and
leges men, the heterosexual contract, inequality and a generally unjust situation.' research. Since 1985, when I wrote the bulk of this book, numerous new titles
Here, the investment in the self (what Wekker calls "multiple self") is not neces- have appeared in the series. Thus Zed Press has come to occupy a rather privi-
sarily an investment in mobility upward or in the maintenance of a masculinist, leged position in the dissemination and construction of discourses by and about
heterosexist, middle-class status quo" (Alexander and Mohanty 1997, XXXVii). Third World women. A number of the books in this series are excellent, especially
15 For interesting and provocative discussions about anti-capitalism, see the spe- those that deal directly with women's resistance struggles. In addition, Zed Press
cial issue "Anticapitalism" of the journal Socialist Review, 28:3, 2001. All chap- consistently publishes progressive feminist, antiracist, and anti-imperialist texts.

255 Notes
 T-

However, a number of the texts written by feminist sociologists, anthropologists, 12 Zed Press published the following books: Jeffery 1979, Latin American and Carib-
and journalists are symptomatic of the kind of Western feminist work on women bean Women's Collective 1980, Omvedt 198o, Minces 1980, Siu r981, Bendt and
in the Third World that concerns me. An analysis of a few of these works can serve Downing 1982, Cutrufelli 1983, Mies 1982, and Davis 1983.
13 For succinct discussions of Western radical and liberal feminisms, see Z. Eisen-
as a representative point of entry into the discourse I am attempting to locate
and define. My focus on these texts is therefore an attempt at an internal critique: stein 1981 and H. Eisenstein 1983.

I simply expect and demand more from this series. Needless to say, progressive 14 Amos and Parmar (1984) describe the cultural stereotypes present in Euro-
publishing houses also carry their own authorizing signatures. American feminist thought: "The image is of the passive Asian woman subject
6 I have discussed this particular point in detail in a critique of Robin Morgan's con-
to oppressive practices within the Asian family with an emphasis on wanting to
struction of "women's herstory" in her introduction to Sisterhood Is Global (1984); 'help' Asian women liberate themselves from their role. Or there is the strong,
dominant Afro-Caribbean woman, who despite her 'strength' is exploited by the
(see Mohanty 1987, esp. 35-37)•
'sexism' which is seen as being a strong feature in relationships between Afro-
7 Another example of this kind of analysis is Mary Daly's Gyn/Ecology (1978). Daly's
Caribbean men and women" (9). These images illustrate the extent to which pater-
assumption in this text, that women as a group are sexually victimized, leads to
nalism is an essential element of feminist thinking that incorporates the above
her very problematic comparison of attitudes toward women witches and healers
stereotypes, a paternalism that can lead to the definition of priorities for women
in the West, Chinese foot-binding, and the genital mutilation of women in Africa.
of color by Euro-American feminists.
According to Daly, women in Europe. China, and Africa constitute a homoge-
15 !discuss the question of theorizing experience in Mohanty 1987 and Mohanty and
neous group as victims of male power. Not only does this labeling (of women as
Martin 1986.
sexual victims) eradicate the specific historical and material realities and contra-
16 This is one of Foucault's (1978.1980) central points in his reconceptualization of
dictions that lead to and perpetuate practices such as witch hunting and genital
the strategies and workings of power networks.
mutilation, but it also obliterates the differences, complexities, and heterogene-
17 For an argument that demands a new conception of humanism in work on Third
ities of the lives of, for example, women of different classes, religions, and nations
World women, see Lazreg 1988. While Lazreg's position might appear to be dia-
in Africa. As Audre Lorde (1984) has pointed out, women in Africa share a long
metrically opposed to mine. I see it as a provocative and potentially positive ex-
tradition of healers and goddesses that perhaps binds them together more ap-
tension of some of the implications that follow from my arguments. In criticiz-
propriately than their victim status. However, both Daly and Lorde fall prey te
ing the feminist rejection of humanism in the name of "essential Man," Lazreg
universalistic assumptions about "African women" (both negative and positive).
points to what she calls an "essentialism of difference" within these very femi-
What matters is the complex, historical range of power differences, commonali-
nist projects. She asks:"To what extent can Western feminism dispense with an
ties, and resistances that exist among women in Africa and that construct African
ethics of responsibility when writing about different women? The point is neither
women as subjects of their own politics.
to subsume other women under one's own experience nor to uphold a separate
8 See Eldhom, Harris, and Young 1977 for a good discussion of the necessity to
truth for them. Rather, it is to allow them to be while recognizing that what they
theorize male violence within specific societal frameworks, rather than assume it
are is just as meaningful, valid, and comprehensible as what we are... . Indeed,
as a universal.
when feminists essentially deny other women the humanity they claim for them-
9 These views can also be found in differing degrees in collections such as Welles-
selves, they dispense with any ethical constraint. They engage in the act of splitting
ley Editorial Committee 1977 and Signs 1981. For an excellent introduction to
the social universe into us and them, subject and objects" (99-zoo). This essay
w I D issues, see Isis 1984. Fora politically focused discussion of feminism and
by Lazreg and an essay by Satya P. Mohanty (1989b) suggest positive directions
development and the stakes for poor Third World women, see Sen and Grown
1987. for self-conscious cross-cultural analyses, analyses that move beyond the decon-
io See essays by Vanessa Maher, Diane Elson and Ruth Pearson, and Maila Steven structive to a fundamentally productive mode in designating overlapping areas
in Young, Walkowitz, and McCullagh 1981; and essays by Vivian Mob and Michele forcross-cultural comparison. The latter essay calls not for a "humanism" but for
Mattelart in Nash and Safa 1980. For examples of excellent, self-conscious work a reconsideration of the question of the "human" in a posthumanist context. It
by feminists writing about women in their own historical and geographical loca- argues that there is no necessary incompatibility between the deconstruction of
tions, see Lazreg 1988; Spivak's "A Literary Representation of the Subaltern: A Western humanism and such a positive elaboration of the human, and that such
Woman's Text from the 'I'hird World" (in Spivak 1987,241-68); and Mani 1987. an elaboration is essential if contemporary political-critical discourse is to avoid
22 Harris 1983. Other m RG reports include Deardon 1975 and Jahan and Cho 1980. the incoherencies and weaknesses of a relativist position.

256 Notes 257 Notes

 Chapter Two. Cartographies of Struggle: Third World Women non-Christian groups during the Spanish and Portuguese conquest of America
and the Politics of Feminism and colonization of Indians in the sixteenth century, and later during the British
The epigraph to this chapter is from an unpublished poem by Audre Lorde, quoted and British-American institution of slavery in North America (Popkin 1974). The
in her commencement address to Oberlin College, 29 May 1989. first theory explains the "naturally inferior" state of Indians and Africans as the
2 Anderson 1983, esp. 11-16. result of a degenerative process caused by climate or environmental conditions,
3 See Scott 1986 and essays in Signs 1989. isolation from the "civilized" Christian world, or biblical "divine action." The sec-
4 1argue this point in detail in chapter 4. ond, the polygenetic theory, attributes the inferiority of nonwhite peoples to the
5 See, for instance, Chela Sandoval's work on the construction of the category fact that they were pre-Adamite peoples who were the result of a separate and un-
"Women of Color" in the United States and her theorization of oppositional con- equal creation. Thus, while the degeneracy theory identifies "common origins"
sciousness (Sandoval 1983,1991, and woo). Norma Alarcon offers an important and posits that people of color can ostensibly "rise" to the level of Europeans by
conceptualization of Third World women as subjects in her essay "The Theoreti- acquiring the "civilization" of white peoples (a version of contemporary cultural
cal Subject(s) ofThis Bridge Called My Back and Anglo-American Feminism," in Cal- liberalism), pre-Adamite polygenetic theory is the precursor of the nineteenth-
deron and Saldivar 1990. See also Moraga and Anzaldúa 198i, Trinh 1989, hooks century "scientific" justification of racism and of slavery in America and apartheid
1984, and Anzaldúa 1987 for similar conceptualizations. in South Africa.
6 Grewal, Kay, Landor, Lewis, and Parmar 1988, i; see also Bryan et al. 1985, Bhabha 12 See essays in Reiter 1975 and in Etienne and Leacock 1980.
et al. 1985, and Feminist Review 1984. Contemporary discussions of Black British 13 See my review (with Satya Mohanty) of Sangari and Vaid 1989, which develops
feminism can be found in Mirza 1997. an analysis of gender and colonizer-colonized relations (Mohanty and Mohanty
7 Moraga and Anzaldúa 1981. 1990, 19-21). For analyses of the emergence of women's struggles in the con-
8 My use of Hurtados analysis is not meant to suggest that the state does not inter- text of national liberation in India, see also Liddle and loshi 1986. Omvedt 1980,
vene in the "private" sphere of the white middle and upper classes; merely that and Kishwar and Vanita 1984. An excellent recent book by the members of Stree
historically, people of color and white people have a differential (and hierarchical) Shakti Sanghatana (Kannabiran 1990) documents women's participation in "de-
relation to state rule. mocratizing" movements, specifically the armed peasant struggle in Telangana.
9 A number of white feminists have provided valuable analyses of the construc- For documentation of the emergence of women's organized resistance in other
tion of "whiteness" in relation to questions of gender, class, and sexuality within Third World countries, see Davis 1983 and 1987, layawardena 1986, and the Latin
feminist scholarship. See especially Biddy Martin's work on lesbian autobiogra- American and Caribbean Women's Collective 1977 and Basu 1995. Essays by Gil-
phy (1988); and Spelman 1989, King 1990, and Frankenberg 1993 and 1997 on liam, Tohidi, and Johnson-Odim in Mohanty, Russo, and Torres 1991 also incor-
the social construction of whiteness. For an impressive history of feminism, see porate additional references to this aspect of feminist organization.
Freedman 2002. 14 The two preceding paragraphs are adapted from our review, Mohanty and
10 See S. P. Mohanty's discussion of this (1989a, 21-40). Mohanty 1990.
12 Perhaps a brief intellectual history of "race" as an organizing social construct 15 Connell 1987, esp. 125-32; and Connell 1989. Fora radical feminist analysis of the
would be useful here. Consciousness of race and racism is a specifically modern state, see Catharine MacKinnon 1989: see also Sylvia Walby 1985; Burton 1985;
phenomenon, arising with post-fifteenth-century territorial colonialism. Inter- Ferguson 1984; Charlton. Everett. and Staudt 1989; Anthias and Yuval-Davis iggo.
pretation and classification of racial differences was a precondition for European See also chapters 7 and 9 for discussions of state and citizenship.
colonialism: human beings (Europeans) had to be differentiated from "natives" 16 Omi and Winant 1986. See also Winant 1990. For similar discussion of racial for-
to allow for the colonizing practices of slavery and indentured labor, the denial mation in the British context. see Gilroy u)87..
of political rights, the expropriation of property, and, of course, the outright ex- 17 This discussion of .-ki,am .=.,=&"-:=Kon to die United States is based in pan on
termination of the colonized. For racism to be fully operational, "race" had to Asian Women United of California r9239_
function as a naturalized concept, devoid of all social, economic, and political de- 18 See Eisenstein 1988a, esp. ch. 4, for a discussion of the pluralist nature of the
terminations. Race had to be formulated in terms of innate characteristics, skin U.S. state.
color and physical attributes, and/or in terms of climatic or environmental vari- 19 Women, Immigration and Nationality Group 1985. -Black" in the British context
ables. Richard Popkin identifies the philosophical roots of modern racism in two often includes people of African, Asian, Carribean, and other Third World origins.
theories developed to justify Christian European superiority over nonwhite and 20 Sivanandan 1981; see also Sivanandan 1990.

258 Notes 259 Notes

21 See especially essays in Nash and Fernandez-Kelly 1983; see also Fernandez-Kelly
tive and poststructuralist analytic strategies for feminist intellectual and political
1983, Leacock and Safa 1986, Sassen 1988, Beneria and Stimpson 1987, and Mar-
projects, see in particular the work of de Lauretis 1984 and Jardine 1985.
chand and Runyan 2000.
4 This notion of a female "true self" underlying a male-imposed "false conscious-
22 1 develop this argument in detail in chapter 6.
ness" is evident in the work of cultural feminists such as Daly (1978) and Brown-
23 Spivak's work also addresses similar questions. See especially Spivak 1987.
miller (1978 and 1981).
24 Fora comprehensive analysis of these questions, see Moore 1988. Two particularly
s For analyses and critiques of tendencies to romanticize lesbianism, see essays
influential (self-critical) texts that develop the notion of the politics of interpre-
by Carole Vance, Alice Echols, and Gayle Rubin in Vance 1984, on the "cultural
tation and representation in the constitution of anthropology as a discipline are
feminism" of such writers as Griffin, Rich, Daly, and Gearheart.
Marcus and Fischer 1986 and Clifford and Marcus 1986. Fora feminist critique of
6 Feminist theorists such as Chodorow (1978), Gilligan (1983), and Rich (1976)
these texts and their premises, see Mascia-Less et al. 1989. have focused exclusively on the psychosocial configuration of mother/daughter
25 Doris Sommer makes this point in her excellent essay in Brodzki and Schenck relationships. Jessica Benjamin (1986) points to the problem of not theorizing
2988. My discussion of testimonies draws on Sommer's analysis. Fora theoretical "the father" in feminist psychoanalytic work, emphasizing the significance of the
extension of these issues, see Stone-Mediatore. father in the construction of sexuality within the family.
26 Sistren with Ford-Smith 1987. Another text that raises similar questions of iden- 7 See critiques of Brownmiller (1978) by Davis (1983), hooks 0980, and Hall (1984).
tity, consciousness, and history is Menchu 1984. 8 For a discussion of the relevance of Foucault's reconceptualization of power to
27 For texts that document the trajectory of Third World women's consciousness feminist theorizing, see Martin 1982.
and politics, see also the recent publications of the following feminist publishers: 9 One good example of the numerous narratives of political awakening in feminist
Firebrand Press, Crossing Press, Spinsters/Aunt Lute, Zed Press, South End Press, work is the transformation of the stripper in the film Not a Love Story (directed by
Women's Press, and Sheba Feminist Publishers. Bonnie Klein, 1982) from exploited sex worker to enlightened feminist. Where
this individual's linear and unproblematic development is taken to be emblem-
Chapter Three. What's Home Got to Do with It? atic of problems in and feminist solutions to pornography, the complexities of
See, for example, Reagon 1984 and Smith's introduction, both in Smith 1983; and the issues involved are circumvented and class differences are erased.
Moraga 1984. 10 Fora historical account of the situation of lesbians and attitudes toward lesbian-
2 Of course, feminist intellectuals have read various antihumanist strategies as ism in Now, see Abbot and Love 1972.
taking a similar line about the turn of the last century and the future of this one. In 11 Forwritings that address the construction of colonial discourse, see Bhabha 1983,
her contribution to a Yale French Studies special issue on French feminism, Alice Jar- 18-26; Fanon 1970; Memmi 1965; C. T. Mohanty 1985; Said 1979; and Spivak 1982.
dine argues against an "American" feminist tendency to establish and maintain 12 See especially the introduction in de Lauretis 1984.
an illusory unity based on incorporation, a unity and centrism that relegate dif- 13 For an excellent discussion of the effects of conscious and unconscious pursuits
ferences to the margins or out of sight. "Feminism," she writes, "must not open ofsafety, see Vance's introduction to Pleasure and Danger (1984), in which she elabo-
the door to modernity then close it behind itself." In her Foucauldian critique rates upon the obstacles to theorizing embedded in such pursuits.
of American feminist/humanist empiricism, Peggy Kamuf warns against the as-
sumption that she sees guiding much feminist thought, "an unshaken faith in the Chapter Four. Sisterhood, Coalition, and the Politics of Experience
ultimate arrival at essential truth through the empirical method of accumulation I am indebted to Rich's essay "Notes toward a Politics of Location" (1984) for
of knowledge, knowledge about women" (Kamuf 1982, 45). She goes on to spell the notion of the politics of location (Rich 1986, 210-31). In a number of essays
out the problem of humanism in a new guise: "There is an implicit assumption in her collection, Rich writes eloquently and provocatively about the politics of
in such programs that this knowledge about women can be produced in and of her own location as a white, Jewish, lesbian-feminist in North America. See espe-
itself, without seeking any support within those very structures of power that—
cially "North American Tunnel Vision" (1983) and "Blood, Bread, and Poetry: The
or so it is implied—have prevented knowledge of the feminine in the past. Yet
Location of the Poet" (1984) in Rich 1986. While I attempt to modify and extend
what is it about those structures that could have succeeded until now in excluding
Rich's notion, I share her sense of urgency as she asks feminists to reexamine the
such knowledge if it is not a similar appeal to a 'we' that has had a similar faith
politics of location in North America: "Wn mainstream North American cultural
in its own eventual constitution as a delimited and totalizable object?" (Kamuf
chauvinism, the sometimes unconscious belief that white North Americans pos-
1982,45)
sess a superior right to judge, select, and ransack other cultures, that we are more
3 For incisive and insistent analyses of the uses and limitations of deconstruc-
'advanced' than other peoples of this hemisphere. . . . It was not enough to say
260 Notes
261 Notes
 'As a woman I have no country; as a woman my country is the whole world. Mag- tions of essays I cctddiTsEoae wick tnise familesTitarestaggalasdillie
nificent as that vision may be, we can't explode into breadth without a consciou other with Jacqui Alexander :9•071.
grasp on the particular and concrete meaning of our location here and now, ii, s See Morgan. -Planetary Feminism1kit asks af the ant Cesawr Dissipa
the United States of America" (162). 1984, 1-37) and the section entitled -Prefattoryntseawdllillettiocialote WNW
2 1 address in some depth one version of this, the management of race and cultural 1984. xiii-xxiii). See also Reagon 1983.
pluralism in the U.S. academy in chapter 8. s Linda Gordon discusses this relation of female to feminist in 'What's New in
3 Two essays develop the point I am trying to suggest here. Jenny Bourne (1987) Women's History" (Gordon 1986).
identifies the problems with most forms of contemporary identity politics, which 7 The title to this section is from Rich 1986, 212.
equalize notions of oppression, thereby writing out of the picture any analysis of 3 In chapter il attempt a detailed analysis of some recent Western feminist social
structural exploitation or domination. In a similar vein, Sava P. Mohanty use science texts about the Third World. Focusing on works that have appeared in
the opposition between "History" and "histories" to criticize an implicit assump- an influential series published by Zed Press of London. I examine this discursive
tion in contemporary cultural theory that pluralism is an adequate substitute fo: construction of women in the Third World and the resultant Western feminist
political analyses of dependent relationships and larger historical configuration self-representations.
For Satya Mohanty (1989a), the ultimate target is cultural and historical relativism, 9 Fora similar analysis in the context of feminist and antiracist pedagogy. see chap-
which he identifies as the unexamined philosophical "dogma" underlying politi- ters 8 and 9.
cal celebrations of pure difference. This is how he characterizes the initial issues to See chapter 5 for an analysis of my own political choices and their potential con-
involved: "Plurality [is] thus a political ideal as much as it [is] a methodological sequences.
slogan. But. .. a nagging question [remains]: How do we negotiate between my For an analysis that develops the basis for claiming "common interests" and a
history and yours? How would it be possible for us to recover our commonality, common context of struggle see chapter 6.
not the humanist myth of our shared human attributes which are meant to distin- it I develop this argument in some detail in the context of pedagogies of globaliza-
guish us all from animals, but more significantly, the imbrication of our variou tion in chapter 9.
pasts and presents, the ineluctable relationships of shared and contested mean- 13 The quotation in the title to this section is from Reagon 1983, 359.

ings, values, material resources? It is necessary to assert our dense particularities. 14 See chapter 3 and chapter 6.
our lived and imagined differences. But could we afford to leave unexamined the 15 Fora rich and informative account of contemporary racial politics in the United
question of how our differences are intertwined and indeed hierarchically orga- States, see Omi and Winant 1986. Surprisingly, this text erases gender and gay
nized? Could we, in other words, really afford to have entirely different histories, to politics altogether, leading me to wonder how we can talk about the "racial state"
see ourselves as living—and having lived — in entirely heterogeneous and discrete without addressing questions of gender and sexual politics. A good companion
spaces" (Mohanty 1989b, 13). text that emphasizes such questions is Moraga and Anzaldúa (1981). Anzaldúa
4 For instance, some of the questions that arise in feminist analyses and politics and (199o) continues some of the discussions begun in This Bridge Called My Back.
that are situated at the juncture of studies of race, colonialism, and Third World 16 See Basu, introduction to Basu 1995, 1-21.
political economy pertain to the systemic production, constitution, operation,
and reproduction of the institutional manifestations of power. How does power Chapter Five. Genealogies of Community, Home, and Nation
operate in the constitution of gendered and racial subjects? How do we talk about I became a U.S. citizen in 1998, in order to adopt my daughter Uma Talpade
contemporary political praxis, collective consciousness, and collective struggle m Mohanty from Mumbai. Now I no longer hold an Indian passport. although of
the context of an analysis of power? Other questions concern the discursive codifi- course my deSig11211011 25 Nal (N012113161312 1111112111 re:aim the 52111C...
cations of sexual politics and the corresponding feminist political strategies these 2 An earlier version OEMs damn coda' Mai*Gawsloglat faaisit
codifications engender. why is sexual politics defined around particular issues? &aims as Beig Sala Adis bp kweisca!' was plaid IsIllimwas
One might examine the cultural and historical processes and conditions under SoakAaaspeletlitalitaige 43.4;.:71s,Mactm- .1P•iirt aallaammagrat
which sexuality is constructed during conditions of war. One might also ask under Iambi mg Gadmi. ars scaema r...nctaurni. rawcsiiik. why
what historical conditions sexuality is defined as sexual violence, and investigate faacdfriwispasiasumiwal uii.
the emergence of gay and lesbian sexual identities. The discursive organization pitatbeavrawilfilimediiwalic 4.116CE .-1/10t. r..csc_asonfiramiL
of these questions is significant because they help to chart and shape collective Atarassis ad pew= cursioNcit =alcur
resistance. Some of these questions are addressed by contributors in two collec-

262 Notes 263 Notes

 Chapter Six. Women Workers and the Politics of Solidarity ment possible. Without the analytic and political insights and analyses of scholars
a The epigraph to this chapter is taken from Hossfeld 1993b, 50-51. such as Aihwa Ong, Maria Patricia Fernandez-Kelly, Lourdes Beneria and Martha
2 See Dribble 1994. The Support Committee for Maquiladora Workers promotes Roldan, Maria Mies, Swasti Mitter, and Sallie Westwood, among others, my at-
cross-border organizing against corporate impunity. This San Diego-based vol- temptto understand and stitch together the lives and struggles ofwomen workers
unteer effort of unionists, community activists, and others assists workers in in different geographical spaces would be sharply limited. My essay builds on ar-
building autonomous organizations and facilitating ties between Mexican and guments offered by some of these scholars while attempting to move beyond par-
U.S. workers. The committee, which is coordinated by Mary Tong. also sees its ticular cases to an integrated analysis that is not the same as the world systems
task as educating U.S. citizens about the realities of life, work, and efforts for model. See especially Nash and Fernandez-Kelly 1983, Ward 1990, Review of Radical
change among maquiladora workers. For more information, write the Support Political Economics 1991, Bradley 1989, and Brydon and Chant 1989.
Committee at 3909 Centre Street, Suite 210, San Diego, CA 92103. 9 See Shohat and Stam 1994, esp. 25-27. In a discussion of the analytic and politi-
3 See chapter 2, p. 57 "Cartographies of Struggle," where I identify five provisional cal problems involved in using terms like "Third World," Shohat and Stam draw
historical, political, and discursive junctures for understanding Third World femi- attention to the adoption of "Third World" at the 1955 Bandung Conference of
nist politics: "decolonization and national liberation movements in the third "nonaligned" African and Asian nations, an adoption that was premised on the
world, the consolidation of white, liberal capitalist patriarchies in Euro-America, solidarity of these nations around the anticolonial struggles in Vietnam and Alge-
the operation of multinational capital within a global economy_ .. anthropology ria. This is the genealogy of the term that I choose to invoke here.
as an example of a discourse of dominance and self-reflexivity, (and) storytell- io My understanding and appreciation of the links among location, experience, and
ing or autobiography (the practice of writing) as a discourse of oppositional con- social identity in political and intellectual matters grow out of numerous discus-
sciousness and agency." The chapter treats one part of this project: the operation sions with Satya Mohanty. See especially Mohanty 1995,108-17. See also Moya's
of multinational capital and the location of poor Third World women workers. essay in Alexander and Mohanty 1997 for further discussion of these issues.
4 See the excellent analysis in Amott and Matthaei 1991, esp. 22-23. ii Sacks, introduction to Sacks and Remy 1984, esp. 10-11.

See Bagguley 1990. 12 For examples of cross-national feminist organizing around these issues, see the
6 Joan Smith (1994) has argued, in a similar vein, for the usefulness of a world sys- following: Sahgal and Davis 1992; Moghadam 1994; Institute for Women, Law and
tem theory approach (seeing the various economic and social hierarchies and na- Development 1993; Rowbotham and Mitter 1994; and Peters and Wolper 1995.
tional divisions around the globe as part of a singular systematic division of labor, 13 Aihwa Ong's discussion (1987) of the various modes of surveillance of young
with multiple parts, rather than as plural and autonomous national systems) that Malaysian factory women as a way of discursively producing and constructing
incorporates the notion of the "household" as integral to understanding the pro- notions of feminine sexuality is also applicable in this context, where "single" and
foundly gendered character of this systemic division of labor. While her analysis "married" assume powerful connotations of sexual control.
is useful in historicizing and analyzing the idea of the household as the constella- 14 Hossfeld states that she spoke to workers from at least thirty Third World nations
tion of relationships that makes the transfer of wealth possible across age, gender, including Mexico, Vietnam, the Philippines, Korea, China, Cambodia, Laos, Thai-
class, and national lines, the ideologies of masculinity, femininity, and hetero- land, Malaysia, Indonesia, India, Pakistan, Iran, Ethiopia, Haiti, Cuba, El Salva-
sexuality that are internal to the concept of the household are left curiously intact dor, Nicaragua, Guatemala, and Venezuela, as well as southern Europe, especially
in her analysis — as are differences in understandings of the household—in differ- Portugal and Greece (1990, 49). It may be instructive to pause and reflect on
ent cultures. In addition, the impact of domesticating ideologies in the sphere of the implications of this level of racial and national diversity on the shop floor in
production, in constructions of "women's work," is also not addressed in Smith's the Silicon Valley. While all these workers are defined as "immigrants," a number
analysis. While I find this version of the world systems approach useful, my own of them as recent immigrants, the racial, ethnic, and gender logic of capitalist
analysis attempts a different series of connections and theorizations. strategies of recolonization in this situation locate all the workers in similar re-
7 The case studies I analyze are Mies (i982), Katz and Kemnitzer (1983), Katz and lationships to the management as well as to the state.
Kemnitzer (1984), and Hossfeld (199o). I also draw on a discussion of black 15 Assembly lines in the Silicon Valley are often divided among race, ethnic, and gen-
women workers in the British context in Westwood and Bhachu (1988). der lines, with workers competing against one another for greater productivity.
8 See my discussion of "relations of rule" in chapter 2. There has been an immense Individual worker choices, however imaginative or ambitious, do not transform
amount of excellent feminist scholarship on women and work and women and the system. Often they merely undercut the historically won benefits of the metro-
multinationals in the last decade. In fact, it is this scholarship that makes myargu- politan working class. Thus, while moonlighting, overtime, and job hopping are

264 Notes 265 Notes

 indications of individual modes of resistance, and of an overall strategy of class Slaughterand Currie analyze. (Information from Davis 1998.) 1 have used here the
mobility, it is these very aspects of worker's choices that support an underground language of the report ("minority" is not a designation I use).
domestic economy that evades or circumvents legal, institutionalized, or contrac- 4 Amy Goodman, interview with David Noble, "Democracy Now," National Public
tual arrangements that add to the indirect wages of workers. Radio, 24 July 2001. See also Chapter 6 in Noble zool.
16 Hossfeld 1990, 149: "You're paid less because women are different than men" or 5 This postscript is a revised version of my preface to Roman and Eyre (1997).
"Immigrants need less to get by."
17 The epigraph to this section is from Wesrwood and Bhachu (1988, 5 [introduc- Chapter Eight. Race, Multiculturalism, and Pedogogies of Dissent
tion]). See also, in the same collection, Phizacklea 1988, Bhachu 1988, Westwood See especially chapters t and 4. This chapter continues the discussion of the poli-
1988, and Josephides 1988. tics of location begun in chapter 4.
18 For a thorough discussion of the history and contemporary configurations of lam referring here to a particular trajectory of feminist scholarship in the r9705
homework in the United States, see Boris and Daniels 1989, especially the intro- and 1980s. While scholarship in the 19705 foregrounded gender as the funda-
duction, I-12; Fernandez-Kelly and Garcia 1989; and Allen 1989. mental category of analysis and thus enabled the transformation of numerous
19 See Rowbotham and Mitter, introduction to Rowbotham and Mitter 1994. disciplinary and canonical boundaries, on the basis of the recognition of sexual
difference as hierarchy and inequality, scholarship in the 198os introduced the
Chapter Seven. Privatized Citizenship, Corporate Academies, and Feminist Projects categories of race and sexuality in the form of internal challenges to the earlier
See especially, Thompson and Tyagi 1993, McCarty and Crichlow 1993, Giroux scholarship. These challenges were introduced on both political and method-
and McLaren 1994, Butler 2001, Mahalingham and McCarthy 2000, Roman and ological grounds by feminists who often considered themselves disenfranchised
Eyre 1997, and McLaren 1997. For an incisive critique of feminism and multicul- by the 19705 feminism: lesbian and heterosexual women of color, postcolonial,
turalism, see Volpe 2001. Third World women, poor women, and so on. While the feminist turn to post-
2 I began working on privatization because of the grassroots organizing and analy- modernism suggests the fragmentation of unitary assumptions of gender and
sis by the members of Grassroots Leadership of North Carolina, a group of com- enables a more differentiated analysis of inequality, this critique was prefigured
munity organizers I was privileged to work with for six years in the 199os. Much in the earlier political analyses of Third World feminists. The historical trajec-
of the analysis of privatization, and the urgency in fighting it, comes from the tory of the political and conceptual categories of feminist analysis can be traced
work of Grassroots Leadership, as well as the work of economists such as Pamela by analyzing developments in feminist journals such as Signs and Feminist Studies,
Sparr and Marlene Kim, labor studies scholars such as Frank Emspak and Laurie feminist publishing houses, and curriculum "integration" projects through the
Clemens, and organizers such as Si Kahn, and Rinku Sen. See Emspak 1997 and 19705,198os, and 1990s.
Starr 1987. 3 For instance, Bernard (1987) codifies difference as the exclusive relation of men
3 For instance, at the California State University at Dominguez Hills, the employ- to women, and women to women: difference as variation among women and as
ment statistics break down in this way: the majority of faculty at c s u DH are part- conflict between men and women.
time (408 compared to 289 full-time faculty). Of the full-time faculty and staff, 4 his clear from Lazreg's reliance on a notion like intersubjectivity that her under-
6o percent of the faculty and administrators are male (higher pay, with more job standing of the issue lam addressing in this essay is far from simple (Lazreg 1988).
security), and 40 percent female. Conversely, 6o percent of the staff are women Claiming a voice is for her, as well as for me, a complex historical and political act
and 40 percent male. Over 70 percent of the faculty and full-time administrators that involves understanding the interrelationships of voices. The term "intersub-
are white. On the other hand, almost 70 percent of sta ff are minority (lower pay, jectivity," however, drawing as it does on a phenomenological humanism, brings
less job security). With regard to part-time faculty, 73 percent are white, 27 percent with it difficult political programs. Fora nonhumanist, alternative account of the
are minority. Of these, 62 percent are female, 38 percent male. For part-time staff, question of "historical agencies" and their "imbrication," see Mohanty 1997, esp.
the numbers are almost equally divided among male/female and minority/non- the introduction and ch. 6. Mohanty discusses the question of agency and its
minority. Thus, the "core" group of workers with higher pay and benefits are pre- historical imbrication (rather than "intersubjectivity") as constituting the funda-
dominantly white and male— -the "peripheral" contract workers in this case are mental theoretical basis for comparison across cultures.
women of color and white women. While there have been clear improvements in 5 In spite of problems of definition, I use the term "Third World," and, in this par-
the profile of faculty of color at csu Dui over the last few years, the overall pat- ticular context (the U.S. academy), I identify myself as a "Third World" scholar. I
terns of labor follow the restructuring of higher education that scholars such as use the term here to designate peoples from formerly colonized countries, as well
 as people of color in the United States. Using the designation "Third World" to io Information about the origins of black studies is drawn from Huggins (1985). For

identify' colonized peoples in the domestic as well as the international arena may provocative analyses and historic essays on black studies in the 196os and 19705,

appear reductive because it suggests a commonalityand perhaps even an equation see Rlassingame 1973.

among peoples with very diverse cultures and histories and appears to reinforce n Fordocumentation of this conference, see Robinson, Foster, and Ogilvie 1969.
n As a contrast, and for an interesting analysis of similar issues in the pedagogi-
implicitly existing economic and cultural hierarchies between the "First" and the
cal context of a white woman teaching multicultural women's studies, see Pas-
"Third" World. This is not my intention. I use the term with full awareness of
coe 1990.
these difficulties and because these are the terms available to us at the moment. In
13 Fora provocativeand productive critique of these binaries in feminist pedagogical
addition, in the particular discursive context of Western feminist scholarship and
theory see Sanchez-Casal and Macdonald, introduction to their edited collection
of the U.S. academy, "Third World" is an oppositional designation that can be em-
(son). See also the discussion of feminist pedagogies in chapter 9.
powering even while it necessitates a continuous questioning. For an elaboration
14 lance has given me permission to use her words and to analyze her performance.
of these questions of definition, see chapters 2 and 9.
She was a student at Hamilton College for about three years, and she had great
6 See especially the work of Paulo Freire, Michael Apple, Basil Bernstein, Pierre
presence at the college as a black lesbian feminist and performance artist. Thus
Bourdieu, and Henry Giroux. While a number of these educational theorists offer
herwork had the kind ofeffect that someone less visible may not command. For an
radical critiques of education on the basis of class hierarchies, very few do so on
important theorization of the significance of stories and storytelling, see Stone -
the basis of gender or race. However, the theoretical suggestions in this literature
Mediatore.
are provocative and can be used to advantage in feminist analysis. The special issue
15 See the American Council on Education 1988. See also articles on "America's
of Harvard Educational Review (1988) is also an excellent resource. See Freire 1973,
Changing Colors" in Time Magazine, 9 April 199o, especially Henry 1990 for statis-
Freire and Macedo 1985, Apple 1979, Bernstein 1975, Giroux 1983 and 1988, and
tics on changing demographics in U.S. economic and educational spheres.
Bourdieu and Passeron 1977. For feminist analyses of education and the academy,
it This discussion of the ideological assumptions of "prejudice reduction" is based
see Bunch and Pollack 1983, Minnich et al. 1988, Schuster and Van Dyne 1985,
on DeRosa 1987.
Cohee et al 1998, and Minnich 199o. See also back issues of the journals Women's
17 From a document prepared by the associate director of personnel and affirmative
Studies Quarterly, Women's Studies International Forum, Radical Teacher, and Frontiers: A
action officer at Oberlin College (Prindle 1988, 1).
_journal of Women's Studies.
is Hamilton College has followed a similar route in inviting the "prejudice reduc-
7I am fiilly aware that I am drawing on an extremely limited (and some might say
tion° workshops of the National Coalition Building Institute (Nc EH on tocam-
atypical) sample for this analysis. Clearly, in the bulk of American colleges and
pus, and in sponsoring the training of some faculty and staff members at the
universities, thevery introduction of questions of pluralism and difference is itself
college.
a radical and oppositional gesture. However, in the more liberal institutions of
19 This marginalization is evident in the financial cutbacks that such programs have
higher learning, questions of pluralism have had a particular institutional history,
experienced in recent years. The depoliticization is evident in, for instance, the
and I draw on the example of the college! taught at to investigate the implications
shift from "women's" to "gender" studies—by all measures, a controversial re-
of this specific institutionalization of discourses of pluralism. Iam concerned
constitution of feminist agendas.
with raising some political and intellectual questions that have urgent implica-
77 Gloria Watkins (bell hooks) and I attempted to do this at Oberlin College in a
tions for the discourses of race and racism in the academy, not with providing sta-
college-wide facultycolloquium called "Pedagogies of Gender, Race, and Empire"
tistically significant data on U.S. institutions of higher learning nor with claiming
"representativeness" for the liberal arts college I draw on to raise these questions. that focused on our practices in teaching and learning about Third World people

8 For analyses of the intersection of the race and sex agendas of the New Right. see in the academy. While the effects of this colloquium have yet to be thoroughly ex-

essays in the special double issue of Radical America (1981). I am indebted to Zil- amined, at the very least it created a public culture of dialogue and dissent where

lah Eisenstein for sharing her 1990 essay with me and for our discussions on this questions of race, gender, and identity were no longer totally dismissed as "po-

subject. litical" and thus extraneous to academic endeavor; nor were they automatically

9 Some of the most poignant and incisive critiques of the inscription of race and ghettoized in women's studies and black studies.These questions came to be seen

difference in scholarly institutional discourses have been raised by Third World (by a substantial segment of the faculty) as important, constitutive questions in

scholars working outside women's studies. See West 1987, Sivanandan 1985, and revising a Eurocentric liberal arts curriculum.
Mohanty 1989b.

268 Notes go Notes

,io
 Chapter Nine. "Under Western Eyes" Revisited: stricture against which Mohanty argues in 'Under Western Eyes' — a homoge-
Feminist Solidarity through Anticapitalist Struggles nized Third World and an equivalent First World—somehow remanifests itself in
This chapter in its present form owes much to many years of conversation and 'Cartographies of Struggle'" (Mohanram 1999, 91). Here I believe Radhika Mo-
collaboration with Zillah Eisenstein, Satya Mohanty, Jacqui Alexander, Lisa Lowe, han= conflates the call for specificity and particularity as working against the
Margo Okazawa-Rey, and Beverly Guy-Sheftall. Thanks also to Sue Kim for her mapping of systemic global inequalities. Her other critique of this essay is more
careful and critical reading of "Under Western Eyes." Zillah Eisenstein's friend- persuasive, and I take it up later.
ship has been crucial in my writing this chapter; she was the first person to suggest 7 See for instance the reprinting and discussion of my work in Nicholson and Seid-
I do so. man 1995, Phillips 1998, and Warhol and Herndal 1997; and Phillips 1998.
2 "Under Western Eyes" has enjoyed a remarkable life, being reprinted almost every s lhavewritten with Jacqui Alexander about some of the effects of hegemonic post-
year since 1986 when it first appeared in the left journal Boundary 2. The essay has modernism on feminist studies; see the introduction to Alexander and Mohanty
been translated into German, Dutch, Chinese, Russian, Italian, Swedish, French, 1997.
and Spanish. It has appeared in feminist, postcolonial, Third World, and cultural 9 To further clarify my position-1 am not against all postmodernist insights or
studies journals and anthologies and maintains a presence in women's studies, analytic strategies. 1 have found many postmodernist texts useful in my work.
cultural studies, anthropology, ethnic studies, political science, education and tend to usewhatever methodologies, theories, and insights I find illuminating in
sociology curricula. It has been widely cited, sometimes seriously engaged with, relation to the questions I want to examine—Marxist, postmodernist, postposi-
sometimes misread, and sometimes used as an enabling framework for cross- tivist realist, and so on. What 1want to do here, however, is take responsibility for
cultural feminist projects. makingexplicit some of the political choices I made at that time to identify
3 Thanks to Zillah Eisenstein for this distinction. the discursive hegemony of postmodernist thinking in the U.S. academy, which
4 Here is how I defined "Western feminist" then: "Clearly Western feminist dis- I believe forms the primary institutional context in which "Under Western Eyes"
course and political practice is neither singular or homogeneous in its goals, inter- is read.
ests, or analyses. However, it is possible to trace a coherence of effects resulting 10Dirlik, "The Local in the Global," in Dirlik 1997.
from the implicit assumption of 'the West' (in all its complexities and contradic- n Esteva and Prakash (1998, 16-17) define these categorizations thus: The "social
tions) as the primary referent in theory and praxis. My reference to 'Western femi- minorities" are those groups in both the North and the South that share homo-
nism' is by no means intended to imply that it is a monolith. Rather, lam attempt- geneous ways of modern (Western) life all over the world. Usually, they adopt as
ing to draw attention to the similar effects of various textual strategies used by theirown the basic paradigms of modernity. They are also usually classified as the
writers which codify Others as non-Western and hence themselves as (implicitly) upperclasses of every society and are immersed in economic society: the so-called
Western." I suggested then that while terms such as "First" and "Third World" formal sector. The "social majorities" have no regular access to most of the goods
were problematic in suggesting oversimplified similarities as well as flattening and services defining the average "standard of living" in the industrial countries.
internal differences, I continued to use them because this was the terminology Their definitions of "a good life," shaped by their local traditions, reflect their
available to us then. I used the terms with full knowledge of their limitations, capacities to flourish outside the "help" offered by "global forces." Implicitly or
suggesting a critical and heuristic rather than nonquestioning use of the terms. explicitly they neither "need" nor are dependent on the bundle of "goods" prom-
I come back to these terms later in this chapter. ised by these forces. They, therefore, share a common freedom in their rejection
My use of the categories "Western" and "Third World" feminist shows that these of "global forces."
are not embodied, geographically or spatially defined categories. Rather, they ii I am not saying that native feminists consider capitalism irrelevant to their
refer to political and analytic sites and methodologies used—just as a woman struggles (norwould Mohanram say this).The work of Winona La Duke, Haunani-
from the geographical Third World can be a Western feminist in orientation, a Kay Trask, and Anna Marie lames Guerrero offers very powerful critiques of capi-
European feminist can use a Third World feminist analytic perspective. talism and the effects of its structural violence in the lives of native communities.
o Rita Felski's analysis of the essay (Felski 1997) illustrates this. While she initially See Guerrero 1997; La Duke 1999; and Trask 1999.
reads the essay as skeptical of any large-scale social theory (against generaliza- :3 In fact, we now even have debates about the "future of women's studies" and the
tion), she then goes on to say that in another context, my "emphasis on particu- "impossibility of women's studies." See the Web site "The Future of Women's
larity is modified by a recognition of the value of systemic analyses of global dis- Studies," Women's Studies Program, University of Arizona, z000 at http://info-
parities" (1o). I think Felski's reading actually identifies a vagueness in my essay. centerccitarizona.edul-wsiconference; and Brown 1997.
It is this point that I hope to illuminate now. A similar reading claims, "The very 14 See, for instance, the work of Ella Shohat, Lisa Lowe, Aihwa Ong, Uma Narayan,

270 Notes 271 Notes

 Inderpal Grewal and Caren Kaplan. Chela Sandoval, Avtar Brah, Lila Abu-Lughod, using Ania Loomba's formulation here, but many progressive critics of postcolo-
Jacqui Alexander, Kamala Kempadoo, and Saskia Sassen. nial studies have made this basic point. It is an important distinction, and I think
15 See the works of Maria Mies, Cynthia Enloe, Zillah Eisenstein, Saskia Sassen, and it can be argued in the case of feminist thought and feminist studies (women's
Dorothy Smith (for instance, those listed in the bibliography) for similar meth- studies) as well.
odological approaches. An early, pioneering example of this perspective can be 27 While I know no other work that conceptualizes this pedagogical strategy in the
found in the "Black Feminist" statement by the Combahee River Collective in the ways lam doing here, my work is very similar to that of scholars like Ella Shohat,
early 198os. lacqui Alexander, Susan Sanchez-Casal, and Amie Macdonald.
16 See discussions of epistemic privilege in the essays by Mohanty, Moya, and Mac- 28 See especially the work of Satya Mohanty, Paula Moya, Linda Alcoff, and Shari
donald in Moya and Hames-Garcia 2000. Stone-Mediatore.
17 Examples of women of color in the fight against environmental racism can be 29 The epigraph to this section is taken from Eisenstein 1998b, 161. This book re-
found in the organization Mothers of East Los Angeles (see Pardo mot), the mains one of the smartest, most accessible, and complex analyses of the color,
magazine ColorLines, and Voces Unidas, the newsletter of the South West Organizing class, and gender of globalization.
project, Albuquerque, New Mexico. 30 The literature on gender and globalization is vast, and I do not pretend to review
18 See Shiva, Jafri, Bedi, and Holla-Bhar 1997. For a provocative argument about it in any comprehensive way. I draw on three particular texts to critically summa-
indigeneous knowledges, see Dei and Sefa 2000. rize what I consider to be the most useful and provocative analyses of this area:
19 In what follows I use the terms "global capitalism," "global restructuring," and Eisenstein 1998b; Marchand and Runyan 2000; and Basu et al. 2001.
"globalization" interchangeably to refer to a process of corporate global eco- 31 See essays in Kempadoo and Doezema 1998; and Puar 2001.
nomic, ideological, and cultural reorganization across the borders of nation- 32 For similar arguments, see also Bergeron 2001 and Freeman 200t.
states. 33 Discourses of globalization include the proglobalization narratives of neoliberal-
20 While the initial push for "internationalization" of the curriculum in U.S. higher ism and privatization, but they also include antiglobalization discourses produced
education came from the federal government's funding of area studies programs by progressives, feminists, and activists in the antiglobalization movement.
during the cold war, in the post-cold war period it is private foundations like the 34 There is also an emerging feminist scholarship that complicates these mono-
MacArthur, Rockefeller, and Ford foundations that have been instrumental in this lithic "globalized" representations of women. See Amy Lind's work on Ecuador-
endeavor —especially in relation to the women's studies curriculum. ian women's organizations (2000), Aili Marie Tripp's work on women's social
21 This work consists of participating in a number of reviews of women's studies networks in Tanzania (2002), and Kimberly Chang and L. H. M. Ling's (2000)
programs, reviewing essays, syllabi, and manuscripts on feminist pedagogy and and Aihwa Ong's work on global restructuring in the Asia Pacific regions (1987
curricula, and topical workshops and conversations with feminist scholars and and 1991).
teachers over the last ten years. 35 This description is drawn from Brecher, Costello, and Smith 2000. Much of my
22 Ella Shohat refers to this as the "sponge/additive" approach that extends U.S.. analysis of antiglobalization movements is based on this text, and on material
centered paradigms to "others" and produces a "homogeneous feminist master from magazines like ColorLines, Z Magazine, Monthly Review, and SWOP Newsletter.
narrative." See Shohat 2001, 1269-72.
23 For an incisive critique of cultural relativism and its epistemological underpin-
nings see Mohanty 1997, chapter 5.
24 It is also important to examine and be cautious about the latent nationalism of
race and ethnic studies and of women's and gay and lesbian studies in the United
States.
25 A new anthology contains some good examples of what I am referring to as a
feminist solidarity or comparative feminist studies model. See Lay, Monk, and
Rosenfelt 2002.
26 See Dirlik, "Borderlands Radicalism," in Dirlik igg4. See the distinction between
"postcolonial studies" and "postcolonial thought": while postcolonial thought
has much to say about questions of local and global economies, postcolonial
studies has not always taken these questions on board (Loomba 1998-99). I am

272 Notes 273 Notes

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University Press. Amnesty International, 229 consumer-citizens, 141, 173-74, 177-
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Market: Women's Subordination in International Perspective. London: CASE Books. Anthropology, 57, 74-76 naturalizations within, 6, 9, 141-42,
Anti-Semitism. See Race and racism 229-30, 250; and patriarchy, 4. See also
Anzaldúa, Gloria, 80-82 Corporatism; Globalization
Aotearoa/New Zealand, 227-28 Caste, 149-50, 158
Apartheid, 70 Cavanagh, John, 147
Arab and Muslim women, 28-29, 34 Chowdry, Prem, 62
Citizenship, 140-41, 175-76, 182-84. See
Barkley Brown, Elsa, 201-2 also Capitalism
Bemba population (Zambia), 26-27 Class: as class conflict, r43, 158; as class
Berman, Edward, 181 struggle, 142; formation of, 63-64. See
Bhabha, Homi, 255 n.3 also Caste; Labor
Bhachu, Parminder, 156, 158 Collectivity and collective action, 5-ro,
Biculturalism, 227-28 18, 80-83, 105, 122, 140, 144, 155,
Binaries, 2, 31, 38-39, 41, 57, 8o-81, 201-2, 204-7, 209, 213-16, 233, 254
224, 227 n.14. See also Unions
Boggs, Grace Lee, 235, 249 Colonialism and colonization, r, 7, 17.-
Borders, 1-2, IO, 121, 134, r71, 185-89, 19, 26-27, 30, 39-42, 45, 52-53,
223-24, 226, 234-38, 248, 250-51 58-64, 75, 110, 141-42, 147, 227,
Boume, Jenny, 262 11.3 229, 233, 241, 246; of histories, 125;
British empire, 59-64. See also Colo- various denotations of, 18. See also
Globalization; Imperialism

294 Bibliography
"Communities of resistance," 47. See also Etzkowitz, Henry, 172-73 nitions of, 172, 272 n.19; gender as Immigration and Naturalization Service
"Imagined communities" Eurocentrism, 4-5, 9, 40, 77, 222-30, central to, 234-38, 273 n.3o. Ste also (iNs), 130
Comparative feminist studies, 238, 239, 244. See also Ethnocentrism; Capitalism; Colonialism and coloni- Imperialism, 5, 20-21, 41, 49, 52, 58-
242-45. See also Pedagogy; Solidarity Feminism zation; Corporatism; Imperialism; 59, no-II, 121, 129, 236, 241. See
Connell, R. W., 64-66 European Economic Union (EEu), 18o, Labor also Colonialism and colonization;
Consciousness, 45, 56, 76-84, 91, 104, 187-89,229 Gramsci, Antonio, 117 Globalization
163 Everyday life, 4-5, 48, 52, 55-56, 73, 77- Grassroots movements, to, 136, 165, India, 62-64, 125, 130-36, 149-52, 164-
Corporatism, 6, 44, 71-74, 144, 147, 78, 81, 83, 104, 109, 162, 216, 225, 266n.2 66, 233; Narsapur region, 149-52,
173-77, 216, 221, 229, 232-34. Ste also 232, 236, 254 n.14 Gutmann, Amy, 174-75, 184; and demo- 223; religion in, 131-34; sex ratio in,
Capitalism; Globalization Experience: feminist theorizations of, cratic education, 174-75 133; women's labor movement in,
Cowie, Elizabeth, 27-28 108-14, 118-19, 200-3, 209, 216, 233, 164-66
Culture, discourses of, 20 238, 242, 248 Halcon, John J., 212-13 Internationalism, 253 n.1
Cutrufelli, Maria, 25-27, 30, 38 Hamilton College, 205-7, 269 n.18 International Monetary Fund (IMF), 133,
Fanon, Frantz, 61, 254 n.I2 Harlow, Barbara, 78-79 172, 177, 234, 248
Daily life. See Everyday life Feldman, Jonathan, 172 Hegemony, 52-53, 65, 183,185, 216, Internet, 172, 229
Daly, Mary, 256 n.7 Feminism: in the academy, 6, to; anti- 225, 229, 237, 241, 245-47. See also
Davis, Angela, 172, 246 racist, 2, 124; definitions of, 44-50, Power Jardine, Alice, 260 n.2
Dean, Jodi, 7 54-57; differences within, io6; guilt Heterosexism, 2-5, 8, 241. See also Lesbi- Jayawardena, Kumari, 51-52
Decolonization, 2, 5, 7-Io, 57, 71, 106, reactions within, 93; history of, 53- anism Jhabvala, Renana, 165-66
127, 200-7, 224, 237, 254 n.14; of the 55; and imperialism, 4; as politics, Higginbotham, Elizabeth, 65-66 Jonasdottir, Anna G., 161-62, 166
academy, 200, 204-7, 216-17. Ste also 3, to, 18-21, 37-42; in scholarship, Home, 85-86, 90-92, 98-105, 124-28, Jones, Gayl, 8o
Colonialism and colonization io, 18-33, 37-42, 192-94, 221- 134-36, 141-42, 240
De la Luz Reyes, Maria, 212-13 24, 237, 248, 267 n.2, 270 nn.4, 5; hooks, bell, 269 11.20 Kamuf, Peggy, 260 n.2
De Lauretis, Teresa, 103, to8-9 second wave of, 4, 45, 54-55; self- Hooper, Charlotte, 247, 250 Katz, Naomi, 152-56
Democracy, 4, to normativization of Western women, Hosken, Fran, 23-24, 30, 33-34 Kemnitzer, David, 152-56
Dent, Gina, 246 18, 21-22, 42, 89, 110, 193, 222; theo- Hossfeld, Karen, 152-57 King, Katie, to8-9
Development, 5, 23, 29-30, 144 retical frames for, 4, 113; and Third Humanism, Western discourse of, 19, Kinship structures, 26-28
Difference: as object of discourse, 193- World women, 5, 8, 17, 44-47, 53-57, 41-42, 224
94,224-26,229,244 66, 72, 80, 83-84, 87, 128-29, 229; as Hurtado, Aida, 51, 54 Labor: common interests of, 161-66; in
Dirlik, Arif, 226, 235, 244 Western hegemonic discourse, 17, 21, Huston, Perdita, 30-31 family businesses, 157-60; as home
Division of labor, 34-36, 61, 64-65, 141, 37-42, 222-24, 237, 270 n.4 work, 74, 149-6o, 164-65; by mi-
144, 146 Feminist osmosis thesis, log, 112 Identity, 5-6, 8. 19, 77-84, 90-91, 93- grant women, 156-6o; and Third
Du Bois, W. E. B., 187 Fertility, 48 105, u8, 142-45, 151, 160-63, 225, World women, 71-74, 139-68, 245-
Ford, Yance, 205-7, 269 n.14 238, 245, 250-51; of nations, 52; 46. See also Capitalism; Corporatism;
Economic reductionism, 28-29 Ford-Smith, Honor, 79-80, 82 negations as basis for, 90-91, 95, Globalization; Unions
Eisenstein, Zillah, 85, 172, 214-15, 235, Foucault, Michel, 38, 41, 104, 225 100-2; as politics, 107, 118, 120 Lazreg, Manna, 29, 192, 194, 257 n.17;
245 Free trade zones (rrz), 163-64 "Imagined communities," 46-47. See also and intersubjectivity, 192, 194
Environmental racism, 232, 235, 248, "Communities of resistance" Lesbianism, 4, 68, 86, 93, 100-2, to8-9
272 n.17 Genital mutilation, 24 Immigration, 5, 57, 66-71, 121-23, 126- Lévi-Strauss, Claude, 26
Essentialism, 6, 46, 90-91, 97, 107 Giroux, Henry, 184 30, 136, 152-56, 189, 246; British Lindsay, Beverly, 24-25
Esteva, Gustavo, 227 Globalization, 45, 124, 147, 171-73, 175- immigration laws, 69-70; U.S. Exclu- Loomba, Ana, 272 n.26
Ethnocentrism, 21, 40-41, 119. See also 78, 183-89, 230-51; antiglobalization sion acts against Asians, 68-69. See Lorde, Audre, 43, 256 n.7
Eurocentrism initiatives, 230, 232, 235-50; defi- also Labor Lugones, Maria, 93

296 Index 297 Index

Marchand, Nancy, 247, 250 One Third/Two Thirds World, 226-27, Public/private distinction, 51, 63, 71, 142, 251; definition of, 7; sisterhood,
Marriage contract, 26-27 243. See also Third World/South 145 contrasted to, 7, 24, 36, 1I0-II, 193.
Marxism(s), 4, 18, 22, 231, 271 n.9 Ong, Aihwa, 72-73 Purdah, 29, 32-34, 150. See also India See also Sisterhood; Unions
Materialism, historical, 223, 229, 231- Organizing, political, 4, 18, 24, 32, 73, Sommer, Doris, 81-82
32, 244 76-77, 83, n0, 139, 143, 145-47, Race and racism, 3-4, 53, 61, 65-71, Spelman, Elizabeth, 93
Matthaei, Julie, 148 160-68, 170, 207-9, 223, 236-38 86, 98, 104, 107, 129-31, 241, 250, Standpoint epistemology, 5, 56, 231-32
"Mestizo consciousness" (Anzaldda), 8o Ortiz, Alicia Dujovne, 121 258 n.11; anti-Semitism, relation to, Sudarkasa, Niara, 199
Methodology, 33-37, 231-38 86, 104; racial formation, 65-71, 130; Support Committee for Maquiladora
Mies, Maria, 31-33, 146, 149-52, 154, Passports, 130-31 racialized gender, 170-71, 188, 231, Workers, 140, 264 n.2
223, 225 Patriarchy, 61, III, 129, 143, 147, 151, 164 250; racialized individuals, 190-92 Suri Prakash, Madhu, 227
Migration, 44, 52 Pedagogy, 5, to, 194-217, 236-45, 248, Readings, William, 180-8, Sweatshops, 73-74, 248
Minces, Juliette, 28, 30, 38 272 n.20; black, women's, and ethnic Reagan, Ronald. See New Right
Minh-ha, Trinh T., 75-76 studies, 194, 197-200, 202, 213, Reagon, Bernice Johnson, 86-87, 107-8, Tate, Jane, 164-65
Misogyny, 3, 8 228-29, 238-45, 271 n.13; against 117-22; and coalition, 117 Temporality of struggle, 120-22
Mohanram, Radhika, 227-28 globalization, 236-45; and subjec- Relational communities, 5 Third World/South: as term of designa-
Mohanty, Satya P., 257 n.17, 262 n.3 tivity, 195-96; of Third World vs. "Relations of ruling" (Smith), 56-57 tion, 2, 29-30, 44, 143-44, 226-27,
Momsen, Janet Henshall, 48 white students, 202-4; workshops Relativism, 230-31, 240-41, 244 255 n.t, 267 n.5; and "Third World
Morgan, Robin, 107-17, 120-22; as theo- in diversity/prejudice reduction, 194, Religious fundamentalism, 131-34, 147, Difference," 19, 40, 240. See also One
rist of experience, 110-14. See also 207-12. See also Universities 229,246 Third/Two Thirds World; "Third
Sisterhood Pluralism, 196-97, 199-200, 204, 207-8, Reproductive rights, 54 World Woman"
Morrison, Toni, 8o 211, 216, 244, 268 n.7 Rich, Adrienne, 120, 261 n.t "Third World Woman": as category con-
Multinational Agreement on Invest- Postcoloniality, 72, 120, 133, 228, 272 Rosa, Kumudhini, 163-64 struction, 17, 19, 22-23, 36-37, 40, 42,
ments (MAI), 234 n.26; and postcolonial studies, 45, Runyon, Anne, 247 46-49, 76. See also Feminism; Labor;
Multinational capitalism. See Capitalism; 107, 228, 244, 272 n.26 Women
Corporatism; Globalization Postmodernism, 6, 81, 225-26, 244, 271 Sanchez, Rosaura, 198-99, 208 Tijuana, 140
Mumbai (Bombay). See India. n.9. See also Poststnicturalism Sangari, Kumkum, 58, 61-63 Torres, Lourdes, 81
Postpositivist realism, 231, 244, 271 n.9 Self-Employed Women's Association Townsend, Janet G., 48
Narsapur. See India Poststnicturalism, 89. See also Postmod- (sswA), 164-66, 168
Nationalism, 3, 5, 63, 246 ernism Shiva, Vandana, 232-35, 249 Unions, 143, 155, 163-66; Third World
National liberation movements, 57-58 Power, 21-26, 31, 43, 47, 55-56, Shohat, Ella, 241 women's alternatives to, 163
National Organization for Women 59, 64, 73, 78, 99, 104, 118, 171, 183, Silicon Valley, 152-56, 159, 265 ii.15 United Kingdom, 69, 156-60, 164-65,
(Now), tot 187, 191, 199, 201-2, 204, 209, 216, Sisterhood, to9-17; as transcendence, 215; ideas of blackness in, 50, 156-57.
Neoliberalism, 45, 229 225, 231-2, 239-42, 244-47, 254 n.14, 116, 122. See also Morgan, Robin; See also British empire; Immigration
New Right, 85, 99, 197, 199 255 n.3, 262 11.4. See also Hegemony Solidarity Universities, 169-217, 221; commodi-
Noble, David, t8o Pratt, Minnie Bruce, 85-105; and cul- Sivanandan, A., 52-53, 70-71, 209 tization of knowledge in, 171, 173,
Nonrepression, 174-75, 184 tural impersonation, to2; father, re- Smith, Barbara, 86-87, 107-8 177-78, 180; commoditization of race
North American Free Trade Agreement lationship to, 94-98, 103-5; home Smith, Dorothy, 56-58 in, 196, 212-17; corporatization of,
(NAFTA), 140 as theme for, 90, 92, 98-105; and Smith, Joan, 264 n.6 169-70, 173-78, 181-89, 196; demo-
lesbianism, 86, 93, 97, too; narra- Socialism, 4 graphics of, 179, 266 n.3; feminist
Oberlin College, 208, 269 n.20 tive technique of, 88, 94, 100-3, 105; Social justice, 2, 9, 174-75, 178, 205, struggle within, 169-70, 175-76, 185-
O'Hanlon, Rosalind, 82-83 politicized geography in, 89-90, 210, 216, 231, 240, 243, 250 86, 189, 194. See also Corporatism;
Olcri, Ben, 169, 176 99-101,104-5 Solidarity, 3, 7, to, 128, 140-45, 157, Pedagogy
Omvedt, Gail, 38 Privatization. See Corporatism 171, 193, 223-26, 234-38, 242-45, Urry, John, 172
298 Index 299 Index
Vaid, Sudesh, 58, 61-63 Women in International Development
(w D), 23
Walby, Sylvia, 223-24 "Women of color": as term, 49. See also
Wekker, Gloria, 254 n.14 "Third World Woman"
West, Corel, 207 Women's work, 74, 141-42, 144, 146,
Westwood, Sallie, 156-57 149-60, 233
West Yorkshire Homeworking Group, Work. See Labor; Women's Work
164-65 Working Women's Forum (wwF), 164-65
Widow remarriage, 62. See also India World Bank, 133, 172, 177, 234, 248
Wittig, Monique, 108-9 World Trade Organization (wro), 172,
Women: as category of analysis, 21-33, 229,232-34
36, 38-39; constructed as "Woman," Writing and memory: testimonial genre,
19, 23, 36, 118; in dependency rela- 78-79; by Third World women, 52, 57,
tionships, 24-25; as material subjects, 77-84, 86; See also Pratt, Minnie Bruce;
19, 23; victims, representations as, Reagon, Bernice Johnson
23-26, 31-32, 39, 98-99, III, 248; vio-
lence against, 24. See also Feminism; Young, Iris Marion, 175-76
"Third World Woman"
Women, Immigration and Nationality Zed Press Women in the Third World
Group (wi NG), 70 series, 21, 37-41, 255 n.5

300 Index