Western Feminism. Liberation or Domination?

Table of contents

1. Introduction

2. Sex and gender

3. Feminism
3.1 Western feminism
3.2 Globalisation of feminism

4. Areas of criticism
4.1 Postcolonial critique of Western feminism
4.2 Deconstructing the concept of “third-world” women
4.3 Black feminist critique of Western feminism

5. Conclusion

Bibliography

1. Introduction

The topic of feminism has been widespread and discussed in politics and people’s everyday life with varying intensity for many years. There have been different waves of feminism and debates all around the world. Current discussions of gendered language are just one example of ongoing fights for equality.

This paper introduces the topic of Western feminism. It takes a closer look at the feminism which evolved in the Western world, precisely in Europe and the United States. However, this will be a critical introduction - for several reasons explained - as the paper progresses. The paper examines the question if the movement of Western feminism succeeded in liberation for women regarding equal rights between men and women, more freedom, and self-determination. Moreover, it will investigate if said liberation was limited to a certain type of women or if it was achieved and gained for all women. Further, it will explore if and how liberation was reached within the Western feminist movement and if it was attained by dominating and using others, in this regard other women, or if goals were obtained by a change within society.

The paper is spilt in three main parts. After introducing and differentiating the terms sex and gender, the paper moves on to introduce the topic of feminism in general. It will then focus on Western feminism and the globalisation of feminism and will explore the impact of Western feminism in a global context. The third part presents the areas of criticism towards Western feminism. Western feminism will first be taken into a critical account by postcolonial feminists with a closer look at postcolonial feminist Chanda Mohanty and her paper Under Western Eyes. Secondly, the Western concept of feminism will be criticised by African American feminists within the Black feminist movement in the United States. This chapter will also make the complexity of Black women’s suffrage visible within the topic of feminism. At the end, there will be a conclusion.

2. Sex and gender

This chapter shortly introduces the terms sex and gender as a means of scaffolding for the following topics. The two terms are not synonyms and help to understand the foundational idea behind feminism. This knowledge will also be helpful because the terms go back historically and effected the difference between men and women in many ways with the establishment of the patriarchy, which will also be addressed in this chapter.

Coming to the two terms: Gender is more complex than sex, as it is a social category, describing cultural norms and acts. Gender is about how to behave and act as a girl or a boy and it effects many areas of life: what to wear, how to speak, what to study. All these aspects are part of gender and therefore part of a gender role. Sex on the other hand is biologically defined by anatomy. Nowadays, one’s anatomy is no longer one’s destiny, meaning that there are ways to either change one’s sex by surgery or to take on a different gender, because sex and gender are no longer fixed singular positions. Today there are various gender identities such as female, male, and transgender (cf. Dixon 2011, 2). Just because you are born with a certain sex does not mean you need to take on a specific gender role for the rest of your life. Since gender is something learned and constructed around people’s physical sex, it therefore can and should be deconstructed to find a way out of the singularity of gender roles (cf. Döring 2011, 172f).

Furthermore, the problem that occurs with these fixed gender roles is that power dynamics were often explained and justified through gender and especially gender difference served and still serves as a means of legitimising patriarchal power. Patriarchy in this sense refers to a “[…] hypothetical social system in which the father or a male elder has absolute authority over the family group; by extension, one or more men (as in a council) exert absolute authority over the community as a whole” (Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica, 2021).

In a patriarchally dominated society, gender positions construct the female role as weak, dark, emotional, domestic, inferior, and passive while the male role is depicted as strong, enlightened, rational, superior, and active. However, this construction is neither natural nor veritable. Any apparent deficient differences can only be a foundational product of the patriarchal power system, produced to justify male dominated acting (cf. Döring 2011, 173f).

Since the 1980’s those fixed oppositional constructions between sex and gender by a patriarchal society have been critically questioned by feminist theorists as these attributes reveal more about the speaking subject who invented them than about the object for which they are made (cf. Döring 2011, 172). This leads over to the next chapter about feminism.

3. Feminism

This chapter will focus on feminism, with a special look on Western feminism and the globalisation of feminism. Feminism is “ [t]he belief that women should be allowed the same rights, power, and opportunities as men and be treated in the same way, or the set of activities intended to achieve this state” (Cambridge Dictionary). A feminist therefore is “[a] person who supports the belief that women should have the same rights and opportunities as men” (Oxford Dictionary). The authors Brunell and Burkett go further, in saying that feminism is “[…] the belief in social, economic, and political equality of the sexes” (Brunell & Burkett) and not just between men and women, but between everyone.

Feminism aims to overcome traditional, single roles within the construction of gender and is thus not limited to women alone. It is also not about a female-dominated society, because domination is nothing wanted, but about equality and self-determination. All humans, independently of their gender, sex and body should have the same rights and freedoms (cf. Stokowski 2016, 160f). So far, feminism has affected many areas of life of women in a positive way, regarding divorce laws, sexual freedoms, the right to vote, education, contraception and more (cf. Dixon 2011, 1).

3.1 Western feminism

Western feminism evolved in America and Europe in the 1960’s. The concept of feminism was mostly defined by women in the United States. This wave of feminism was a response to the restrictions Western women had to endure in their daily lives. Throughout Western history, women were limited to the domestic sphere and men to public life. Those fixed positions within a patriarchal society were explained through single gender roles, which Western feminists were starting to challenge (cf. Brunell & Burkett).

There were three different waves of feminism in the past. However, it is important to be aware that “waves” in this context do not describe a smooth movement which evolves like a wave, but a movement which starts with fights and protests which serve as key moments marking the beginning of a new feminist wave (cf. Stokowski 2016, 134).

The first Western wave of feminism was at the end of the 19th century and at the beginning of the 20th century. This movement involved property rights and the central issue of the women’s right to vote. The first American feminism wave ended with the 19th amendment in the US constitution in 1919, which gave women the right to vote (cf. Drucker 2018).

The second wave began in the 1940’s and had its peak in the 1960’s and 1970’s. In this period, women were fighting for equal social rights. The slogan of that movement was the Personal is political, challenging the general belief that women can only have an identity though a man and children as a wife and mother.

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