Re Orienting Western Feminisms

The agenda of contemporary western feminism focuses on equal participation in work and education, reproductive rights, and sexual freedom. But what does feminism mean to the women of rural India who work someone else's fields, young Thai girls in the sex industry in Bangkok, or Filipino maids working for wealthy women in Hong Kong? In this 1998 book, Chilla Bulbeck presents a bold challenge to the hegemony of white, western feminism in this incisive and wide-ranging exploration of the lived experiences of 'women of colour'. She examines debates on human rights, family relationships, sexuality, and notions of the individual and community to show how their meanings and significance in different parts of the world contest the issues which preoccupy contemporary Anglophone feminists. She then turns the focus back on Anglo culture to illustrate how the theories and politics of western feminism are viewed by non-western women.

Against Purity confronts the difficulties that white Western feminism has in balancing issues of gender with other forms of difference, such as race, ethnicity and nation. This pioneering study places recent feminist theory from India in critical conversation with the work of key Western thinkers such as Butler, haraway and Irigaray and argues that, through such postcolonial encounters, contemporary feminist thought can begin to work 'against purity' in order to develop more complex models of power, identity and the self, ultimately to redefine 'women' as the subject of feminism. Theoretically grounded yet written in an accessible style, this is a unique contribution to ongoing feminist debates about identity, power and difference.

A selection of the leading theorists of multiculturalism revisit aspects of Parekh's work both to underline its continuing importance and the ongoing vitality of multiculturalist theory.

This truly monumental work maps the literature of women's studies, covering thousands of titles and Web sites in 19 subject areas published between 1985 and 1999. Intended as a reference and collection development tool, this bibliography provides a guide for women's studies information for each title along with a detailed, often evaluative review. The annotations summarize each work's content, its importance or contribution to women's studies, and its relationship to other titles on the subject. Core titles and titles that are out of print are noted, and reviews indicate which titles are appropriate as texts or supplemental texts. This definitive guide to the literature of women's studies is a must-purchase for academic libraries that support women's studies programs, and it is a useful addition to any academic or public library that endeavors to represent the field. A team of subject specialists has taken on the immense task of documenting publications in the area of women's studies in the last decades of the 20th century. The result is this truly monumental work, which maps the field, covering thousands of titles and Web sites in 19 subject areas published between 1985 and 1999. Intended as a reference and collection development tool, this bibliography provides a guide for women's studies information for each title along with a detailed, often evaluative review. The annotations summarize each work's content, its importance or contribution to women's studies, and its relationship to other titles on the subject. Most reviews cite and describe similar and contrasting titles, substantially extending the coverage. Core titles and titles that are out of print are noted, and reviews indicate which titles are appropriate as texts or supplemental texts. Taking up where the previous volume by Loeb, Searing, and Stineman left off, this is the definitive guide to the literature of women's studies. It is a must purchase for academic libraries that support women's studies programs; and a welcome addition to any academic or public library that endeavors to represent the field.

In the current English-language publication market, this book is one of the earliest academic monographs to comparatively investigate different feminist scholars and academic feminism across the Taiwan Strait. It problematizes recent scholarly understanding of feminist complexity in various Chinese-speaking areas. This book addresses sociocultural backgrounds of how Mainland Chinese, Taiwanese, and Hong Kong feminist scholars strategize their transfers, localization, and acculturation of Western feminist literary theories. It emphasizes how Chinese literary theorists filter, gate-keep, select, import latest Western feminist theories, and then match them with local socio-cultural trends by exerting comparative researchers' cross-cultural and cross-lingual academic power in order to tackle Mainland China's, Taiwan's, and Hong Kong's own gender problems.

‘Sex, love and feminism’ are three aspects of the rapidly changing gender relations that shape young people’s lives in the Asia Pacific region. Much has been written about rapidly changing countries in Asia, most recently China and India. With the global spread of capitalist production and neo-liberal ideologies, the claim that the rest of the world’s women are treading the path to enlightenment and development forged by women in the West has been revived. This book explores that contention through a comparative analysis of the attitudes of young middle class urbanites in ten countries: the USA, Australia, Canada, Japan, Thailand, South Korea, India, Indonesia, China and Vietnam. Drawing on detailed empirical research, the study describes and compares attitudes towards the women’s movement, sexual relations and family arrangements in the countries considered. It explores young peoples’ image of feminists and what they feel the women’s movement has achieved for women and men in their country. The book discusses young people’s attitudes to controversial gender issues such as role reversal, sharing housework, abortion rights, same sex sexual relations, nudity and pornography. Through a comparative analysis of the gender vocabularies by which young people understand gender issues, the book highlights the role of differences in history, culture, economics and political leadership. These influence attitudes to gender relations, the status of women and the political programs of the women’s movement in different countries. Whilst there are striking parallels between countries and even across the whole sample, those similarities do not fall neatly into a simple dichotomy of the ‘west versus the rest’.

Young women today have benefited from the strides made by grassroots social activists in the 1960s and 1970s, yet they are hesitant to identify themselves as feminists and seem apathetic about carrying the torch of older generations to redress persistent sexism and gender-based barriers. Contesting the notion that we are in a post-feminist age, this provocative collection of original essays identifies a third wave of feminism. The contributors argue that the next generation needs to develop a politicized, collective feminism that both builds on the strategies of second wave feminists and is grounded in the material realities and culture of the twenty-first century. Organized in five sections that mirror the stages of consciousness-raising, this is an engaging, often edgy, look at a broad range of perspectives on the diversity, complexity, multiplicity, and playfulness of the third wave. It is also a call to action for new voices to redefine a feminism that is not only personally aware but also politically involved.

Within academic circles, there is a longstanding issue concerning the portrayal and understanding of African womanhood. Frequently, these narratives are crafted by outsiders, predominantly Western scholars, often distorting the lived experiences and unique perspectives of African women. This has led to a skewed and sometimes negative perception of African women, reinforcing stereotypes, and sidelining their voices in critical discussions. Moreover, this misrepresentation has real-world consequences, as it impacts social justice initiatives and development projects that rely on misguided narratives rather than the authentic voices of African women. African Womanhood and the Feminist Agenda emerges as an essential solution to the misrepresentation of African women. This comprehensive and meticulously researched book offers an alternative narrative, one that is rooted in African perspectives and experiences. It addresses the historical, cultural, and political dimensions of African womanhood, providing a rich and nuanced understanding of this multifaceted topic.