Appeal to Women’s Experience in Ethics: Lessons from Feminism and the Challenge from Postcolonial Critique

2021 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 52-66
Author(s):  
Lai-Shan Yip
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Diversity ◽  
Third World ◽  
Contextual Analysis ◽  
Common Morality ◽  
Sexual Ethics ◽  
Theological Ethics ◽  
Third World Feminism ◽  
Women's Experience

Appeal to women’s experience for moral delineation in theological ethics has been perplexed by the issue of cultural diversity and colonialism as raised by postcolonial critique. This paper aims to examine the debates from Third-World feminism and Christian feminism in dealing with difference and solidarity, leading to the call for contextual analysis and related power mappings. Margaret A. Farley’s proposal for sexual ethics in Just Love will then serve as an example to discuss how the search for common morality among cultural diversity may prevent or reinforce colonial agendas and other privileges.

Third World Femenist Perspectives on Information Technology

2011 ◽  
pp. 1166-1171
Author(s):  
Lynette Kvasny ◽  
Jing Chong
Keyword(s):  
Information Technology ◽  
Black Women ◽  
Race And Ethnicity ◽  
Third World ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Business Organizations ◽  
Representation Of Women ◽  
Third World Feminism ◽  
Feminist Epistemologies

Historically, information systems (IS) researchers have conducted empirical studies of gender and information technology (IT) in business organizations. These studies cover a wide range of topics such as the under-representation of women in the IT workforce (von Hellens, Nielsen, & Trauth, 2001) and the educational pipeline, which prepares women for careers in computer-related fields (Camp, 1997; Symonds, 1999). IS researchers have generally embraced an essentialist approach to examine gender differences in the adoption and use of IT (Gefen & Straub, 1997; Venkatesh & Morris, 2000), career selection (Joshi & Kuhn, 2001; Nielsen, von Hellens, Greenhill, & Pringle, 1998), employment experiences (Gallivan, 2003; Sumner & Niederman, 2002; Sumner & Werner, 2001), and employment outcomes (Baroudi & Igbaria, 1997). More recently, however, researchers have adopted anti-essentialist stances and extended IS gender studies to include individual differences among women (Trauth, 2002; Trauth, Quesenberry, & Morgan, 2004), as well as race and ethnicity (Kvasny & Trauth, 2002; Tapia & Kvasny, 2004; Tapia, Kvasny, & Trauth, 2004). In this growing body of scholarship, a few researchers have argued persuasively for the inclusion of feminist epistemologies in IS research (Adam & Richardson, 2001; Henwood, 2000; Kvasny, Greenhill, & Trauth, 2005). These proponents contend that feminist epistemologies provide theoretical and methodological insights for studying gender as a complex and multidimensional construct for understanding the use, management, and regulation of IT in multiple domains such as business organizations, households, reproductive health, built environments, and the military (MacKenzie & Wacjman, 1991; Ormrod, 1994). Feminist scholars have also called for research that considers not only gender, but also the intersection of racial, ethnic, and class identities (Kvasny, forthcoming). In this article, we adopt a third world feminist perspective to examine perceptions of IT held by black women in Kenya and the U.S. In what follows, we defining third world feminism, especially as it relates to women in the African Diaspora. Next, we discuss our research methodology, which consists of interviews with women in both settings. We conclude by presenting our findings and implications for future research.

scholarly journals “Marginalization” in third world feminism: its problematics and theoretical reconfiguration

2016 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Asma Mansoor
Keyword(s):  
Gender Studies ◽  
Third World ◽  
Centripetal Force ◽  
The West ◽  
Third World Feminism ◽  
Mise En Abyme ◽  
Theoretical Approaches ◽  
Global Feminism ◽  
First World ◽  
Fixed Center

Abstract With the imposition of certain notions of agency and marginalization prescribed by first world feminist discourses, global feminism has cumulatively remained mired within a binaristic closure. This closure is based on the idea of an agentive Western feminist center and a passive third world feminism at the margin. This article endeavours to go beyond this closure to initiate debates regarding the operational praxis of a third world woman’s marginal placement as articulated in third world feminist discourses. It problematizes the idea of “disempowerment” that stems from a patriarchal model depicting man as the nucleus and a woman as a peripheral and centripetal entity, drawn within the mise en abyme of self-consolidating representations. Therefore, the argument presented here revisits the notion of the marginalization of third world women by subjecting the theoretical approaches regarding female marginalization and agency—as articulated by Spivak, Irigaray and Kristeva, et al.—to a deconstructive mode of analysis to explore the theoretical reconfiguration of a third world woman’s marginal placement. This article reconsiders the margin as discursively “limitrophic” so that the binaries between the margin/center, agency/disempowerment and third world feminism/first world feminism are re-scrutinized. The margin, thus, becomes an agentive plane for a third world woman as she uses it to direct her gaze away from any discursive center. In this way, a third world woman undermines the West-centric centripetal force despite being englobed within what Kristeva calls “supranational sociocultural ensembles” and sees her “self” as independent of any fixed center so that she redefines herself as an autonomous thinking woman able to dismantle the notion of a congealed subalternity. This article is published as part of a thematic collection on gender studies.

scholarly journals Corporeal Identities, Maternal Artivism: A New Decolonial Approach to the Study of Latin American Women Artists

Arts ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 137
Author(s):  
Demori
Keyword(s):  
Latin American ◽  
Women Artists ◽  
Third World ◽  
Transnational Feminism ◽  
Cultural Background ◽  
American Women ◽  
Production Of Knowledge ◽  
Third World Feminism ◽  
The Past

Stemming from Grosfoguel’s decolonial discourse, and particularly his enquiry on how to steer away from the alternative between Eurocentric universalism and third world fundamentalism in the production of knowledge, this article aims to respond to this query in relation to the field of the art produced by Latin American women artists in the past four decades. It does so by investigating the decolonial approach advanced by third world feminism (particularly scholar Chandra Talpade Mohanty) and by rescuing it from—what I reckon to be—a methodological impasse. It proposes to resolve such an issue by reclaiming transnational feminism as a way out from what I see as a fundamentalist and essentialist tactic. Following from a theoretically and methodological introduction, this essay analyzes the practice of Cuban-born artist Marta María Pérez Bravo, specifically looking at the photographic series Para Concebir (1985–1986); it proposes a decolonial reading of her work, which merges third world feminism’s nation-based approach with a transnational outlook, hence giving justice to the migration of goods, ideas, and people that Ella Shohat sees as deeply characterizing the contemporary cultural background. Finally, this article claims that Pérez Bravo’s oeuvre offers the visual articulation of a decolonial strategy, concurrently combining global with local concerns.

NGO INTERVENTIONS AND WOMEN DEVELOPMENT IN BANGLADESH: DO FEMINIST THEORIES WORK?

2012 ◽  
Vol 46 (01n02) ◽  
pp. 13-29 ◽  
Author(s):  
ISMAIL HOSSAIN ◽  
AL-AMIN ◽  
JAHANGIR ALAM
Keyword(s):  
Feminist Theory ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Third World ◽  
Intervention Strategies ◽  
Women's Development ◽  
Third World Feminism ◽  
Socioeconomic Context ◽  
Feminist Theories ◽  
Feminist Perspectives

This paper reviews the extent to which feminist viewpoints are incorporated in NGO interventions aimed at women's development in Bangladesh by examining major feminist perspectives alongside NGO intervention strategies. Based on fieldwork experiences in four NGOs, it determines that NGOs are not following any specific feminist theory, but rather interventions are influenced by development paradigms engrossed in western feminist perspectives. The paper finds that third world feminism is more pertinent to the socioeconomic context of Bangladesh. However, this perspective is alone insufficient to bring desired change, rather the blending of feminist views may be more conducive to women development in Bangladesh. It concludes that the understanding of feminist theories is of greater importance for NGO practitioners and social workers to effectively address the issue of women's development.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document