transnational feminism

So this gender policy/feminism thing has me thinking. I’ve been contemplating the difference in what defines feminism and women’s movements in a variety of countries, cultures, and socio-economic settings – how one person’s feminism can be another’s source of oppression when skin color or income level is changed. Criticisms abound of so-called "first wave feminism," the women’s suffrage movements of the early twentieth century and "second wave feminism," the continuing exploration of women’s sexual, reproductive and labor rights through the 1970s. Many critics point out that these notions of feminism are distinctly circumscribed by an assumption of whiteness and upper-middle-class status.

If being a feminist, for instance, means avoiding housework and pursuing one’s own career, then who will clean the house? Certainly not the husband, who’s off on his own personal vendetta to make sure his wife doesn’t end up out-earning him. So a maid is hired, and the structure of oppression shifts the weight from upper-middle-class housewife to a lower-income, (most likely) woman of color. Can the maid still be a feminist, even though all she does is cook and clean in someone else’s home before returning to her own to do the same thing?

Here’s another example: most "Western" feminists consider prostitution the antithesis of women’s empowerment. But what about a woman who has no alternative economic choices, children to feed, parents to take care of, and no prospects of getting an education? By doing what she can to make sure she can take care of herself and those around her, and by using the objectifying and patriarchal culture around her to her own advantage, is she automatically doomed to the non-feminist contingency?

Feminism, then, like most things, is a function of many cross-cutting factors, including race, socio-economic class, nationality, age, etc. This is why it is so challenging to create what I term “transnational feminism.” But there has to be a way to translate ideas about women’s empowerment, women’s rights as human rights, personal responsibility and love for self and others across the bounds of these cross-cutting factors. I’ve been thinking about getting involved in an organization centered on women’s (especially young women’s and girls’) empowerment. Empowerment enables people to create more choices even in limited situations. Empowerment would help to combat those ridiculous men on the street who somehow think yelling or whispering weird things to women is an acceptable way to address them (I’m considering trying a tactic passed on by a friend – when someone yells at you, pretend to be one of the really obnoxious fruit vendors that pound the pavement and start yelling indiscriminately "plátano! tres peso’ lo’ plátanos! aguacate bien rico! bien grande el aguacate! a diez peso’! diez pesito’!"). Problem is that I haven’t found such an organization yet. If anyone knows of one here in Santo Domingo, please let me know! If not, I might just start my own.