Blogging the Theoretical

Jillian Shults

Blog Rough Draft 2

In the book Feminism Without Borders written by Chandra Mohanty, she analyzes the image of the Third World Women that has been created and is constantly reinforced by Western feminist. The solution for Mohanty is she believes that we need to step outside of the Western view and look to feminist who are and are apart of the Third World. “This is turns calls for assuming the responsibility for the politics of voice as it is institutionalized in the academy’s “liberal” response to the very way questions feminism and other oppositional discourses have raised” (Mohanty, pp 197).

The way in which Third World women are represented is by the capital Women and that becomes highly problematic when talking about the everyday women. The capital Women is a created universal logic that has been reproduced and relies on the construction of the ideas of the West; this ideology says that all Third World women are the same. As we read in Feminism Without Borders, Mohanty says that in order to redefine the image of the Third World women feminist need to look across borders and through the perception of others. “Uncovering and reclaiming subjugated knowledges is one way to lay claim to alternative histories” (Mohanty, pp 196).

Another issue that was addressed in Feminism Without Borders was the Third World women workers. Mohanty states, “The common interests of homeworkers are acknowledged in terms of their daily lives as workers and as women – there is no artificial separation of the “worker” and the “homemaker” or the “housewife” in this context” (Mohanty, pp 165).  The Third World women are not looked at as having an additional occupation outside the home; the additional work that they do is viewed as supplementary and apart of the everyday chores. Mohanty says that feminist need to focus on common interest of the Third World women in order to being redefining their identity as women and as women workers. “The transition to identifying common needs and desires of the Third World women workers, which leads potentially to the construction of the identity of Third World workers, is what remains a challenge” (Mohanty, pp167).

When feminist look across borders for scholarship and don’t just rely on already constructed identities about Third World women, they can begin to reconstruct the identity of the Third World women. “The only way to get a little measure of power over your own life is to do it collectively, with the support of others who share your needs” (Mohanty, pp 168). Mohanty is saying that this is the time for Third World women to stand up for themselves and being to redefine their own identities.