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Feminism Without Borders: Decolonizing Theory, Practicing Solidarity
Bringing together classic and new writings of the trailblazing feminist theorist Chandra Talpade Mohanty, Feminism without Borders addresses some of the most pressing and complex issues facing contemporary feminism.
Forging vital links between daily life and collective action and between theory and pedagogy, Mohanty has been at the vanguard of Third World and international feminist thought and activism for nearly two decades. This collection highlights the concerns running throughout her pioneering work: the politics of difference and solidarity, decolonizing and democratizing feminist practice, the crossing of borders, and the relation of feminist knowledge and scholarship to organizing and social movements. Mohanty offers here a sustained critique of globalization and urges a reorientation of transnational feminist practice toward anticapitalist struggles.
Feminism without Borders opens with Mohanty's influential critique of western feminism ("Under Western Eyes") and closes with a reconsideration of that piece based on her latest thinking regarding the ways that gender matters in the racial, class, and national formations of globalization. In between these essays, Mohanty meditates on the lives of women workers at different ends of the global assembly line (in India, the United Kingdom, and the United States); feminist writing on experience, identity, and community; dominant conceptions of multiculturalism and citizenship; and the corporatization of the North American academy. She considers the evolution of interdisciplinary programs like Women's Studies and Race and Ethnic Studies; pedagogies of accommodation and dissent; and transnational women's movements for grassroots ecological solutions and consumer, health, and reproductive rights.
Mohanty's probing and provocative analyses of key concepts in feminist thought—"home," "sisterhood," "experience," "community"—lead the way toward a feminism without borders, a feminism fully engaged with the realities of a transnational world.
Forging vital links between daily life and collective action and between theory and pedagogy, Mohanty has been at the vanguard of Third World and international feminist thought and activism for nearly two decades. This collection highlights the concerns running throughout her pioneering work: the politics of difference and solidarity, decolonizing and democratizing feminist practice, the crossing of borders, and the relation of feminist knowledge and scholarship to organizing and social movements. Mohanty offers here a sustained critique of globalization and urges a reorientation of transnational feminist practice toward anticapitalist struggles.
Feminism without Borders opens with Mohanty's influential critique of western feminism ("Under Western Eyes") and closes with a reconsideration of that piece based on her latest thinking regarding the ways that gender matters in the racial, class, and national formations of globalization. In between these essays, Mohanty meditates on the lives of women workers at different ends of the global assembly line (in India, the United Kingdom, and the United States); feminist writing on experience, identity, and community; dominant conceptions of multiculturalism and citizenship; and the corporatization of the North American academy. She considers the evolution of interdisciplinary programs like Women's Studies and Race and Ethnic Studies; pedagogies of accommodation and dissent; and transnational women's movements for grassroots ecological solutions and consumer, health, and reproductive rights.
Mohanty's probing and provocative analyses of key concepts in feminist thought—"home," "sisterhood," "experience," "community"—lead the way toward a feminism without borders, a feminism fully engaged with the realities of a transnational world.
312 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2003
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About the author
Chandra Talpade Mohanty
17 books203 followersChandra Talpade Mohanty (born 1955) is a prominent postcolonial and transnational feminist theorist.
She became well-known after the publication of her influential essay, "Under Western Eyes: Feminist Scholarship and Colonial Discourses" in 1986. In this essay, Mohanty critiques the political project of Western feminism in its discursive construction of the category of the "Third World woman" as a hegemonic entity. Mohanty states that Western feminisms have tended to gloss over the differences between Southern women, but that the experience of oppression is incredibly diverse, and contingent on geography, history, and culture.
In 2003, Chandra Mohanty released her book, "Feminism Without Borders: Decolonizing Theory, Practicing Solidarity". In this work, she argues for a bridging of theory and praxis, and the personal and the political. Major themes addressed include the politics of difference, transnational solidarity building, and anticapitalist struggle against globalization.
Mohanty is originally from Mumbai, India. She holds a Ph.D. and Master’s degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, as well as a Master's degree and a bachelor's degree from the University of Delhi in India. Originally a professor of women's studies at Hamilton College in Clinton, New York, she is currently the women's studies department chair at Syracuse University.
She became well-known after the publication of her influential essay, "Under Western Eyes: Feminist Scholarship and Colonial Discourses" in 1986. In this essay, Mohanty critiques the political project of Western feminism in its discursive construction of the category of the "Third World woman" as a hegemonic entity. Mohanty states that Western feminisms have tended to gloss over the differences between Southern women, but that the experience of oppression is incredibly diverse, and contingent on geography, history, and culture.
In 2003, Chandra Mohanty released her book, "Feminism Without Borders: Decolonizing Theory, Practicing Solidarity". In this work, she argues for a bridging of theory and praxis, and the personal and the political. Major themes addressed include the politics of difference, transnational solidarity building, and anticapitalist struggle against globalization.
Mohanty is originally from Mumbai, India. She holds a Ph.D. and Master’s degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, as well as a Master's degree and a bachelor's degree from the University of Delhi in India. Originally a professor of women's studies at Hamilton College in Clinton, New York, she is currently the women's studies department chair at Syracuse University.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 74 reviews
June 9, 2008
The word "feminism" takes on a broader meaning in this book. This book is not about equal pay and equal opportunity for women... a cause in which so many white/European feminist past and present are involved. No...this book is about meeting the basic needs and rights of all women all over the world and the solidarity, awareness and activities required to make a difference in women's lives, especially those living in 3rd world nations and 4th world ethnic groups. Starting at the local and grassroots level to effect change in attitude and governance is what this book is about. It is extremely well written and thought provoking.
May 25, 2007
This is a seminal work for anyone interested in global feminist activism and scholarship, including the academic endeavor of deconstructing Western feminist discourse that creates a monolithic image of The Third World Woman. Of particular note is her revision of her groundbreaking essay, "Under Western Eyes." Mohanty also presents a thoughtul and thought-provoking critique of higher education in the U.S.
July 13, 2009
mohanty is not the easiest read but dammit, she is badass. she identifies the problems with u.s.-based feminism and elaborates her vision and strategy for a transformational anti-capitalist feminist movement: decolonization, anti-capitalist critique, solidarity.
May 24, 2016
This foundational text in decolonial/Third World feminist thought is written in a compelling style that is easily accessible for both serious scholars and undergraduate students. The text itself is a series of nine essays which hone, sharpen, and extend Mohanty's general claims about a feminist theory and praxis that is based on the experiences and knowledges of Third World women. She claims, throughout, that global mechanisms of power are perhaps best understood by those who are subject to them in the most insideous ways--poor women of color in the 'global south' or 'two-thirds world.'
Though she provides a clear paradigm for successful decolonial feminist work via attention to the micropolitics of everyday life as situated in culture, she also attends to the relationship of a feminism without borders to globalization/anti-globalization. At her best, Mohanty attends to the particularities of feminist organizing and struggle in a thorough and critical way. She resists falling into liberal-feminist traps, but at the same time, takes a critical eye toward non-liberal feminist organization and theory as well. Her thoroughgoing dedication to a feminism of difference (though) seems to waver toward the end--seemingly calling for a 'difference in common' model, rather than a centering of the Third World women's experience and knowledges. While the text focuses often on the 'decolonializing theory' aspect, the fact of practicing solidarity is mainly adressed as a question of pedagogy. This is perhaps due to her, by her own admission, inclusion within Western academia--making the university her primary site of 'practice.'
Overall, the text is indispensable for scholars looking to think with Third World feminist theory or to develop feminist political philosophy.
Though she provides a clear paradigm for successful decolonial feminist work via attention to the micropolitics of everyday life as situated in culture, she also attends to the relationship of a feminism without borders to globalization/anti-globalization. At her best, Mohanty attends to the particularities of feminist organizing and struggle in a thorough and critical way. She resists falling into liberal-feminist traps, but at the same time, takes a critical eye toward non-liberal feminist organization and theory as well. Her thoroughgoing dedication to a feminism of difference (though) seems to waver toward the end--seemingly calling for a 'difference in common' model, rather than a centering of the Third World women's experience and knowledges. While the text focuses often on the 'decolonializing theory' aspect, the fact of practicing solidarity is mainly adressed as a question of pedagogy. This is perhaps due to her, by her own admission, inclusion within Western academia--making the university her primary site of 'practice.'
Overall, the text is indispensable for scholars looking to think with Third World feminist theory or to develop feminist political philosophy.
August 30, 2018
Clear and original, Mohanty’s text practices what it preaches. Mohanty’s major thesis is that the global-local (and western-3rd world, and white-of color) binary must be reconfigured to reflect the globalized and localized worlds as mutually constitutive. Throughout the text she, like a Möbius strip, twists between her personal lived experience (“local”) and the interests of feminist academics & women-of-color feminists writ large (“global”), leaving the reader not only with a pedagogical roadmap but also an example of such pedagogy in her own life!
Radically anti-essentialist, the text critically interrogates the homogenization of western feminism and postcolonial feminism in the academy without dismissing the privileging of first (or “one-third”) world discourses within neoliberal universities. She takes special care to address the tokenization of “area studies” and their of-color “representatives” as subjects and as objects of study. Instead of a women’s’ studies that presupposes difference but covers it in pluralism, Mohanty calls for comparative feminist studies that are inextricable from studies of (anti-)globalization and of capitalist exploitation; which focus on the revolutionary potential in the common struggles of women worldwide without dismissing the privileges that only some women are afforded.
I can’t praise this book’s insight, honesty, and care enough; especially in the way Mohanty engages criticism of her past work, and practices self-criticism in an effort to further hone her thought and practice.
Radically anti-essentialist, the text critically interrogates the homogenization of western feminism and postcolonial feminism in the academy without dismissing the privileging of first (or “one-third”) world discourses within neoliberal universities. She takes special care to address the tokenization of “area studies” and their of-color “representatives” as subjects and as objects of study. Instead of a women’s’ studies that presupposes difference but covers it in pluralism, Mohanty calls for comparative feminist studies that are inextricable from studies of (anti-)globalization and of capitalist exploitation; which focus on the revolutionary potential in the common struggles of women worldwide without dismissing the privileges that only some women are afforded.
I can’t praise this book’s insight, honesty, and care enough; especially in the way Mohanty engages criticism of her past work, and practices self-criticism in an effort to further hone her thought and practice.
July 19, 2008
This book has been really pivotal in opening my understanding of feminism. Her discussion of transnational/cross cultural feminist solidarity is powerful and has been incredibly useful in my own work. I think this book is important for anyone to read, but particularly those who seek to move beyond the white, western liberal interpretation of feminism commonly taught in universities.
October 13, 2009
I appreciate that Mohanty in her deconstruction of white, American feminism manages to keep a consistent anti-capitalistic critique, which can be otherwise frustratingly absent in academic writings on feminism.
This is a really good read and a good starting point for anyone who wants to learn about the global perspectives in the emancipation of women.
This is a really good read and a good starting point for anyone who wants to learn about the global perspectives in the emancipation of women.
February 25, 2008
I read an essay out of this book. Maybe I need to give it more of a try. It bored me to tears. It's really, really academic in the language it uses. A big turn off for me. I'm smart but I don't have to prove it by reading asoteric feminist theory.
January 21, 2018
4.5
it was a really good i'd recommend if you're interested in intersectional/transnational feminism. i'd give maybe 4.5 instead of 5 just because there were some parts i was interested more than others and sometimes a sentence would take up a whole paragraph and were challenging to read or that i felt were repeating a bunch of the same stuff in the same section. for the most part it was pretty accessible and readable. there is a lot of information to think about.
it was a really good i'd recommend if you're interested in intersectional/transnational feminism. i'd give maybe 4.5 instead of 5 just because there were some parts i was interested more than others and sometimes a sentence would take up a whole paragraph and were challenging to read or that i felt were repeating a bunch of the same stuff in the same section. for the most part it was pretty accessible and readable. there is a lot of information to think about.
February 22, 2019
Nine refined essays collected from her two decades of scholarship and it's absolutely necessary reading for feminists who are interested in the subject of decolonization, third-world feminism, and to seriously grapple with the existing ways in which the social justice movements of feminism has been wielded even by the hands of power. Mohanty deals with epistemological and framing issues: the way the third world woman is represented and studied, & how her representation as purely victim who doesn't go above her object status thus posits the white woman as the liberated subject with agency. She wants to have an idea of solidarity that goes beyond the ahistorical idea of "sisterhood" that presumes a universal female experience that is insensitive to the reality of power relations even between women, especially int he context of global capitalism & the how the reality of the prison/corporate/military/academic complex consistently & disproportionately negatively affect women of colour. She thus critiques a narrow approach to identity-based praxis (my favourite part, personally) & calls for a more accountable, deeper vision of solidarity.
"The existence of Third World women's narratives in itself is not evidence of decentering hegemonic histories and subjectivities. It is the way in which they are read, understood, and located institutionally that is of paramount importance"
I really related and enjoyed the parts when she talked about how diversity, race, gender and these identity differences are "managed" & reduced to an individualist approach outsourced to diversity consultants or something, which in a way signals the co-optation of radical movements, & also the shift of looking at these injustices as an institutional & historical product that needs to be politically organised against, instead of simply about managing interpersonal, individual reactions.
"The existence of Third World women's narratives in itself is not evidence of decentering hegemonic histories and subjectivities. It is the way in which they are read, understood, and located institutionally that is of paramount importance"
I really related and enjoyed the parts when she talked about how diversity, race, gender and these identity differences are "managed" & reduced to an individualist approach outsourced to diversity consultants or something, which in a way signals the co-optation of radical movements, & also the shift of looking at these injustices as an institutional & historical product that needs to be politically organised against, instead of simply about managing interpersonal, individual reactions.
March 16, 2023
This book is an important and thought-provoking contribution to the feminist movement that provides insightful critiques of Western feminist theory and the ways in which it has often failed to take into account the experiences and perspectives of women from non-Western countries. Mohanty's emphasis on the importance of practicing solidarity across borders is super compelling. Her arguments for the need to move beyond "universal" feminist theories that fail to acknowledge the diversity of women's experiences are both powerful and convincing. Her call for a more inclusive and intersectional approach to feminism is sorely needed.
At times, the book was hard to follow as it is very dense. The author definitely wrote this for an audience that already knows a lot about feminist theory and all of the terminology. That's not necessarily a flaw, but it does make it way less accessible to a wider audience.
At times, the book was hard to follow as it is very dense. The author definitely wrote this for an audience that already knows a lot about feminist theory and all of the terminology. That's not necessarily a flaw, but it does make it way less accessible to a wider audience.
May 3, 2024
one of my favourite feminist reads. actually centers global south women's agency and experiences.
June 3, 2016
Chandra Mohanty is one of my favorite theorists I've learned about in the past few months. Her work is really useful for understanding how to adequately situate yourself and your knowledge in local/global contexts and so avoid some of the white-centric or Eurocentric tendencies we easily fall into after being educated and socialized in certain ways. One of the most important features of her work is discussion about how to build solidarity across differences/borders based not on some supposed universal/essentialist female experience of oppression but instead based on common struggles within a racist/patriarchal/capitalist/imperialist global system.
October 22, 2012
A thoroughly enjoyable yet completely challenging anthology. Definitely academic. Some of the essays were a blur with distinct portions that jutted out and gave me insight and writing inspiration. Others were really well constructed, academic, but understandable. It was really nice to read some theory that actually tried to unravel what a feminist, transnational, One Third/Two Thirds World and/or Western/North and/or Third World/South solidarity might look like. Not a quick read at all, but some serious thoughtful scholarship to ponder and be inspired by.
May 16, 2016
One of the most profound and influential reads of my life. This book propelled me forward in an unmeasurable way as a scholar. Mohanty's scholarship is something that I think I will be grappling with always, and I know that the depth and thoroughness of her work in this book is something that I will be returning to on multiple occasions. I can only imagine that with each read, there is more to understand on entirely new levels, and I am excited to re-approach it in the future with insights that I hopefully will be able to acquire myself.
June 19, 2024
Φουλ ενδιαφέρον τοποθετήσεις απλα σε μια πολυ δυσκολη γραφή που μου φανηκε καπως παράδοξη. Θα χρειαστουν πολλες αναγνώσεις που ειναι οκευυ γιατι σε μια καλη θεματολογια χρειάζεται να επιστρεφεις ξανα και ξανα. Βεβαια θεωρω οτι σε πολλα σημεια ανακυκλωνονταν τα ιδια πραγματα απλα με αλλο τροπο που το εκανε καπως κουραστικό σε συνδυασμο με τον ακαδημαϊκό τροπο γραφής.
February 10, 2011
I had two weeks to read this book and I am not sure I gained a whole lot. The title sounds a lot better than the book was in my opinion. It talked more about non-Western views of feminism and I had trouble connecting current issues with the author's point of view.
January 30, 2015
"Sisterhood cannot be assumed on the basis of gender; it must be forged in concrete historical and political practice and analysis."
The writing is a bit abstruse at times for me (probably not for people who are used to reading theory) but this book is very smart and very necessary reading.
The writing is a bit abstruse at times for me (probably not for people who are used to reading theory) but this book is very smart and very necessary reading.
April 6, 2014
All hail the goddess that is Chandra Mohanty tbh. Something every Western feminist needs to read, to make you feel bad about your life choices and then make new, better ones that better engage women from different cultures and society.
Want to read
July 23, 2012I just started this a couple days ago - we'll see if I've bitten off more than I can chew due to my complete lack of a women's studies background.
May 20, 2024
4 stars for the contents, 2 stars for the language. I find it ironic that the author critiques the academisation of feminism in a book written in the most academic language possible.
November 18, 2019
Læsegruppe værdig!
November 19, 2019
Incredibly important book for feminists around the world. However, would have loved some referencing of popular culture as opposed to just academic scholarship. I also found it very U.S. centric.
December 27, 2021
so important for me. compelling critique of western feminism.
“While much of the literature on antiglobalization movements marks the centrality of class and race and, at times, nation in the critique and fight against global capitalism, racialized gender is still an unmarked category. Racialized gender is significant in this instance because capitalism utilizes the race and sexed bodies of women in its search for profit globally, and as I argued earlier, it is often experiences and struggles of poor women of color that allow the most inclusive analysis as well as politics in anti-globalization struggles.”
“Our minds must be as ready to move as capital is, to trace its paths and to imagine alternative destinations.”
“While much of the literature on antiglobalization movements marks the centrality of class and race and, at times, nation in the critique and fight against global capitalism, racialized gender is still an unmarked category. Racialized gender is significant in this instance because capitalism utilizes the race and sexed bodies of women in its search for profit globally, and as I argued earlier, it is often experiences and struggles of poor women of color that allow the most inclusive analysis as well as politics in anti-globalization struggles.”
“Our minds must be as ready to move as capital is, to trace its paths and to imagine alternative destinations.”
September 23, 2023
Being too close to the subject « Feminism in America » it is difficult to see what is really happening in greedy capitalistic societies. The author lays it out.
As an antidote, I would recommend, « Doughnut Economics, » written by University of Oxford’s economist, Kate Raworth, who argues that the economy’s purpose should be to promote human prosperity and happiness.
This means 1) an economy that produces enough to provide everyone with the material resources to pursue their highest dreams, but also 2) an economy that does not deplete the vital natural resources upon which life on the planet depends.
She likens the economy to a ring-shaped doughnut. The inner circle represents the zone of deprivation—an economy that does not produce enough of the necessary goods and services to meet the population’s essential needs. The outer circle represents the limits of economic growth, beyond which the economy begins to outstrip the planet’s natural resources. She writes that we must stay within these bounds.
There are even 30 or more cities who are using Doughnut Economics with a few pitfalls but a lot more success, as measured by #1 and #2 in the third paragraph above.
As an antidote, I would recommend, « Doughnut Economics, » written by University of Oxford’s economist, Kate Raworth, who argues that the economy’s purpose should be to promote human prosperity and happiness.
This means 1) an economy that produces enough to provide everyone with the material resources to pursue their highest dreams, but also 2) an economy that does not deplete the vital natural resources upon which life on the planet depends.
She likens the economy to a ring-shaped doughnut. The inner circle represents the zone of deprivation—an economy that does not produce enough of the necessary goods and services to meet the population’s essential needs. The outer circle represents the limits of economic growth, beyond which the economy begins to outstrip the planet’s natural resources. She writes that we must stay within these bounds.
There are even 30 or more cities who are using Doughnut Economics with a few pitfalls but a lot more success, as measured by #1 and #2 in the third paragraph above.
February 6, 2018
At first, I found Feminism without Borders slightly unengaging because of its constant repetition of the same arguments and key theoretical concepts. However, after having finished it, I came to appreciate it a lot as an incredibly crucial project that bridges the two worlds of theory and activism that have been drifting apart from each other. In her book, Chandra Mohanty sets out to engage several theoretical frameworks with dominant Western, white feminist politics which fails to take in to account significant differences between women from different social and geographical locations. She claims that her book is a call for the production of “emancipatory knowledge” that is not “privately owned” among the privileged, but rather “communally wrought” (1). To her, it is crucial to forming a transnational movement that encompasses women who experience their oppressions differently, by various kinds of oppressive forces, such as, (neo)imperialism, corporatism, neoliberalism, and racism (3). She also warns that this radical inclusiveness, however, should not collapse into the common impulse of many Western feminists who tend to universalize women’s experiences without paying close attention to their specific histories and desires.
Throughout the book, the question that most concerns Mohanty is how we can situate a political agency for third world women in order to start organizing transnationally against patriarchy, heterosexism, racism, and capitalism. In her words, “[c]laiming universality of gender oppression is not the same as arguing for the universal rights of women based on the particularities of our experiences” (107). The particularity of experiences can, therefore, be considered as universal and crucial for Mohanty in harnessing a collectivity with solidarity. She starts her project by examining the way a figure of third world woman has been constructed “under the Western (feminist’s) eye” (19). She argues that the third world women in the colonial discursive paradigm are usually thought of as “objects”, as “category of analysis”, rather than an acting, desiring subject (22). There is, therefore, a tendency to homogenize the third world women’s identities and cohere it with the universal analytic lens of white feminism when thinking about social inequalities they experience.
Understanding the construction of “women” is key to Mohanty’s politics. Referring to Simone de Beauvoir and her famous phrase “On ne nait pas femme. On le devient”, she adds to this idea that the becoming of women for third world women is extremely heterogeneous (Mohanty 55). The process of construction also cannot be understood solely in terms of gender but must be seen as the interweaving of gender, race, and class. In later chapters, she argues that white feminism’s ignorance of this heterogeneity of experiences leads to their failure to make their political movement a “home” for “Other-ed” women. She then deconstructs the definition of “home” that has always been politically charged with the idea of self-resemblance and sameness, which as a result disallows the concept to accommodate differences. She then proposes the idea of “coalition”, an alternative state of belonging that does not necessitate assimilation to a central norm.
In her last three chapters, she turns her critique directly towards capitalism and neoliberalism and their exacerbation of racial and gender inequalities, especially among third world women. First, she begins with demystifying capitalism and its gendered/heteronormativized operation. One of the most important cases in the book that illustrates this argument is how women’s work is considered to be of no economic value because it is done in a private realm of households by a “housewife”. For instance, female lace makers in Narsapur, India in Maria Mies do not get any recognition for their work because it is considered a mere leisure. Their husbands, on the other hand, take the laces that they make to the market, sell them, and receive all the credits. Mohanty then turns to discussing a responsibility for academic institutions to help facilitate a collective, transnational movement of women and criticizes how American universities at the moment operate under the logic of neoliberalism and imperialism which making the formation of such a movement more difficult.
One of her most interesting criticisms of American universities for me is that conversations about race, class, and gender are usually compartmentalized and managed as separate entities. This, she argues, results form the permeation of neoliberal logics, such as risk management, and individualism, into the knowledge production industry in the US. Not only does the division of academic departments indicate this, but also the way knowledge about racial, gender, class oppressions are dealt with has become radically individualized and psychologized. In her analysis of Oberlin College’s Prejudice Workshop, Mohanty claims that experiences of discrimination are usually treated as a psychological matter or an interpersonal misunderstanding that can be resolved through a dialogue without needing to understand any underlying historical or social forces that contribute to creating such a psychic state in a number of marginalized students.
This shift that defines experiences as an individual possession, rather than a shared historical product reflects the overwhelming influence of the concept of “private property” essential to capitalism. As a legacy of the second academic revolution, knowledge has been transformed into “marketable commodity” (173). Experiences and stories told in classes on gender or ethnic studies become reified and commodified as a product to be consumed by consumer-students. Entrepreneurial universities offer these products for students to be eligible for a cultural citizenship of the society where buzzwords, such as cultural diversity, are superficially valued. As a struggling undergraduate who just started my first year at Columbia, I was confused about my choices of major between history and anthropology. As one of the professors told me, “[a]nthropology these days are much are marketable”. This is a dangerous inclusion of minorities’ voices since the academic institutions, along with the market and the state, transform them into a fetishized commodity, a hip product for students who want to be "culturally aware", and a career boost for professors.
In this process, all kinds of borders are created; some dividing the departments, others experiences of each marginalized person, foreclosing the possibility of community formation, of gathering among the dissident. I believe that this is why having a feminist movement without borders is very relevant to contemporary politics whose governance is dominated by the logic of individualistic isolation and management. As Mohanty succinctly put it, this is not a borderless feminism since it acknowledges the limits that existing (yet not natural) borders pose to the collective organization. It is, however, a conscious act of border crossing (171), of transgressing the normed managerial units, of violating the sacred order of things that will be the start for Mohanty’s transnational, anticapitalist, anti-racist feminism.
Throughout the book, the question that most concerns Mohanty is how we can situate a political agency for third world women in order to start organizing transnationally against patriarchy, heterosexism, racism, and capitalism. In her words, “[c]laiming universality of gender oppression is not the same as arguing for the universal rights of women based on the particularities of our experiences” (107). The particularity of experiences can, therefore, be considered as universal and crucial for Mohanty in harnessing a collectivity with solidarity. She starts her project by examining the way a figure of third world woman has been constructed “under the Western (feminist’s) eye” (19). She argues that the third world women in the colonial discursive paradigm are usually thought of as “objects”, as “category of analysis”, rather than an acting, desiring subject (22). There is, therefore, a tendency to homogenize the third world women’s identities and cohere it with the universal analytic lens of white feminism when thinking about social inequalities they experience.
Understanding the construction of “women” is key to Mohanty’s politics. Referring to Simone de Beauvoir and her famous phrase “On ne nait pas femme. On le devient”, she adds to this idea that the becoming of women for third world women is extremely heterogeneous (Mohanty 55). The process of construction also cannot be understood solely in terms of gender but must be seen as the interweaving of gender, race, and class. In later chapters, she argues that white feminism’s ignorance of this heterogeneity of experiences leads to their failure to make their political movement a “home” for “Other-ed” women. She then deconstructs the definition of “home” that has always been politically charged with the idea of self-resemblance and sameness, which as a result disallows the concept to accommodate differences. She then proposes the idea of “coalition”, an alternative state of belonging that does not necessitate assimilation to a central norm.
In her last three chapters, she turns her critique directly towards capitalism and neoliberalism and their exacerbation of racial and gender inequalities, especially among third world women. First, she begins with demystifying capitalism and its gendered/heteronormativized operation. One of the most important cases in the book that illustrates this argument is how women’s work is considered to be of no economic value because it is done in a private realm of households by a “housewife”. For instance, female lace makers in Narsapur, India in Maria Mies do not get any recognition for their work because it is considered a mere leisure. Their husbands, on the other hand, take the laces that they make to the market, sell them, and receive all the credits. Mohanty then turns to discussing a responsibility for academic institutions to help facilitate a collective, transnational movement of women and criticizes how American universities at the moment operate under the logic of neoliberalism and imperialism which making the formation of such a movement more difficult.
One of her most interesting criticisms of American universities for me is that conversations about race, class, and gender are usually compartmentalized and managed as separate entities. This, she argues, results form the permeation of neoliberal logics, such as risk management, and individualism, into the knowledge production industry in the US. Not only does the division of academic departments indicate this, but also the way knowledge about racial, gender, class oppressions are dealt with has become radically individualized and psychologized. In her analysis of Oberlin College’s Prejudice Workshop, Mohanty claims that experiences of discrimination are usually treated as a psychological matter or an interpersonal misunderstanding that can be resolved through a dialogue without needing to understand any underlying historical or social forces that contribute to creating such a psychic state in a number of marginalized students.
This shift that defines experiences as an individual possession, rather than a shared historical product reflects the overwhelming influence of the concept of “private property” essential to capitalism. As a legacy of the second academic revolution, knowledge has been transformed into “marketable commodity” (173). Experiences and stories told in classes on gender or ethnic studies become reified and commodified as a product to be consumed by consumer-students. Entrepreneurial universities offer these products for students to be eligible for a cultural citizenship of the society where buzzwords, such as cultural diversity, are superficially valued. As a struggling undergraduate who just started my first year at Columbia, I was confused about my choices of major between history and anthropology. As one of the professors told me, “[a]nthropology these days are much are marketable”. This is a dangerous inclusion of minorities’ voices since the academic institutions, along with the market and the state, transform them into a fetishized commodity, a hip product for students who want to be "culturally aware", and a career boost for professors.
In this process, all kinds of borders are created; some dividing the departments, others experiences of each marginalized person, foreclosing the possibility of community formation, of gathering among the dissident. I believe that this is why having a feminist movement without borders is very relevant to contemporary politics whose governance is dominated by the logic of individualistic isolation and management. As Mohanty succinctly put it, this is not a borderless feminism since it acknowledges the limits that existing (yet not natural) borders pose to the collective organization. It is, however, a conscious act of border crossing (171), of transgressing the normed managerial units, of violating the sacred order of things that will be the start for Mohanty’s transnational, anticapitalist, anti-racist feminism.
January 24, 2008
Amazon Book Description
Bringing together classic and new writings of the trailblazing feminist theorist Chandra Talpade Mohanty, Feminism without Borders addresses some of the most pressing and complex issues facing contemporary feminism. Forging vital links between daily life and collective action and between theory and pedagogy, Mohanty has been at the vanguard of Third World and international feminist thought and activism for nearly two decades. This collection highlights the concerns running throughout her pioneering work: the politics of difference and solidarity, decolonizing and democratizing feminist practice, the crossing of borders, and the relation of feminist knowledge and scholarship to organizing and social movements. Mohanty offers here a sustained critique of globalization and urges a reorientation of transnational feminist practice toward anticapitalist struggles.
Feminism without Borders opens with Mohanty's influential critique of western feminism ("Under Western Eyes") and closes with a reconsideration of that piece based on her latest thinking regarding the ways that gender matters in the racial, class, and national formations of globalization. In between these essays, Mohanty meditates on the lives of women workers at different ends of the global assembly line (in India, the United Kingdom, and the United States); feminist writing on experience, identity, and community; dominant conceptions of multiculturalism and citizenship; and the corporatization of the North American academy. She considers the evolution of interdisciplinary programs like Women's Studies and Race and Ethnic Studies; pedagogies of accommodation and dissent; and transnational women's movements for grassroots ecological solutions and consumer, health, and reproductive rights. Mohanty's probing and provocative analyses of key concepts in feminist thought—"home," "sisterhood," "experience," "community"—lead the way toward a feminism without borders, a feminism fully engaged with the realities of a transnational world.
Bringing together classic and new writings of the trailblazing feminist theorist Chandra Talpade Mohanty, Feminism without Borders addresses some of the most pressing and complex issues facing contemporary feminism. Forging vital links between daily life and collective action and between theory and pedagogy, Mohanty has been at the vanguard of Third World and international feminist thought and activism for nearly two decades. This collection highlights the concerns running throughout her pioneering work: the politics of difference and solidarity, decolonizing and democratizing feminist practice, the crossing of borders, and the relation of feminist knowledge and scholarship to organizing and social movements. Mohanty offers here a sustained critique of globalization and urges a reorientation of transnational feminist practice toward anticapitalist struggles.
Feminism without Borders opens with Mohanty's influential critique of western feminism ("Under Western Eyes") and closes with a reconsideration of that piece based on her latest thinking regarding the ways that gender matters in the racial, class, and national formations of globalization. In between these essays, Mohanty meditates on the lives of women workers at different ends of the global assembly line (in India, the United Kingdom, and the United States); feminist writing on experience, identity, and community; dominant conceptions of multiculturalism and citizenship; and the corporatization of the North American academy. She considers the evolution of interdisciplinary programs like Women's Studies and Race and Ethnic Studies; pedagogies of accommodation and dissent; and transnational women's movements for grassroots ecological solutions and consumer, health, and reproductive rights. Mohanty's probing and provocative analyses of key concepts in feminist thought—"home," "sisterhood," "experience," "community"—lead the way toward a feminism without borders, a feminism fully engaged with the realities of a transnational world.
May 30, 2017
I had the pleasure to meet with Dr. Chandra Talpade Mohanty together with selected faculty and students on April 21, 2017 at Villanova University, and what followed was an interesting discussion on the pedagogy of dissent in the neoliberal space of higher education. What was profound in this discussion was how closely the institutionalization of managerial class and the production of knowledge tie together, and how they both connect with imperialism.
When I pointed out my own experience as often being assigned as “representative voice” from the ‘South,’ and how I sometimes find myself going-with-the-lingo in spaces such as the United Nations, and, to some extent, in academic circles, while noting that the ‘lingo’ at times contradicts with the objective, Mohanty (2017) rightfully pointed out that the terminology that is used in those circles in and of itself directs the attention away from the core issues and opts for developmental language instead. She gave the example of how the term “equality” is often used in certain mediums, when it would be more relevant to focus on issues of “justice” instead. Talking about all-encompassing notions of “equality” as such bases itself on the assumption that human rights have been achieved, and that what is left on the to-do list is to simply sharpen things up the edges. But such lingo fails to spot that there if there is defect in a dominant system, having more women representation within that system and keeping the status quo is not going to be so constructive as long as the system itself is put under question.
In her writings, Mohanty (2003) brings various examples of how such “reduction workshops” use concepts such as “prejudice” instead of analyzing the “institutional or historical domination” (p. 209).
When I pointed out my own experience as often being assigned as “representative voice” from the ‘South,’ and how I sometimes find myself going-with-the-lingo in spaces such as the United Nations, and, to some extent, in academic circles, while noting that the ‘lingo’ at times contradicts with the objective, Mohanty (2017) rightfully pointed out that the terminology that is used in those circles in and of itself directs the attention away from the core issues and opts for developmental language instead. She gave the example of how the term “equality” is often used in certain mediums, when it would be more relevant to focus on issues of “justice” instead. Talking about all-encompassing notions of “equality” as such bases itself on the assumption that human rights have been achieved, and that what is left on the to-do list is to simply sharpen things up the edges. But such lingo fails to spot that there if there is defect in a dominant system, having more women representation within that system and keeping the status quo is not going to be so constructive as long as the system itself is put under question.
In her writings, Mohanty (2003) brings various examples of how such “reduction workshops” use concepts such as “prejudice” instead of analyzing the “institutional or historical domination” (p. 209).
November 17, 2014
This book made me think Alice Paul was not so great. That those iron jawed angels were not so great. Bell Hooks speaks to the idea that all the women are white and all the blacks are men. And that black woman have been consistently devalued, overlooked, omitted. She talks about the feminist movement of the 60's and 70's. How the women's movement was the white women's movement. A desire for white woman to get on even ground with white men. She talks about the problems of movment's that exist within the patriarchal, imperialist, capatalist system. How movement's for change within the system cannot be successful because someone, black women are always at the bottom of the ladder. And everyone else inciting change is just making enough waves to not be at the bottom. She talks about shelters and other types of bandaids that do nothing to change the overall plight of black women and future generations. She talks about the black power movement and how it is an exercise in partiarchy and how all of the oppressions are connected. That racism cannot be the only oppression to work on because it is the most imporant. That racism and sexism are linked, and not until there is a dialogue between them can all people esp. black women move towards freedom. Hooks is constantly questioned, why are you a feminist? And she believes a women's movement for all women can exist. She gives me hope to believe in this. I am showing no action.
February 28, 2019
re-read for a transnational feminist climate activism independent study. i first read this book ~10 years ago and really disliked it. i don't remember precisely why - graduate school teaches one to dislike anything that doesn't perfectly fit in your worldview, i guess? but there were also ways in which i did not have enough context in the debates and contributions Mohanty's work made (which were more apparent to me, at the time, in a preference for Spivak's work).
anyway, i read the intro and chapters 1, 2, and 9 and thought they were fantastic. There are parts that are a bit dated, but other parts really feel ahead of their time. Mohanty's assessment of her earlier writing is truly reflective - she is a committed marxist-feminist and really anticipated many of the ways in which a kind of postmodern identity politics that refuses the political as such would veer into largely depoliticizing areas (as it frequently does in our current moment). highly recommended.
anyway, i read the intro and chapters 1, 2, and 9 and thought they were fantastic. There are parts that are a bit dated, but other parts really feel ahead of their time. Mohanty's assessment of her earlier writing is truly reflective - she is a committed marxist-feminist and really anticipated many of the ways in which a kind of postmodern identity politics that refuses the political as such would veer into largely depoliticizing areas (as it frequently does in our current moment). highly recommended.
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