ABSTRACT
Women’s Studies programs have flourished across the globe for decades. Initially these programs focused on women in individual national cultures-their economic situation, health needs, family and social life, political status, and cultural achievements. As our world has changed, Women’s Studies increasingly considers the state of women in our interconnected world. Even as Women’s Studies developed new categories of analysis, it became evident that dramatic transformations were bringing economic interconnections and the rapid communication of knowledge. One thing that these revealed was the vast array of differences among women depending on where they lived in the world. The experiences of women were shaped by global differences and shared commonalities as never before. These connections-often unequal, at other times shared-have become central issues in Women’s Studies. Women’s Studies looks at the global forces that shape the lives of
women. Multinational companies-that is, companies that have a workforce and operations outside a national base-continue to increase in number and scope, for example. They globalize the workforce by moving operations to whatever location can offer the cheapest labor. Often this labor is female, sometimes operating in countries with corrupt or dictatorial regimes and subject to the conditions of free trade, including a lack of protection for workers. In
this chapter we explain such concepts and powerful structures as multinationalism in industry, free trade regimes, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund-all of which have advanced the interconnections in the world economy that have affected women, usually unequally. We also look at the global conditions causing women’s migration and their oppression in civil wars and famines, using these to explain the Women’s Studies term “location,” the connections with Peace Studies, and the gendering of human rights. The contested relationship between North and South is also examined in light of Women’s Studies insights and of the critiques of local and global activists. The interests of women from wealthy Northern societies, many
argue, have too often determined both Women’s Studies’ and feminist concerns. Thinkers in the global South first pointed to this dominance, or at least influence, as they developed the field of Post-colonial Studies. Post-colonial Studies has brought to the fore questions of the subalternity of women, most notably those in the global South but in fact everywhere that patriarchy, especially white patriarchy, rules. This chapter explains women’s “subalternity”— that is, their lower status-in the context of colonialism and global capitalism. There is also the sense that around the world Women’s Studies serves as a symbol of a kind of modernity that also arose from Western power. In this critique, white women’s lives and ideas are taken as a model for “modern”, that is, desirable institutions and thoughts. We will look at the idea of modernity and its relationship to women and the rise of Women’s Studies, along with its spread globally. In fact, even the category “woman” was in some cultures created to show progress where it had not existed before. These lines of thinking and the sharp criticisms of the West and Western feminism will be explained. Finally, we ask whether globalization has brought the world’s
women closer together at all and if so, on what terms. There have been high-profile international conferences dominated not by women from the global North but by women from the global South-showing their superiority in terms of organizing and concern for a wider range of women’s issues. The evidence suggests that satellite communications, the internet, air transportation, and the globalization of culture have allowed women to see and communicate with each other, sometimes bringing greater empathy and
also bringing differences and disagreements out in the open. The research and activism of women from the global South have been pivotal to expanding Women’s Studies’ accomplishments.
