Sisterhood: The Essential Part Of Being A Feminist

This paper would be my reflection on the idea of global feminism, its praxis and concerns through a feminist lens with help of two other feminist scholars- Robin Morgan and Susan Moller Okins. In the year 2017 I visited United States in January, it was also the month when Trump came into power post -presidential elections and the subsequent women’s march organised in Washington the day after his inaugural. I was one of the participants at the march; one can raise their concern as to why did a women of colour who was visiting the country for few weeks be interested to march(?). I did ask myself the same question and the answer I gave myself was that I wanted to be an ally to my American friends who will be marching. I wanted to show my sisterhood and somewhere be part of global transformative women’s agenda.

What do I understand by the term Global? Understanding what it means to be ‘global’ and its defining perimeter has led me to visualise it as something which occurs in every spatio-temporal place universally. However, this analysis of the word ‘global’ is too simplistic to be applied to phenomenon and idea of ‘global feminism’. Then how does one seek to define it? Is there a singular definition? The answer is a resounding ‘no’. What I wish to analyse here before I venture into concept of ‘global feminism’ is understanding the importance of acknowledging that feminist movement is multiplicity of various ‘movements’. That means global feminist movement is a mesh of various feminist movement(s) taking place across the world confronting world’s system of oppression with respect to socio-historical context of their location. Hence, it aptly describes the feminist verve organising itself around the world over last few decades.

Various feminist scholarship has engaged in the debate around the idea of ‘global feminism’. Historically, ‘international’ was the first reference made to organising when national boundaries were less permeable. And ‘global’ reflects the transcendence of the feminist movement and action across borders. For some feminist scholars, ‘global’ meant spread of western ideas of feminism across the world, increase NGOisation of feminist movement and for some it meant universalising the category of women and the oppression they face. However, I see ‘global feminism’ as plentary scale of feminist movement collaborating together on identification with issues liked that of globalisation, war, justice&peace and women’s right.

Over the entire semester, we have continuously debated the idea of sisterhood through the work of Robin Morgan and others. To think of global sisterhood, is to unpack the sister-relationship which has varied meanings for me. For me, based on my experience of having a sister is based on understanding each other’s emotions, privacy, experiences and a marked sense of respect to each others being. I’m using this analogy to understand what it means to be in sisterhood. Is it to be ideally placed in more personal context or can be applied to a larger political and global framework(?).

Robin Morgan’s work ‘ Sisterhood is Powerful’ was driven by desire to challenge that feminist idea was applicable only to Western or Women from the first world countries and recognise the global explosion of feminist ideas across the world. In her introduction to the anthology, Morgan argues that the basis of global solidarity can be located in women’s common experiences like that of sense of shared oppression which transcends division and diversity to form a unified political philosophy of feminism. She highlights how women around the world face negative stereotypes, the devaluing of women’s reproductive roles, the double-day burden of work and family, and violence against women. She sees these as mechanism which are universal to maintain the interest of men and subordination of women. She then constructs a global sisterhood as a revolutionary movement against all 'male' systems and governments.

Again, here I would like to reject Morgan’s argument of ‘global sisterhood’ but not the idea of it. This so because Morgan fails to see the implication of taxonomies which polices what constitutes the official experience of women. Within the anthology itself, women’s voices from the third world rejecting marginalization of their experiences which has been categorically colonized into a composite singular image of the women from the third world creating ethnocentric universalism.

I would like to argue here that I see ‘global sisterhood’ not as a descriptive to be proven right or wrong but to create a vision which embodies shared values and differences. Just like in a sister relationship we have commonalities - like being raised by the same family but both of us have different interaction with the world which creates our experiences. Acknowledging that differences exist during a fight between us is important to come to a consensus and is a marker of respect.

Susan Okin, in her work raises an extremely important yet problematic question of whether multiculturalism is bad for women. According to Okin, universal feminist goals must transcend cultural differences by arguing that the project of multiculturalism will put an end to feminist struggle for equality. She sees feminism as a liberal egalitarian phenomenon. To see, this is quite western essentialist stand she is taking. She thus reduces multiculturalism to something bad and unwanted from the beginning and never questions the false universality of her own feminist liberalism.

In her paper on human rights for women, Okin argues and relapsed into the binary that while western feminist have emphasized on deconstructing the differences among women, the feminist activists from the third world have been making considerable stride in working together to identify common issues shared by women across the world to develop an international movement for the recognition of women’s rights as human rights.

This argument of Okin misses the diversity of feminist theorizing by universalizing women’s identity into a monolith by attributing simple universalistic interests and goals.. But the history of questioning and critique, and the shift of the subject of feminism from center to margin, has produced a far richer, more complex, and truer understanding of who women are and what their interests might be.

The only point where I concur with Okin’s is that the western feminist theorists have been so engaged in deconstructing the category of women by focusing on differences in their socio-economic and historical context that they have failed to notice how feminism has started taking global dimensions, a continuous reconstructive work was being done across the globe. Interestingly, Mohanty, whom Okin points out as one of the academics failing to contribute to global feminist politics, has focused her work on reconstructing a 'feminism without borders,' through analyzing local struggles and moving from the local to the common interests that link Third World women, and all women.

A very important question arises- can there a global feminist solidarity? Again, I try to locate this understanding through my sister-relationship. We are ranked in family according to our ages which makes my elder sister in-charge of me when my parents are not around. She is supposed to be more mature and wiser because of her age. This turn leads to power dynamics and even controlling. This context can be applied to women from the first world countries and their relationship with women from third world countries. The former has more power globally through their locations and the ability to silence the latter draws our attention to the power dynamics in play between two categories of women.

It is therefore very important for us to understand the fact that we cannot assume the experiences, emotions, interests and goals without learning to acknowledge the very different life issues faced by women in different socio-economic situation. We have to learn and continue learning to approach issue with the framework that is feminist through an orientation to solidarity. To lay a foundation that one will not silence each other out, I do recognize the fact that no social formation is free from power constraints. However, a plateau can be created through continuous struggle towards an orientation to solidarity emerging out of each woman’s own identity. A commitment towards feminist ideals, they need not be the same but to see ideals as motivation to sustain feminist struggles and be informed about practices which will and has changed throughout history. That we might be located in power struggles yet be capable of recognizing and identifying with each other. These shared interests are not given but has to be discovered by paying attention to what is significant and meaningful for a feminist framework and solidarity.

I would want to argue that one should see sisterhood not through a romantic lens, but through a complex system of its dynamics to be global and it’s potentiality to come and work together. This is exact reason I found myself marching alongside women in United States. The march had accommodated genders from across spectrum, women of color, ethnicity, disability, class and even caste. The women who marched were aware about their location and participation in oppressions of imperialism, colonialism and racism. They marched against the rhetoric of hate, violence and war which will directly affect not just women but everyone across the global south. Though. I must confess the elementality of global sisterhood is lacking but it is not a phenomenon one can dismiss easily.

The global civil movement of the 1970s was marked by women’s movement, human rights movement and anti-colonial movement. The women’s movement marked with UN Decade for Women led to and created context for women around the world to come together for sustained and introspective encounter with respect to their spatio-temporal reality. This is partly because the U.N. has acted as a target, a venue, and a magnet for many activists interested in justice and equality for women.

Development is a two-sided coin, and we must at once note its dualistic connotations; first is developments towards the positive, to ‘progress’ and the other is, negative, to ‘decline’ or to ‘stagnate’. To argue, the idea of ‘development’ however, inherently requires a standard on which comparison is made, which decides where development is required. The idea is thus indeed a relative one, which is based on the comparison of the status quo of the minority. Therefore it is seemingly difficult to escape the conclusion that somewhere the idea of inclusion of women was overshadowed by most nation-states, a sharp break from the liberal ethos they preached.

Hence, the importance of global feminism and its larger implication lies in the setting that without women across the world coming together on an international platform, women’s equality, and voices of women would be have been marginalized in larger context of human rights framework. The concentration on the need to eliminate discrimination against women and to empower them is essentially both as a focal point and as a way of stimulating and indeed insisting on mainstreaming of women’s issues in all other human rights frameworks. In addition, they highlight multidirectional North-South influences and identify issues (lesbian rights, abortion, trafficking) that remain polarized. Individuals coming together as representatives of specific countries in order to both build consensus on projects and priorities and to forge understandings of differences and commonalities.

Women from across the world with respect to their diverse settings have turned to global sisterhood or platforms for numerous reasons. Some sought to seek help from feminists across various states, non-governmental bodies, and institutions like UN (United Nations) to combat exclusion from national political processes and to pressure the state to make desired changes. Feminists across the world have raised alarms about violations and abuse faced by fellow feminists and have actively come together to push for justice and policy changes.. Still others have been on the lookout for new colleagues with whom to exchange ideas and tactics. In turning to the global level, women forge new spaces of political participation, new identities for women, and new tools that can be used to promote a feminist agenda at both national and international levels.

Another example is how CEDAW (Convention on Elimination of Discrimination Against Women) came into existence. It was due to local struggles embodied with a global agenda and perspective to challenge the structures which lead to women’s subordination.. Even CEDAW isn’t legally binding, however in theory the States have to formulate legislations and enact measures to protect women’s rights and CEDAW Convention acts as a policy advisor. But the cultures of documentation has pressed for CEDAW Committee to exert moral and international pressure against recalcitrant countries, it has also opened avenues for investment in NGO’s who also put pressure on their respective states and play an important role in diffusion and lobby for explicit commitment promote women’s equality.

Global feminist movement has learned through decades that binding identities can be dangerous. We have learned, and continue to learn, crucial lessons about the dangers of collective identities and identity politics. But perhaps we have too often trivialized the importance of being held together. Having said this, I do believe when I marched in 2017 it was to recognize each other’s struggle and resistant agency that is essential for solidarity. I was away from home, yet at home amongst the women who marched in US. It was a place of similarity, differences and affection.

We need to reject the ideas of a totalitarian identity as descriptive of global sisterhood, instead engage in revaluation of the term global itself and its engagement with the idea of sisterhood. This vision can be made compatible by formulating a clear analysis and critiques which is an interwoven process for a global transformation which will help feminists engage in self critique, deeper relations, of collectivity and opening up towards some broadly shared values and ideals.