Surveying 3rd Wave Feminism Part II

Mohanty Precis
Chandra Talpade Mohanty writing and scholarship contribute to a body of feminist work
that addresses the postcolonial circumstances of women in the Third World. Her work is
considered part of third-wave feminism. Some of her contemporaries include Ella Shohat and
Leila Ahmed. Notably, Mohanty contributed a framework for analyzing how the scholarship of
Eurocentric western feminists as a part of the Western academy has had a marginalizing effect
on Third World women. In this regard Mohantys scholarship provides a powerful critique to
second-wave feminism. Further, overtime her work has evolved from a focus on the repressive
expressions of colonial rule to hegemonic forces of global capitalism. Her work has been
inspired by Foucault as well as many feminist thinkers that she acknowledges within her
writing.
In the essays included in Feminism without Borders: Decolonizing Theory, Practicing
Solidarity Chandra Mohanty explores both the fault lines and links in todays world of feminist
scholarship and activism by asserting a necessary corrective and an affirmative vision. In the
book, Monhanty mounts an effective critique of the mode of Western feminist discourse that
posits a repressive, colonizing relationship to Third World women. Further, she elucidates
the workings of global capitalism that feminists face today and offers her vision for the future of
the movement. This arc describes the content of the entire volume. While the introduction
and first two chapters touch on these three main projects, their primary emphasis is on the
project of decolonizing Western feminism, offering an account of the emergence of Third World

Surveying 3rd Wave Feminism Part II

feminism and articulating some first thoughts toward a vision for the future work of the
movement.
In the first chapter Mohanty conducts a critical analysis of Eurocentric forms of Western
feminist scholarship that treat Third World women as a monolithic group that is then measured
against Western standards. She calls this activity discursive colonization and demonstrates
how it operates along the juridico-discursive model elucidated by Michel Foucault (Mohanty
2003:38). This formula is played out when a regime or person is a position of power defines
another person or set of persons in a negative relation to her or himself. In this situation, the
western woman sees herself as autonomous and liberated and her Third World counterpart as
oppressed. Third World women are thus designated, not through a thorough analysis of their
social and material conditions. On the contrary, all of Third World women are assumed to fall
into one oppressed category that is posited as a given, a-historical feature known before any
investigation of material conditions. Mohanty attributes this blind spot in Western feminist
scholarship to a mistaken application of Western cultural measures to Third World
phenomenon and a failure of these feminists to understand the way in which Western
academic discourse acts as a channel for deploying western hegemonic forces. By participating
in the deployment of this image of Third World women as oppressed, economically dependent,
etc., these Western feminists have reproduced the power discrepancy between the First and
Third Worlds. By this faulty methodology, not only has Western feminism failed to perceive
Third World women, it has also failed to perceive itself. In contrast, Mohanty asserts that good
methods of scholarship engage in careful, politically focused examinations of women in

Surveying 3rd Wave Feminism Part II

particular social and material conditions (Ibid 32) and Western feminists maintain a critical
awareness as to what they bring to their research.
In the second chapter Mohanty attempts to describe Third World feminism as it has
emerged from its specific context and to bring into relief central concerns the movement faces.
In this mapping, Mohanty describes a voluntary community, emphasizes the importance of
addressing the construction of racial identities and points to possible techniques for the future.
She asserts that Third World women constitute a category of analysis by their voluntary
association of solidarity based on a political alliance and not biological sameness. These
women have in common a shared experience of exploitation as a result of repressive capitalist
practices. Mohanty addresses the fact that contemporary feminists have had to shift their
focus from repressive colonial regimes to the power structures of a state in the system of global
capitalism. This shift calls for the analysis of many ways that power has been bureaucratized.
She points the paucity of research focused on how race is constructed through regimes of signs
and manners of rule and identifies immigration regulations and citizenship legislation as sites
for ongoing analysis. She returns to the discussion of the politics of knowledge and in looking
to the future, points to this area as a critical battleground for feminist struggle. Mohanty
perceives writing as a vehicle for recasting and reclaiming identity not only on an individual
basis, but in order to create a communal (feminist) political consciousness (Ibid 79). She
asserts that if the movement is to overcome binary oppositions, individualism must be
problematized and a more collective consciousness imagined and enacted (Ibid 80-83).

Surveying 3rd Wave Feminism Part II

Chandra Mohantys volume, Feminism without Borders, is a work of great theoretical
and practical significance to feminists in both scholarly and activist environments. On the one
hand, it accomplishes an effective critique of Eurocentric Western feminist scholarship that in
its misguided use of a lens of cultural imperialism fails to perceive womens conditions. By
clearly articulating the underlying mechanisms at work and displacing this discourse, Mohantys
work opens a space for productive dialogue with Third World women. On a practical level,
Mohanty has articulated the notion of solidarity as a voluntary alliance and in so doing suggests
the ground upon which coalitions and communities can begin to build their work.
Mohanty, Chandra Talpade. 2003. Introduction: Decolonization, Anti-capitalist Critique and
Feminist Commitments; Chapter 1: Under Western Eyes: Feminist Scholarship and Colonial
Discourse; Chapter 2: Cartographies of Struggle: Third World Women and the Politics of
Feminism. In Feminism without Borders: Decolonizing Theory, Practicing Solidarity. Pp. 1 84.
Durham; London: Duke University Press.