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# The Third World Woman ± homogenized µOther¶, systematically
oppressed by universal patriarchy, already constituted, outside history,
victims without agency
Vs. both Women as historical subjects in context
and western feminist women as privileged, resisting, knowing

3rd world Woman: an appropriation and codification of knowledge about women that
is a discursive form of colonialism.

Produced in western feminist writing but also by 3rd world women producing or
publishing knowledge in west. Teng citing Chow: µorientalism should be understood
as a language ³which can be used by natives and non-natives alike´¶.

Denies differences between third world women.

Assumes an agenda around which women should want to mobilize as have same
interests and needs.

Produces knowledge µproving¶ universal patriarchy rather than analysing specific

contexts, meanings, resistance etc. Western concepts assumed to have universal
applicability, parachuted in rather than looking at what they mean in local and
historical contexts.

Reads gender as a state, not a process

Zero-sum and binary model of power: men dominate, women are exploited and only
change must lead to reversal

µThird World Difference¶: no analysis of power relations between first and third
worlds, imperialism. Against norms of west 3rd world people naturally backward,
their women needing help from west

 
 

Orientalism: creation of universalised images of West viz a viz East, whereby West
knows itself through East, through what it¶s not

East: declining cultures, fallen, need colonial rule

$% 


 



A western and prejudiced representation of the East (Edward Said, 1935-2003) by

European scholars, artists, travel writers etc.
A description of the East but one fundamental to conception of µthe European self¶
Portrays the µEast¶ as barbaric, superstitious, inferior, backward, agrarian, rural,
religious, feudal, ossified
In contrast to the µOccident¶ as civilised, rational, superior, developed, industrialised,
urbanised, capitalised, secular , modern, going forward

Binary oppositions accruing negatively to µEast¶ and positively to µWest¶

µWest¶ and µEast¶ are historical not geographical constructs ± wherever a society has
broken from feudal structures to embrace modernity it is seen as Western.

Orientalism embodies discourse ± a body of speech or writing which constructs a

topic in certain ways and limits other constructions; the production of knowledge
through language, µdiscursive practice¶.

Orientalism is not just an imaginative construct, it produces knowledge that influences

social practices, eg knowledge of the East as inferior that legitimated colonial rule

&  
 

The µIndian Woman¶: poor, exotic, universally oppressed, incapable of

helping themselves, showing how far western women
had come

Ethnocentric universalism

Women have contributed to orientalism: as µmaternal imperialists¶,

Mayo¶s Mother India - racist portrayal of Indians as degenerate

fails to mention Indian women¶s movement
no voice for Indian women
no contextual analysis of patriarchy
supports colonial rule, western civilization knows best

Daly¶s Gyn/Ecology, ch. On suttee

recognises patriarchy is everywhere but
Ignores women¶s resistance even though recognizes in European µwitches¶
Uses all western sources and all male except Mayo!
Ignores Indian women¶s movement while celebrating European and US ±
superior, leaders of global feminism, western feminism knows best
Fails to see how imperialism produces subordination of women
Disparages dhais, Indian midwives, even while analysing how western doctors
disparaged European midwives to control childbirth

Authorial Relationships:

between author and those written about (denies them self-representation)

between author and other authors cited (corroborate one another in hierarchy of
knowledge)
between author and readers ± doesn¶t challenge readers¶ cognitive frame so slip into
reading Indian women as more oppressed and Indian society more barbaric


!

Scholarship on Chinese women shifting from analysis of µWoman¶, subordinated
evidence of China¶s backwardness, exotic, ahistorical, essentialist, orientalist

To contextual work showing how subordination is produced, resisted, changes over

time, differs between groups of women.

Deconstruction of µtraditional¶ China

Work on women¶s cultural production, their own voices and expression (but whose
remain to study? ± elites)

Multiple perspectives, marginal perspectives

Masculinities