Is Western Feminism for White Middle Class Women? INTRODUCTION

Western feminism is not only hard to define but also highly contested because it incorporates different types of feminisms such as liberal feminism and radical feminism (see appendix). Western feminism is often equated with white feminism which connotes a closed off experience of feminism. Western feminism focuses largely on the production of feminist scholarship, in the sense that much of the feminist writings come from the West.

Western feminism is a broad term that incorporates many branches and is not monolithic. However, for analytical purposes the definition of western feminism this paper will follow is simple. Western feminism is primarily focused on the concerns of white middle-class women, however, it is not a mutually exclusive category that fits all “white middle-class” women. White middle-class women, for example, can also be post-colonial or multicultural feminists. Western feminism also assumes that gender is the most defining identity feature (Dixon, 2011). As Ramazanoglu (1989, p. 125) states, western feminism is a “narrow version of the western experience” of mostly white middle-class women. Intersectionality is a term that needs to be acknowledged by western feminism because it allows for the analysis of other identity affiliations apart from gender (Al-Sibai, 2015).

This article will analyse western feminism and its concerns by viewing this question through three different lenses, the class lens, the racial lens and the cultural lens. By using these various lenses one can see how western feminism is exclusive despite its intentions. This piece will then further deconstruct the cultural lens with reference to Muslim women in Afghanistan and Egypt.