The White Woman's Burden: from colonial civilisation to Third World development

Abstract

Gender discourse and scholarship continues to be dominated by Western paradigms, generally leading to an abstract mapping of gender stratification instead of a critical reflection on the very institutions that shape such lines of inquiry. Not unlike Kipling's illustration of the white man's burden, which treats other cultures as ‘childlike’ and ‘demonic’, mainstream theories and studies on gender continue to reflect the white woman's burden, which seems to disparage the identity, voice and contexts of women of colour. This article reviews the historical and current roles of white women in white colonial and postcolonial projects. The review is intended to explore and understand reasons which may be currently contributing to doubts about the white woman's burden in the Third World.