Transnational

Abstract

This chapter argues that the emergence of the subfield transnational feminism (especially but not exclusively in the United States) after 2000 represented the convergence of many strands of thought and activism: postcolonial feminist thought; critical analysis of globalization; and feminist activists’ coming together around decolonization politics, UN conferences, and local and regional encuentros (encounters), tribunals, and other autonomous spaces. The word transnational, however, was also favored by global capitalism, and feminism was extraordinarily productive for new kinds of exploitation and forms of globalization, for example, the mostly female workforces in export processing zones, microcredit loans, and military efforts to “save” women (as in Afghanistan), and this, too, is an inheritance of transnational feminism. The chapter explores this central contradiction of transnational feminist scholarship and activism, as well as contributions from queer and sexuality studies, feminist disability studies, Native feminism, and other substantive areas of feminism.