What happened to Feminism?
Feminism has been struggling with the subject of difference and diversity over the years in both theory and practice: largely forced to do so by the critiques made by Black and Third World women. In essence, they have had to deal with what Adrienne Rich called feminism’s “white solipsism,” that is, the tendency to think, imagine, and speak as if whiteness described the world. Feminist theorists are discovering how white, Christian, middleclass, heterosexual experiences have often been treated as representing the universal norm for all women. Global Feminism requires cross-cultural communication. This can be quite a challenge between women of the “developed” and “developing” nations. Our well-meant and sincere thoughts are not necessarily the remedies for someone else’s struggle. Bernadette Devlin-McAliskey, Irish activist and former Member of Parliament for Northern Ireland in a. speech at a meeting on Women, War and Resistance: “If I choose because of my own history and culture to beh
