Challenges of Global Feminism

In writing about global feminism, I will first situate myself in the realms of identity and global politics. I am from the United States, English-speaking, Caucasian, educated, middle class, female. I identify as queer, but my appearance and public behaviors are heteronormative. I am a feminist, reproductive rights activist, advocate for economic justice, and slow food movement enthusiast. I am spiritual, but not adherent to any religion; a believer that kindness and love are the keys to true understanding, peace and justice. These identities and their associated values and beliefs are important to me – they make me who I am and they guide my life decisions as well as my daily interactions.

I am working in a rural Kenyan village as a public health program coordinator for a microfinance organization. This situation has forced every single one of my identities and values into public and personal scrutiny; causing me to struggle with their meaning and their collision with Kenyan realities. My identities are intersecting in ways I have never dealt with before, but must be wrestled with in order to understand my role as a global feminist. I will explore the specific ways that my feminism has come into contrast with the conservative values of this community and how I negotiate those collisions while being aware of my role as an outsider who does not want to reproduce and validate the power dynamics of Western imperialists that have caused the injustices I am seeking to alleviate.

I will explore several of the specific ways that previous understandings of my values have been compromised as I try and negotiate my role as global feminist.  For example, teaching HIV prevention while the Ministry of Education does not allow discussion of condoms in secondary schools, advocating for a survivor of domestic violence with elderly male community leaders, working with sex workers with staff of a private Christian hospital, discussing the terms trans and intersex with young colleagues, describing why I don’t eat meat to rural farmers, explaining transnational corporations to local shopkeepers, discussing virginity with Evangelical church goers, and promoting economic empowerment with donations from wealthy Americans.

Working in a conservative Christian African community has caused me to re-evaluate how I will express myself as a feminist, how I advocate for reproductive rights, how I understand economic injustices, and how I discuss queer identity and sustainable agriculture. I am an outsider, a foreigner, all too aware of the country’s colonialist history. This country has suffered great losses and is still suffering because of its imperialist past and neo-liberalized present. And here I am, trying to be a progressive feminist, an activist for social justice, in a country that was brutally exploited for its land, labor and natural resources only decades earlier, by people like me, some with attitudes and beliefs similar to mine. How do I know I am not inflicting the same harm as all those “philanthropists” who have come before me?  My whiteness and my nationality represent power and wealth, I am a walking symbol of those things, in a community that has too little of either. No matter what I do, what I say, wear, or how I act, will change the fact that I am a reminder that white people have more power in this world and are continuing to exploit Africa to gain more.

The overarching goal of my work is to disrupt the existing power structures that marginalize and oppress people – women, children and men.  I view my role as removing the barriers that have been consciously or unconsciously implemented to keep some people with power and some people without power. The language around this concept can get complicated – I am not “giving” power, I am not “empowering”, I am not “uplifting”, I am not “saving” anyone – that is not my role here. Rather, I have the opportunity to remove some of the barriers that are preventing people from rising up and dismantling the existing power imbalances themselves.

As a public health professional, the barriers I am here to remove are health related. Infectious diseases, chronic diseases, malnutrition, injury and violence have plagued African countries and halted the ability of African people to get an education, raise children, support their family, and engage in fulfilling and economically productive activities. We cannot underestimate the role of health in achieving social justice. People cannot organize, collaborate, and empower their communities when they are not healthy. Health is the foundation of a fulfilling and productive life and a fulfilling and productive life for everyone is the foundation of social justice. Therefore, removing barriers to healthy living in a way that gives Africans greater opportunities to pursue fulfilling lives and change their communities, is one way of disrupting existing power inequalities. In this vision of healthy communities poverty is no longer equated with disease and the poor are not kept marginalized by their constant struggles with disease. The real goal is to eliminate poverty, but in order to do that, the poor must be given the chance to advocate for economic justice in a way that is meaningful for them.