Content area
Full Text
A principios del siglo XXI México es un escenario abigarrado, donde aumenta a diario el reclamo de las muieres por ocupar espacios de participación en el desarrollo nacional. ..
Al the beginning of the 21st century, Mexico is a multi-colored scenario, where everyday women's claim to occupy participatory spaces in national development increases....
- Marta Lamas (2007, p. 15, authors' translation)
Situating the Origin of this Special Edition: Transnational/ International/Global Feminism
The terms "transnational/international/global feminism" have been increasingly common in feminist scholarly literature in the past 15 years. These expressions are frequently used as synonyms to describe feminist epistemology and praxis that propagate political, social, and academic networks between institutions, groups, and individuals across geographic borders. More recent discussions make an important distinction between transnational feminism and international or global feminism, with the latter being specifically associated with scholarly analysis of and political movements around globalization processes (Tohidi, 2005; see also Scott-Dixon, 2004). While international connections among women have been present since the beginning of the feminist movement (for example, the International Women's Suffrage Association), the profound impact of economic, political, and cultural globalization on our social imaginaries and lived experience has led to the proliferation of a global consciousness - "think globally, act locally."
According to Tohidi (2005), transnational feminism emerges out of the concept of "global sisterhood," as defined by Robin Morgan in the 1980s. The juxtaposition of the critique of the idea of a global sisterhood by feminists of colour for not taking into account the differences between women, along with the intensification of globalization and its impact on women's lives, has led to the conceptualization of transnational feminism (Mendoza, 2002, cited in Tohidi, 2005) as: "a politic of solidarity of feminists around the planet that transcends social class, race, sexuality, and national limits."
In a provocative essay entitled, "Globalizing Feminist Ethics," Alison M. Jaggar (2000) analyzes the notion of a globalizing feminist discourse. She argues that there is a need to establish a global feminist dialogue that helps break down stereotypes of women outside of Western culture. Northern and Southern feminists must resolve some difficult issues in order to establish this dialogue, such as who can participate and which perspective should be taken into consideration (insider or outsider?) and which issues...