Ideas on Feminism Vary Depending on Culture Location
From Nairobi to Conakry, women across Africa are demanding change in attitudes towards sexual harassment, fair wages, access to land and equal opportunities for political leadership.
But they’re doing it in their own way says Gwendolyn Michael, professor of anthropology and Foreign Service at Georgetown University and author of a book on African feminism.
“In the U.S. women often think feminism means I alone, determine what’s best for me. But African feminism is very much a different thing. It’s about how women interpret their interests and empowerment within the context of where they live and their cultural values.”
Feminism has historically had negative connotations on the African continent, says Xingu Rama Terra who teaches African feminist theory at Rhodes University in South Africa.
“Feminism one is considered to be a title that is given to middle class people or people who are white. There’s also an attachment to feminism that feminism is anti-men and anti-African cultural systems and anti-African traditional practices so in that regard there are many women who would hesitate to be identified as feminists.”
Advocating for women’s right on the basis of equality of the sexes can be intimidating for some men but American University professor Kwaku Nwamah says, “it shouldn’t be the case it starts with not being afraid of the word feminist and understanding that what’s right for our women is right for us as a society, as a continent in general.”
He says some of the problems require a shift in cultural attitudes and those take a long time, but some countries on waiting. Rwanda for example has the largest share of seats in parliament in the world held by women.
“One nice terrific example of what public policy can do to help women. They use quarters and people say what quarters diminish the role of women. No it doesn’t. Then on the end of the spectrum you see countries like Tanzania where the government says you can go to school if you pregnant.”
Dr. Michael says things are evolving on the continent.“I’d say beginning about 20 years ago I began doing a lot of, having a lot of conversations with ordinary women who had been supporting various movements, for example in South African, ANC women and what was fascinating is that these women used to say I can’t talk about feminism until we deal with getting rid of apartheid. Now what we’re seeing is that these women are parliamentarians all across the country. They are trying to get land laws changed.”
People like Kenya’s environmental political activist Juan Gauri Mathai and South Africa’s anti-apartheid activist Winnie Mandela are seen as great feminist inspirations for material.
But is being a feminist critical in the empowerment of women in General. “The simple answer for that should be would be no because many women across the decades have done work that is feminist what we would consider to be Feminists.”
She says the lack of the feminism label in some cases doesn’t negate the credibility of their work.
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