The Multiplicity of Feminism: Syntheses of the Local and the Universal

Abstract

Any universal definitions of feminism - as well as what constitutes feminist theory, political strategy, and related practices - are problematic. The patriarchal relations that feminists oppose have different configurations depending on the social, economic, cultural and political contexts. Consequently, there are various feminisms: multiple syntheses of local and universal knowledge. This article analyzes the conceptual and political rifts within the global feminism associated with the hegemony of western ideas and its criticism by transnational and postcolonial feminists and examines the postsocialist transformations and localizations of feminism and, in particular, the evolution of feminist ideas in post-soviet Russia.