Found this interesting article while pursuing around today. It outlines the problems facing the feminist movements in getting traction with their issues today. Giving the presentation on feminism in a class last term, I was blown away by the poor attendance, especially by women who didn't feel that it was relevant to learn.
The article notes, and this is where I completely agree with it, that one of the issues with feminists today is that they have been subsumed by post-rational ideas, like those of 'cultural imperialism.' I find these positions somewhat ironic, since they seem to assume that non-Western cultures are static entities - that there is something intrinsic in them. It would be like feminists in the 1950s asking why they have the right to challenge the patriarchy in the first place - perhaps it was also 'culturally entrenched.' Clearly that wasn't the case then, and there's no reason why it should be similar now.
Now, in the case of trans-cultural exchanges, one must be more diplomatic and more strategy is required to minimize outright rejection of these ideas, but there is no reason, in general, why the feminist victories won in the Western world can't act as a template for non-Western countries in their own struggles against patriarchy. To claim that this isn't the case is, in my opinion, do to a great injustice to the countless women around the world who live in substandard conditions and face mistreatment.
The article continues on a few other subjects, but this one is always troubling to me, so I thought I needed to comment myself.
