Decolonizing Universalism develops a genuinely anti-imperialist feminism. Against relativism/universalism debates that ask feminists to either reject normativity or reduce feminism to a Western conceit, Khader's nonideal universalism rediscovers the normative core of feminism in opposition to sexist oppression and reimagines the role of moral ideals in transnational feminist praxis.

Decolonizing Universalism argues that feminism can respect cultural and religious differences and acknowledge the legacy of imperialism without surrendering its core ethical commitments. Transcending relativism/ universalism debates that reduce feminism to a Western notion, Serene J. Khader proposes a feminist vision that is sensitive to postcolonial and antiracist concerns. Khader criticizes the false universalism of what she calls 'Enlightenment liberalism,' a worldview according to which the West is the one true exemplar of gender justice and moral progress is best achieved through economic independence and the abandonment of tradition. She argues that anti-imperialist feminists must rediscover the normative core of feminism and rethink the role of moral ideals in transnational feminist praxis. What emerges is a nonideal universalism that rejects missionary feminisms that treat Western intervention and the spread of Enlightenment liberalism as the path to global gender injustice.

The book draws on evidence from transnational women's movements and development practice in addition to arguments from political philosophy and postcolonial and decolonial theory, offering a rich moral vision for twenty-first century feminism.

scholarly and conceptually rigorous, this work of theoretical feminist philosophy shines ... Highly recommended.

Autorentext

Serene J. Khader is Associate Professor of Philosophy and Women's and Gender Studies at the CUNY Graduate Center and Jay Newman Chair in Philosophy of Culture at Brooklyn College. She is the also the author of Adaptive Preferences and Women's Empowerment and co-editor, with Ann Garry and Alison Stone, of The Routledge Companion to Feminist Philosophy.

Klappentext

Decolonizing Universalism develops a genuinely anti-imperialist feminism. Against relativism/universalism debates that ask feminists to either reject normativity or reduce feminism to a Western conceit, Khader's nonideal universalism rediscovers the normative core of feminism in opposition to sexist oppression and reimagines the role of moral ideals in transnational feminist praxis.

Inhalt

• Introduction: Imperialism in the Name of Feminism

• Chapter 1. Towards a Decolonial Feminist Universalism

• Chapter 2. Individualism: Beyond Okin's Ultimatum

• Chapter 3. Autonomy and the Secular: Do Muslim Women Need Freedom?

• Chapter 4. Gender Role Eliminativism: Compelementarian Challenges to Feminism

• Chapter 5. Gender Role Eliminativism: Feminized Power and the Public**