Gender GH Silvia Ruschak

Guest Lecture on „GENDER AND GLOBAL HISTORY“by Silvia Ruschak : 

Guest Lecture on „GENDER AND GLOBAL HISTORY“ by Silvia Ruschak Lecture Series: „Introduction to Global History“, January 10th 2006

OPENING QUESTIONS : 

OPENING QUESTIONS What is gender? What’s the difference between sex and gender? “one is not born a woman, one becomes one” Simone de Beauvoir’s The Second Sex (1949) Is gender a global category of classification? Can gender be used similarly in the different global contexts?

STRUCTURE : 

STRUCTURE Discussing three major aspects of Mohanty’s criticism Alternative approaches - introducing the concept of “the politics of location” Putting the discussed theories into practice

I. MOHANTY’S CRITICISM : 

I. MOHANTY’S CRITICISM Women as a single, powerless category Oppressor and oppressed powerful vs. powerless women as victims of men Colonialist move white middle class feminists vs. ‘Third World’ women’ oppressors => ‘First World’ feminists oppressed => ‘Third World’ women

I. MOHANTY’S CRITICISM : 

I. MOHANTY’S CRITICISM Homogenisation of ‘Third World’ women ‘Western’ feminists discursively producing ‘Third World’ women as the ‘Other’ Stereotypical classification of women in ‘Third World’ as oppressed, ‘traditional’, sexually discriminated etc. African women = descriptive term ≠ a single group of women

I. MOHANTY’S CRITICISM : 

I. MOHANTY’S CRITICISM Methodologies that support the two assumptions Arithmetic method – adding up ‘evidence’ Reproduction, sexual division of labour, marriage etc. as a proof for women’s subordination, assuming that these concepts are similar in all contexts

II. ALTERNATIVE APPROACHES : 

II. ALTERNATIVE APPROACHES Alternative to the dual power model – Foucault’s model of power Power is not held by anyone but it is multidimensional – it is produced everywhere by everyone Power does not only work on people but it works through people Power always coexists with resistance – without resistance, there is no power

II. ALTERNATIVE APPROACHES : 

II. ALTERNATIVE APPROACHES ‘Politics of location’ instead of homogenisation What is a location? Geographic place, historical time, racial, social, cultural, ethnic, religious, political, private etc. contexts ‘Politics of Location’ Adrienne, Rich (1984):‘Notes Toward a Politics of Location’. In: Adrienne, Rich: Blood, Bread and Poetry. London. Concrete accounts of the location of the researcher and the researched Relationship between different locations

II. ALTERNATIVE APPROACHES : 

II. ALTERNATIVE APPROACHES Methodologies Particularised and in-depth analysis Linked with larger, global, economic and political frameworks Microhistories in relation to macrohistories

III. PUTTING THEORY INTO PRACTICE : 

III. PUTTING THEORY INTO PRACTICE My Research Project: Travelling Beauty Ideals. Female Beauty Perception in Transition. An Oral History Project in South Ghana. Gender aspects in my research concepts of dressing, beauty, sexuality are gendered My ‘politics of location’ within the research

PUTTING THEORY INTO PRACTICE: 

PUTTING THEORY INTO PRACTICE Analysis of the picture: Different concepts of feminine dressing mother = trousers masculine/male dressing daughter = trousers feminine dressing Different politics of location that led to a different socialisation as woman partially different ideas of female beauty Mutual communication

III. PUTTING THEORY INTO PRACTICE: 

III. PUTTING THEORY INTO PRACTICE “Me I like all type [of dressing]. European, African. It depends on where I am going. […] You know that place is a typical village. They believe in tradition so much. So there I can’t go and wear trousers. Though I can wear it but I will not pick one because the people in the village will be looking at me. Some might think I don’t have Cloth. […] But when it comes to here and I am going to an engagement I won’t wear Cloth. I will just wear a dress or trousers and top or skirt and blouse. Nobody will question you, nobody will look at you.” (A, 04-03-25, 3).

CONCLUSION : 

CONCLUSION Gender is not a globally identical category Gender is a historical category that is defined according to its context Gender is dynamic and constantly changing Gender is constituted through categories like race, class, ethnicity etc.