Feminism and Cultural Pluralism
This seminar seeks to explore the relationship between the ideals of (western) feminism and of cultural pluralism, looking to examples of how tensions between the two discourses have manifested within international politics. Multi-national and non-governmental campaigns against violence proclaim ‘women’s rights are human rights’, yet the discourse of human rights is rejected within many societies as a Western imposition that is at best insensitive to, and at worst wholly incompatible with, indigenous cultural norms. Critical and post-structural theoretical approaches provide