Struggles of Third World Women

After completing the readings assigned for this week I have come to a better understanding of what it really means to be a feminist, and the ideas typically associated with those who identify themselves as feminists. As Jessica Valenti points out, to be a feminist is not to be Anti-men, it is to pursue the equality for women in society. However, Mohanty brings up a great point on this subject: not all women, in all parts of the world, can accomplish this due to different histories, surroundings, and customs. I have seen this first hand when visiting family in Central America. The women always stay home to cook, clean, and take care of whatever other work there is to do around the house. This may not sound too different from the typical expectations of women in the United States; however, women in the United States have fought, marched, and protested to create the rights they hold today to work outside of the home, and demolish all other typical expectations of them. Sadly, in many Central American countries, as well as in Africa, Asia, and other places, this has yet to happen. Men continue to dominate their society. This is what creates the difficulty of labeling them all together as Third World Women; not all share the same customs or life styles centralized in their country.

Mohanty also reminds me of some startling information I learned in my Chicana Studies course last semester having to do with the fertility of women in Puerto Rico. In Puerto Rico, between the 1930s and the 1970s, approximately one-third of the female population of childbearing age had undergone sterilization, the highest rate in the world. What is more shocking than the numbers is the fact that most of these women did not know what was being done to them. The husbands signed all the paperwork and allowed the sterilization of their wives without asking the women for their consent. This shows that the domination of men stretches even into a woman’s own body. Sadly, male domination is the most common thing that women in “Third World” countries face. They may differ in everything else, therefore creating different categories for them, but when you really look at it women all around the world are fighting for the same thing: liberation from the males.