Women% &die

ht.
Rintcd in the USA.

Forum,

Vol. 15, Nos. S/6, pp. 6B-627,

1992
Copyright0

OYrl-5395/92
$5.00 + .oo
1!45ZFqamonReuLtd.

BOOK REVIEWS

THDtD

WORLD

WOMEN

AND

-bDI

POLITICS

OF 8hfI-

by Chandra Talpade Mohanty, Ann Russo,

and Lourdes Torres. 338 pages. Indiana University
Press, Bloomington and Indianapolis, 1991. Cloth,
USS39.95; Paper, USS14.95.
NLSM, edited

Third World Women and The Politics of Feminism, exlited by Mohanty. Russo, and Lourdes, provides a critical
analysis for understanding womens oppression. The
various articles in the text generally oppose sexism, racism, homophobia, capitalist exploitation, and patriarchy. The articles also reveal how sexism pervades the
various social institutions of Third World nations. The
book is divided into four major sections: (1) Power,
Representation, and Feminist Critique; (2) Public Policy, the State, and Ideologies of Gender; (3) National
Liberation and Sexual Politics; (4) Race, Identity. and
Feminist Struggles. The general theme maintained
throughout the book by the various contributors is that
colonial structures, world capitalism, and patriarchy
promote exploitation.
In Section One, Chandra Mohanty explicates conceptual issues with which feminist scholarship struggles.
The central point is that Feminism is used as a world
wide phenomenon for understanding and reconstructing
ideologies. Also, the section on Third World women is
presented within the context of women who are subjugated economically and politically all over the world.
There is a formidable attempt by Mohanty to explain
Third World Women as a concept different from (but
inclusive of) women of colonized, decolonized, post colonial, or developing countries. The reader is cautioned
to be careful not to consider Third World women as a
cohesive group with similar experiences. as other feminist literature sometimes alludes to. Different histories
and experiences are significant tools toward understanding the conditions and pains of these women.
While the first section of the book deals with contending issues of conceptualization, Section Two centers
on the role of the State in perpetuating patriarchy. Redrafting Morality as captioned by Jacqui Alexander focuses on the role of the state as sexist and exploitative.
Alexander indicates that in post colonial Trinidad and
Tobago, the state takes the position of remaking sexual
identity for both males and female-s and also takes the
position in sexualizing relationships that do not meet
with legitimate heterosexual standards. On the other
hand, Faye Harrisons discussion on Women in Jamaicas Urban Informal Economy reveals the feminization
of unemployment, poverty, and the shift from equal exploitation of sexes during slavery to the domination of
women in subsistence economy as compared to the control of the dominant sectors of the economy by their
male counterpart.
The sexploitation of Third World women as discussed in Section Two leads to correctional measures
discussed in Section Three, which deals with National
Liberation and Sexual Politics. Angela Gilliam in
Womens Sexuality and National Liberation chal-

lenges the idealixed role about family structure used to

measure women. She finds gender and sexual identity as
used by the Western womens movement an insufficient
paradigm to deal with global womens exploitation and
sexism. She argues that a more suitable model must incorporate race, class, and gender in feminist scholarship.
Generally, feminism is used as a theory to explain womens oppression and their relationship to the existing
mode of production. The analogy between relations of
production and womens subjugation under patriarchy is
also explained.
Section Four, Race, Identity and Feminist Struggles,
can be summed up by Ann Russos reference to excerpts
from Moore Wolverton, which states that Our racism
divides us from our allies, aligns us with the enemy, and
prevents us from participating in the realization of any
version of a new, just culture.
There are other articles, such as Barbara Smiths
The Truth That Never Hurts, which explain the interrelationship baween lesbian life and the question of race
and sex, with emphasis on black lesbian writers. She
raises the issue of the overwhelming portrayal of lesbianism discussed as a problem (which is demoralizing rather
than realistic) among feminist scholars.
In one of the articles, Violence In The Other Country by Rey Chow, it is stated that western feminism,
having derived much of its strength and sophistication
from the basis of womens experiences of oppression,
needs to avoid the master discourse position. Western
feminists projecting their ethnocentrism are similar to
middle class urban African, Asii. or Caribbean feminist scholars using their standard as the norm in discussing their counterpart in the village or rural areas.
aDWIN
DRPARTMENT

OF SOCIOLOGY

AND

OHIWRRRI

hTHROPOLoOY

STATECOLLEGE
JERSEYCITY,NJ,USA

JER~EYCMY

WOMEN?3 WORDS: THE

lblMISTPRAcFlcEOFORAL

FRY.
edited by Shema Berger Gluck and Daphne
Patai, 234 pages. Routledge, New York and London,
1991. Hardcover, UKK35.00; Paper, f10.99.
In 1988. I read Judith Staceys article Can there be a
Feminist Ethnography? (in Womens Studies International Forum, II, 21-27) which made a lasting impression on me. Staceys own field work challenged the facile
assumption of a feminist ethnography which postulated
an egalitarian research process that would end the exploitation of women as research objects, and led her to a
more critical and self-reflexive stand on the problematic
relationship between field worker and informant. The
essays collected in WornenS Womk, which include Staceys article, all scrutinize the feminist practice of oral
history. With its 16 authors approaching their topic from
different scholarly backgrounds, ranging from anthropology, history, sociology, to linguistics, literature,

619

620

Book Reviews

folklore. et al., the collection earns interdisciplinary status. What transpires is that in their common feminist
goal, namely to give voice to womens lives, and their
awareness of ethnic and class differences, the authors
transcend the boundaries of disciplinary methodologies,
something that I, as a feminist scholar in Germanywhere the language barriers between our different
disciplines often hamper communication-find
noteworthy.
Womens Words is well structured. Part I focuses on
language and communication. and on the ways in which
they are shaped by gender (p. 9). While two authors
sh&e with us thei; learning p&&s to listen and to attend to meta-statements, another supports the importance of metalinguistic and nonverbal signs via a hypothetical group d%cussion; the last one emphasixesihe
multilayered texture of black womens lives which
oral narrative can reveal when perceived without the
trappings of Western thought @. 43). Part II proceeds
to the problematics of interpretation, with the oral interview being transformed into a written text, and the question of who has authority over the text. Examples given
try to illustrate the delicate balance between the researchers commitment to scholarship and the speakers
ownership of her words; the life storys narrative structure and socio-symbolic content which needs to be
mapped and deciphered (p. 90); the relations of power
and shift of meaning from the oral to the written product. especially striking in interviews with Third World
women. Claudia Sal-rs
rereading of I-Rigobertu
Manchu(a Guatemalan Indian civil rights organizer) reminds me of such 1930s documentaries as Black Elk
Speaks or The Autobiography of a Papago Woman and
their ongoing criticisms, which highlight the dilemmas of
representing reality in narrative form and point to the reduction of the speech event that occurs through writing.
Salaxar combines these post-ethnographic
considerations with feminist criticism.
While Part III is concerned with the dilemmas and
contradictions embedded in the very research process,
the last part offers alternative research models, thus ending the collection on a note of encouragement. I found
Sondra Hales account of her interview with the Sudanese political activist Fatma Ahmed Ibrahim especially
touching because of her self-critical analysis of a failed
interview that she links in part to an inherent bias in
western feminism, which she calls the dominance of
process (p. 131). But her account, to my mind, exposes
even more the importance of the social class and public
position of the interviewee: hers is not the life story of a
muted woman (or man) - the typical object of anthropological research- but the presentation of a political persona for public consumption. Because of her female gender. we expect from Ibrahim a more intimate revelation
and are frustrated when she does not cooperate. Shema
Berger Gluck when interviewing Palestinian women in
resistance- the last essay in Womens Woru!s-avoids
Hales pitfalls by toning down her expectations. Her emphasis is on advocacy: oral history as an agent of social
change; her preoccupation centers on the potential for
misuse of the very information made publicly available.
Glucks cautions reminded me of how shocked I was
when. at a meeting of the Society for Applied Anthropology, I learned for the first time about instances where
the funding agencies turned out to aim at exploiting
those whom they purportedly professed to serve, and

what a blow it was to my naive belief in the basic good

of knowledge produced.
Caught in this web of financial dependencies, and
aware of the problematic relationship between researcher and researched, between reality and its representation, between gender, race, and class, feminist
post-ethnographers have shed their innocence and have
come to a more pragmatic stand. Daphne Patai in her
incisive essay Is Ethical Research Possible? answers
her rhetorical question with no. If this ends selfdelusions, Patai also offers a new perspective: Ultimately we have to make up our minds whether our research is worth doing or not, and then determine how to
go about it in ways that let it best serve our stated goals
(p. 150).
Womens Words is an excellent source of information on current feminist research debates in oral history.
I would strongly recommend it also to those of us, both
in the humanities and the sciences, whose research is
more or less removed from human interaction, in order
to lead us back from a retreat into neutral grounds to a
sense of commitment.
THERJZSIA~AUTER-BAILLIET
AACHENUNWERSITYOFTECHNOLOGY
AACHEN,GERMANY

DUAL-EARNERFAMILIES: INTERNATIONAL PERSPECTIVES, edited by Suzan Lewis, Dafna N. Izraeli, and

Helen Hootsmans. Sage Publication, London, Newbmy
Park, and New Delhi, 1992. Hardcover, UKE30.00, Paper, UKfll.95.
The editors of this book have put together an interesting and well-constructed collection of chapters by authors from a diversity of countries and cultures. Running
throughout the contributions is the belief that the subject
of dual-earner families, and of any shifts in genderbased family and employment roles, presents an opportunity to examine changes in the oppression of women.
In other words, women and men sharing family and employment roles may represent moves toward equality for
women.
The book is divided into three parts, or standpoints
from which to view the topic, which flow on from one
another and fit neatly together overall. This coherence
is the strength of the book, making it more than just a
collection of diverse and discrete chapters. It opens with
an introductory chapter by one of the editors, which lays
out many of the debates and preoccupations of those
studying dual-earner families, and the benefits of studying these cross-nationally. These concerns include the
distinction between dual-earner and dual-career families
and its relation to social class divisions, and role theories
and systems frameworks. The latter is argued to allow
reflection on the interfaces between family, work, state
policy. and wider social forces and ideologies. Having issues set out in an introductory chapter in this way enables the reader to trace themes, such as family structures and intergenerational relationships, child and
eldercare provision, and so on, through the following
parts of the book.
Part one consists of chapters that explore the ways
cultural and socio-political contexts shape the options
for women in dual-earner families. It includes a tantalisingly brief chapter on Hungary, where, in a situation of