Ethnic feminisms: critique of mainstream feminism

The emergence of the women's socio-political movement in the 18th-19th centuries, which spread from the West, shook the global world, brought about changes in society, served as a catalyst for feminist activity, and, as a result, led to a reevaluation of diverse female experiences in societies with different cultures and social structures. The authors identify contradictions in Western (mainstream) feminism and differences inherent in societies with diverse cultural, historical, gender, and social contexts encountered by feminist studies in third world countries. Criticized aspects of the mainstream include Eurocentrism, the imposition of the idea of "sisterhood," orientalism, exoticization, homogenization, victimization, marginalization, and the deprivation of subjectivity of "third world women." Additionally, the inadequacy in some societies of the theory of global patriarchy as a system of women's oppression allows for the conclusion that the decolonial choice in social and humanitarian thought reveals flaws inherited from colonial pasts and enables the consideration of local gender orders and other social stratifications.