‘Politics’ and Academic Feminist Theorising: Reflections on Women's Studies in Asia
2005; Routledge; Volume: 20; Issue: 47 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1080/08164640500090368
ISSN1465-3303
Autores Tópico(s)Gender Politics and Representation
ResumoAbstract When invited by the organisers of the Asia-Pacific Non-governmental Organisation (NGO) Beijing+10 Forum to make a brief presentation on the question of academic feminists and the de-politicisation of feminist theorising, I asked myself: What politics? What feminist theorising? Then I remembered how close the links were between the history of feminism in academe—particularly in the form of Women's Studies—and the women's movement.Footnote2 Ah, that politics! Notes The author is the coordinator of the Women's Studies Program of the Institute of Philippine Culture, Ateneo de Manila University. This article is a revised and longer version of the paper read in the plenary session on ‘Trans-national Women's Movements: Challenges and Future Politics in the Period of Globalisation and War’, during the Asia-Pacific NGO Forum on Beijing+10 held in Bangkok on 30 June–3 July 2004. Vina Mazumdar, ‘Whose Past, Whose History, Whose Tradition? Indigenising Women's Studies in India’, paper prepared for the International Conference on Women's Studies in Asia, Seoul, 18–21 October 2000 published in Asian Journal of Women's Studies, vol. 7, no. 1, 2001, pp. 133–53; Carol Sobritchea, ‘Imaging the Future of Asian Women's Studies and Feminist Scholarship’, paper prepared for the International Conference on Women's Studies in Asia, Seoul, 18–21 October 2000; and Tita Marlita and E. Kristi Poerwandari, ‘Indonesian Women's Movement throughout History: 1928–1965’, paper prepared for the International Conference on Women's Studies in Asia, Seoul, 18–21 October 2000, are recent narratives of the development of Women's Studies and its ties to the women's movement in India, the Philippines, and Indonesia, respectively. Mazumdar recalls: ‘The slogans [of the Indian national independence movement] that came automatically “Victory for Free India,” “Long Live Student Unity” and “Long Live Women's Independence”—indicated that in our minds at least, the country's and women's independence has become so intertwined as to be identical.’ Mazumdar, ‘Whose Past, Whose History, Whose Tradition?’, p. 1. Two anti-dictatorship (Marcos) and women's movement activists, Aurora Javate-De Dios and Sister Mary John Mananzan, played key roles in organising the Women's Studies Consortium and its successor organisation, the Women's Studies Association of the Philippines. Javate-De Dios became the first president of the latter. For a critique of feminist scholarship, see Chandra Talpade Mohanty, ‘Under Western Eyes: Feminist Scholarship and Colonial Discourses’ in Sandra Kemp and Judith Squires (eds), Feminisms (Oxford University Press) Oxford, 1997, pp. 91–5. Josefa Francisco and Stella Marquez-Fong, Political Restructuring and Social Transformation: Feminist Essays in Southeast Asia (Women and Gender Institute, Miriam College) Quezon City, 2002. Czarina A. Saloma, ‘Imagining Migration: the Community in the Construction of Ideas on Female Overseas Employment’ in Jeanne Frances I. Illo (ed.), Women and Gender Relations in the Philippines: Selected Readings in Women's Studies, vol. 1 (Women's Studies Association of the Philippines) Quezon City, 1999, pp. 149–64; Odine De Guzman, ‘Testimonial Narratives: Memory and Self-representation in Letters by Women Migrant Workers’ in Illo, Women and Gender Relations, pp. 29–56. Kemp and Squires, Feminisms. Michelle Rosaldo and Louise Lamphere (eds), Woman, Culture and Society (Stanford University Press) Stanford, 1974, p. 1. Ewha Women's University, 8 Country-level Workshop Reports. Women's Studies in Asia: Knowledge Exchange, Theory and Practice Year II (1998–1999) (Ewha Woman's University) Seoul, 1999, p. 33. Among institutions of higher learning that established the earliest Women's Studies programs in Asia were SNDT University in Mumbai, St Scholastica's College in Manila, and Ewha Woman's University in Seoul. A rise in the number of undergraduate programs in many countries has been noted. However, except in a few countries, the number of universities and colleges that offer degree-conferring graduate programs in Women's Studies continues to be limited to one or two per country (Ewha Woman's University, 8 Country-level Workshop Reports, 1999). Japan's Women Watch (JAWW), Japan NGO Report 2004 for Beijing+10, prepared for the Asia-Pacific NGO Forum on Beijing+10 held in Bangkok, 30 June–3 July 2004. Amaryllis T. Torres and Rosario del Rosario, Gender and Development, Making the Bureaucracy Gender-responsive: a Sourcebook for Advocates, Planners, and Implementers (United Nations Development Fund for Women, National Commission on the Role of Filipino Women, and HR Specialists) New York, Manila, and Quezon City, 1994; Jurgette Honculada and Rosalinda Pineda Ofreneo, Transforming the Mainstream: Building a Gender-responsive Bureaucracy in the Philippines, 1975–1998 (United Nations Development Fund for Women) Bangkok, 1998. Jeanne Frances I. Illo, Workshops as Fora for Gender Advocacy: the 1991–92 IPC-CIDA Workshops (Institute of Philippine Culture, Ateneo de Manila University) Quezon City, 1994; Jeanne Frances I. Illo (ed.), Gender in Projects and Organizations: a Casebook (Institute of Philippine Culture, Ateneo de Manila University and National Commission on the Role of Filipino Women) Quezon City and Manila, 1996. Carol Sobritchea, ‘Overview of Practices of Women's Studies in Asia’, paper prepared for the International Conference on Women's Studies in Asia, Seoul, 18–21 October 2000, p. 2. Sylvia Estrada-Claudio, ‘The Psychology of the Filipino Woman’ in Illo, Women and Gender Relations in the Philippines, pp. 183–92 (first published in 1990 in the Journal of Women's Studies, vol. 1, no. 2, pp. 1–9), p. 189. Sobritchea, ‘Overview of Practices of Women's Studies in Asia’, p. 2. Two major university presses have also supported the publication of feminist and Women's Studies materials: Ateneo de Manila University Press and University of the Philippines Press. Sister Mary John Mananzan, OSB (ed.), Essays on Women (Institute of Women's Studies, St Scholastica's College) Manila, 1987. Jeanne Frances I. Illo and Jaime B. Polo, Fishers, Traders, Farmers, Wives: Life Stories of Ten Women in a Fishing Village (Institute of Philippine Culture, Ateneo de Manila University) Quezon City, 1990. Illo, Women and Gender Relations in the Philippines. Amaryllis T. Torres (ed.), The Filipino Woman in Focus: a Book of Readings (UNESCO) Bangkok, 1989 (second edition published in 1995 by the University of the Philippines Office of Research Coordination and University of the Philippines Press); Elizabeth Uy Eviota, The Political Economy of Gender: Women and Sexual Division of Labour in the Philippines (Zed Books) London, 1992 (reprinted by the Institute of Women's Studies, St Scholastica's College in 1993); Wazir Jahan Karim (ed.), ‘Male’ and ‘Female’ in Developing Southeast Asia (Berg) Oxford and Washington, DC, 1995. Jeanne Frances I. Illo and Rosalinda Pineda Ofreneo (eds), Carrying the Burden of the World: Women Reflecting on the Effects of the Crisis on Women and Girls (Center for Integrative and Development Studies, University of the Philippines) Quezon City, 1999 (updated in 2000.); Jeanne Frances I. Illo and Rosalinda Pineda Ofreneo (eds), Beyond the Crisis: Questions of Survival and Empowerment (Center for Integrative and Development Studies and University Center for Women's Studies, University of the Philippines) Quezon City, 2002. Odine De Guzman (ed.), Body Politics: Essays on Cultural Representations of Women's Bodies, Gender, Reproductive Health, and Development Project Book Series (University Center for Women's Studies, University of the Philippines) Quezon City, 2002. Vina Mazumdar, ‘Whose Past, Whose History, Whose Tradition?’, p. 2. Australian feminist writings are slowly finding their way into Women's Studies courses in the Philippines. This has been aided by the publication in the Philippines of material based on PhD dissertations of Australian scholars (such as Anne-Marie Hilsdon, Madonna and Martyrs (Allen & Unwin) Sydney, 1995 (also published in 1995 by Ateneo de Manila University Press); Anne-Marie Hildson, ‘Love Magic: Muslim Women and Modernity in the Philippines’ in Illo, Women and Gender Relations in the Philippines, pp. 59–84; Aileen Toohey, ‘A Different Kind of Sweetness’ in Illo, Women and Gender Relations in the Philippines, pp. 93–116). For an interesting comment on a recent regional Women's Studies project, see Kim Hyun Mee, ‘Asian Women's Studies: Concept and Practice’, paper prepared for the International Conference on Women's Studies in Asia, Seoul, 18–21 October 2000. In my case, involvement with various formal and informal research networks has acquainted me with what feminists in academic and research institutions in various parts of Asia are doing and the issues that consume them. My travel around Asia has also afforded me the opportunity to meet other Asian feminists and to gain access to indigenous feminist materials. Because of this preoccupation and my few trips to Bangladesh as a donor consultant, I became deeply interested in women's and gender issues there, adopting it in my mind as my ‘second country’. I brought these Asian materials to bear in my classes, referred readers of my writings to them, and shared them with Women's Studies colleagues. Examples of such materials are those produced by the Philippine Peasant Institute and the WAGI-based International Gender and Trade Network (IGTN). Sobritchea, ‘Imaging the Future of Asian Women's Studies and Feminist Scholarship’, p. 2.
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