2023, Vol. 5, Issue 7, Part A

When feminism as a movement started in the early 20th century in the Western world with its genesis in the revolution of attainment of suffrage, political rights and representation, it included within itself the aspirations of Western white female population. Soon, the movement was accompanied by Black women activists like Anna Julia Cooper, Ida B. Wells, et al who took no qualms in raising voice against the systematic institutional racism and sexism against the women of colour, especially in USA. Still for a long time, it was nevertheless largely closed within that circle. Mohanty rightly says that the mainstream feminism homogenised the identity of the third world women and ignored the specific situatedness of the non-first world countries. But I seek to go far as I can, to say that the feminism whether in movement or as a propositional discourse never had the third world women as its target of interest.

But coming to the present time, with the passage of seven decades since eradication of colonial rule and a rule of capitalist globalisation, a question arises to the significance of postcolonial Feminist thought. Is it still relevant today? How far have been the postcolonial Feminist discourse been able to contribute to the interest of third world female population? Do such Feminists of Global South been successful in generating an own ubiquitous array of linguistic frameworks in the background of particularity of the third world women? In this paper, with my present limited understanding, I would seek to engage with these questions and provide answers.