Topic: The Status of Women in Global Efforts for Change
Order Description
Expanding on what we learned in Module 4 about race-based efforts for change, in this module we read a lot in Hunt about dramatic changes in the United States and Europe related to women’s rights in the 1960s and 1970s. But movements to redefine women’s roles in the public and private spheres were hardly limited to the West. In China, women found a much stronger footing with respect to social status. Gould, likewise, provides varied examples of women in Latin American cultures in movements for political change. As Hunt explains, particularly for African women, colonization had significantly affected gender norms. Although national independence movements offered women hope for greater power in domestic politics, the desire for raw materials in many Third World countries put economics far ahead of individual rights. Independence movements geared toward globalization were fairly indifferent towards women regaining their former status. The global village had ample room for gender inequality.

For all the pressures that superpowers’ popular cultures placed on Third World peoples, demands for increased women’s rights was one area where that influence was muted. This is because the relationship between the United States and the Third World often revolved around American economic desires rather than social change, leaving greater wiggle room for indigenous peoples in the Third World to assert and define their own social roles.

Please be sure to read the following in preparation for this discussion:

Hunt, The World Transformed, Chapters 5-6

For your two chosen countries, how much had globalization and the movements for change affected the status of women there?
Consider Gould’s evidence about political and cultural change in Latin America. Given the United States’ longstanding claims (via the Monroe Doctrine) to interfere in affairs throughout the region, how much do you believe it exerted that influence when it came to human rights issues, such as the treatment of women?