Challenge of local feminisms : women's movements in global perspective / edited by Amrita Basu, with the assistance of C. Elizabeth McGrory.

Studies initiated by the Women's Program Forum of the Ford Foundation in preparation for the Fourth World Conference on Women, scheduled for Beijing in 1995.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 463-464) and index.

Foreword / Susan V. Berresford -- Acknowledgments / Amrita Basu -- Introduction / Amrita Basu -- 1. Discovering the Positive Within the Negative: The Women's Movement in a Changing China / Naihua Zhang and Wu Xu -- 2. From Chipko to Sati: The Contemporary Indian Women's Movement / Radha Kumar -- 3. Men in Seclusion, Women in Public: Rokeya's Dream and Women's Struggles in Bangladesh / Roushan Jahan -- 4. Rebirthing Babaye: The Women's Movement in the Philippines / Lilia Quindoza Santiago -- 5. The Dawn of a New Day: Redefining South African Feminism / Amanda Kemp, Nozizwe Madlala, Asha Moodley and Elaine Salo -- 6. The Many Faces of Feminism in Namibia / Dianne Hubbard and Colette Solomon -- 7. The Mother of Warriors and Her Daughters: The Women's Movement in Kenya / Wilhelmina Oduol and Wanjiku Mukabi Kabira -- 8. Wifeism and Activism: The Nigerian Women's Movement / Hussaina Abdullah --

9. Claiming Feminism, Claiming Nationalism: Women's Activism in the Occupied Territories / Islah Jad -- 10. Out of the Kitchens and onto the Streets: Women's Activism in Peru / Cecilia Blondet -- 11. Democracy in the Country and in the Home: The Women's Movement in Chile / Alicia Frohmann and Teresa Valdes -- 12. Brazilian Feminism and Women's Movements: A Two-Way Street / Vera Soares, Ana Alice Alcantara Costa, Cristina Maria Buarque, Denise Dourado Dora and Wania Sant'Anna -- 13. Building Bridges: The Growth of Popular Feminism in Mexico / Marta Lamas, Alicia Martinez, Maria Luisa Tarres and Esperanza Tunon -- 14. Democracy Without Women Is No Democracy: Women's Struggles in Postcommunist Russia / Elizabeth Waters and Anastasia Posadskaya -- 15. Finding a Voice: Women in Postcommunist Central Europe / Elzbieta Matynia -- 16. Extending the Boundaries of Citizenship: Women's Movements of Western Europe / Jane Jenson --

17. Feminism Lives: Building a Multicultural Women's Movement in the United States / Leslie R. Wolfe and Jennifer Tucker.

This pathbreaking book provides for the first time an overview of the genesis, growth, gains, and dilemmas of women's movements worldwide. Unlike most of the literature, which focuses on the industrialized Western world, this volume devotes greater attention to the postcolonial states of Asia, Africa, and Latin America. The book challenges the assumptions that feminism can transcend national differences and, conversely, that women's movements are shaped and circumscribed by national levels of development.

All the authors reject the notion, proposed by its detractors and champions alike, that feminism is Western inspired and of middle-class origins. Instead they seek to locate women's movements within the terrain from which they emerge. As a key book for the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, this volume will be essential reading for anyone interested in the global scope and implications of feminism.