Globally Circulating Feminist Discourses and Their Localisation in Singapore
Adelyn Lim, Department of Anthropology, RSPAS, Australian National University
In the twentieth century, a global movement emerged that came to be known as ‘second-wave feminism’. Theory, activism and politics converged to influence much of the developed and developing world while being culturally specific in addressing issues relevant to a particular society. In this paper, I look at the ways activists in Singapore understand and negotiate ‘feminism’ in their participation in women’s NGOs, and the relevance of ‘feminism’ to the practices and initiatives of women’s NGOs. In so doing, I emphasise the conflicts between political generations of activists within women’s NGOs. By examining the discourses which inform and shape ‘feminism’ between political generations, we are able to situate the engagement of individual activists and NGOs with feminism within a specific historical and cultural context. Such an analysis is invaluable in understanding the form that localised women’s movements take in contemporary Asia.
