Concept
Transnational feminism refers to both a contemporary feminist paradigm and the corresponding activist movement. Both the theories and activist practices are concerned with how globalization and capitalism affect people across nations, races, genders, classes, and sexualities. This movement asks to critique the ideologies of traditional white, classist, western models of feminist practices from an intersectional approach and how these connect with labor, theoretical applications, and analytical practice on a geopolitical scale. The term "transnational" is reaction and the rejection of terms like "international" and "global" feminism. Transnational feminists believe that the term "international" puts more emphasis on nation-states as distinct entities, and that "global" speaks to liberal feminist theories on "global sisterhood" that ignore Third World women and women of color's perspectives on gender inequality and other problems globalization inherently brings. The transnational feminist academic paradigm draws from postcolonial feminist theories, which emphasize how colonialist legacies have shaped and continue to shape the social, economic, and political oppression of people across the globe. It rejects the idea that people from different regions have the same subjectivities and experiences with gender inequality, it further recognizes that global capitalism has created similar relations of exploitation and inequality, this core concept creates dialogue which feminists around the world can find solidarity and seek collaboration. Transnational feminism further complicates global capitalism and neoliberalism. Transnational feminist practice is involved in activist movements across the globe that work together to understand the role of gender, the state, race, class, and sexuality in critiquing and resisting structures of patriarchal, capitalist power. It is attentive to feminism as both a liberatory formation and a practice that has been oppressed by and sometimes been complicit with colonialism, racism, and imperialism.