2017 Berkshire Conference on the History of Women, Genders and Sexualities

June 01 - 04, 2017

Teaching about non-western women’s historical experiences in western classrooms comes with unique challenges. Often, our students come to the classroom with ideas and conceptualizations about non-western women that are based more on stereotypes and falsehoods than truths. In this panel, we will discuss ways to teach the stories and experiences of women in non-western societies while avoiding common tropes and stereotypes. Looking at examples from sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America, and the Middle East, we will deconstruct the common theme that non-Western women are victims that must be saved, sometimes from their own men. Approaching the issue of women’s genital cutting from an African feminist perspective helps place the practice, and gender-based organizing to eradicate it, within an anti-colonial context. The story of Domilita, a woman from a Bolivian tin mining community, shows that Latin American women are often critical of Western feminism for overlooking the importance of racism and class struggle to their lives. Finally, the trope of the “oppressed Middle Eastern woman” illustrates how Orientalism pervades Western feminist circles. Taken together, each of these papers center African, Latin American, and Middle Eastern women’s voices in describing their own lived realities. In doing so, these papers advocate looking at women’s lives and struggles in non-Western societies from their own perspectives as a tool for breaking down common stereotypes and misperceptions in the classroom.