Dekoloniální feminismus

Using a reader-friendly writing style, the author presents her multifaceted critique of the contemporary global order from the perspective of decolonial feminism, combining critiques of racism, patriarchy, capitalism, and imperialism. She calls for a change in the way women’s emancipation is viewed by asking the opening question “Who cleans the world?”, i.e., who does the low-paid cleaning and care work. The author presents convincing arguments to show the West-centric foundations of mainstream feminism that ignore the structures of racialised oppression of women. In doing so, she engages in a lively discussion about the co-optation of feminist ideas and shows an alternative approach to what is referred to as civilisational or white feminism, which participates in maintaining a hierarchically racialised capitalist society and global coloniality. The author illustrates this with examples, which she analyses both theoretically and practically in light of the historical as well as contemporary context of (colonial) Francophone mainstream feminism.

The book discusses topics and presents analyses that are globally applicable and highly relevant also to the countries of Central and Eastern Europe, which did not have their own history of colonial expansion and existed for many years under the domination of Eastern European empires and powers. The Western European colonial practice established a norm, admired by these empires and serving them as the basis for various manifestations of power and domination over colonised countries. This resulted in coloniality becoming entrenched in various spheres of human society, where it has been contributing to the hierarchisation of otherness. It can be found in everyday interpersonal relations, museum studies, and education in all stages. It also appears in various forms of institutionalised racism in the labour market, human imagination, ideas about others and the globalised society, and everyday racialised practices of marginalisation and representation of individuals and groups defined by their exclusion from a European white identity. The book provides the essentials for critical reflections on colonial history and contemporary coloniality.

The book’s epilogue was written by Zuzana Uhde and Vojtěch Šarše.