These days, it seems that multiculturalism is generally an assumed good.  Increased acknowledgement of diversity and cultural sensitivity seem to be steps toward leveling the playing field for all human beings.  And that is the goal of much scholarship and activism, right--to secure and ensure human rights across the board?  That is one of global feminism’s aims, so it would seem that multiculturalism would help, not hinder, feminist work to better the situation of women.  That is not necessarily the case.

It may be helpful to first clarify what is meant by both feminism and multiculturalism.  Though it is difficult to definitively state what is meant by these complex terms, Susan Moller Okin is able to sum up the essence of feminism and single out a facet of multiculturalism that is particularly relevant.  In her essay, “Is Multiculturalism Bad for Women?,” Okin explores the relationship between feminism and multiculturalism, especially pertaining to the granting of “group rights.”  Okin writes:  “By feminism, I mean the belief that women should not be disadvantaged by their sex, that they should be recognized as having human dignity equal to that of men, and that they should have the opportunity to live as fulfilling and as freely chosen lives as men can.”  She goes on, writing that “Multiculturalism is harder to pin down, but the particular aspect that concerns me here is the claim, made in the context of basically liberal democracies, that minority cultures or ways of life are not sufficiently protected by the practice of ensuring the individual rights of their members, and as a consequence these should also be protected through special group rights of privileges.”

The question of who bestows and who, if anyone, receives special group privileges is a complicated one.  There are many problems inherent in deciding which elements of a culture are to be legitimated by privileged protection.  As Westerners, one limitation we have is our tendency to judge other cultural systems by our own standards, which are the only ones that we know.  For example, if I choose to examine the aspects of another culture, my viewpoint can only be that of an American-born, English-speaking individual who has known no other system than liberal democracy.  The language I speak, the governmental systems I am subject to, the values and mores of my region, and the influence of my family, among other factors, shape and have shaped my thinking process and my world view.  Even if I were to move to another culture and assimilate, that would not change the fact that I was brought up a native Westerner.  I am not saying that my philosophical outlook would not change, because it invariably would; however, my thinking process would probably never be like that of a native member of that culture.  Finding a way to understand a culture’s structure from without and at the same time judge it by its own internal standards is no easy task, but is necessary if the efforts of multiculturalism are to be more than tokenism.

One of the problems that feminists see in multiculturalism is the fact that group rights or privileges often empower the patriarchal cultural systems that oppress women.  Susan Moller Okin uses the ancient Greek and Roman heritage, and religious practices of Judaism, Islam, and Christianity as examples.  The mythologies of these faiths, Okin writes, “consist of a combination of denials of women’s roles in reproduction; appropriations by men of the power to reproduce themselves; characterizations of women as overly emotional, untrustworthy, evil, or sexually dangerous; and refusals to acknowledge mother’s rights over the disposition of their children.”  In the most extreme cases, these ideas are used to completely marginalize women as sexual and domestic subjects.  This is to say nothing of societal and governmental restrictions on women’s freedom.  Since the leaders of the culture, men, would be the visible authorities, they would be thought of as representative of that culture.  By endowing them with special privileges, multiculturalism guarantees the continued oppression of women with legal justification.

Another of the complexities is that cultures are ever-changing, and there are regional variations.  If someone asked me what was the American culture, I would have a hard time representing our entire country’s population in a few sentences, or even a few pages.  The American cultural system of today is far different than the culture of the 1940’s, and my experience as a Southerner is quite different than that of someone from New England.  Multiculturalism seeks to protect cultures from extinction, it is very dangerous to over-simplify a complex cultural system and identify it by its most extreme practices.  Feminism and multiculturalism do have some of the same goals; chiefly, equality of rights for all human beings.  It is true that some efforts of multiculturalism counter feminism’s goals to empower women, but I do not think that this must always be the case.  Cultural sensitivity is not enough; we must consider cultural practices, the workings of the cultural system that supports them, and how that system itself came about.