Gender and ethnicity at the millennium: from margin to centre

Three decades of feminist academic work have led to claims about its maturi ty and "coming of age". This article offers a critical evaluation of femini sm's success, particularly in the context of "race" and ethnicity awareness . Feminism has challenged mainstream thought by making women and gender cen tral concerns, by opening up new fields for study and by breaking down disc iplinary barriers. However, the global hegemony of Western feminism means t hat the range of women's issues tends to be narrowly and parochially concei ved. Women of different ethnicities have had an uphill struggle to redefine feminist terms, benchmarks and understandings. One particular difficulty i nvolves the use of ideas and concepts which are not easily translated into English. Drawing on debates between Western women and Islamist feminists, t he article explores some of the problems in understanding terminologies and deciphering definitions about cultures and languages. It argues that the v iews of non-Western and ethnic minority women must be moved from margin to centre stage.