Feminism on Equality and Inequality

Feminism rests on a quest for equality. The journey towards its realization is however often markedly different given the deep inequalities that exist within societies. To understand the different issues that feminisms raise and the manner they raise them in, we need to take cognizance of: (i) the role of social movements in both the issues that they raise and those they do not; (ii) the interventions of the state, market, and international institutions; in reframing feminist discourse and (iii) the hegemonic role of knowledge producers in the unequal representation of feminisms. This contested journey ensures that meanings of neither ‘freedom’ nor ‘equality’ remain fixed and unchanging across time and space. It is this process that the chapter seeks to understand by bringing in the varied but linked social, political, economic, and cultural contexts within which feminisms are located.