Abstract
Currently, feminist activists in China face significant political and cultural barriers to achieving gender equality. These activists require that a political opportunity develop allowing them fundamentally alter the barriers impeding their progress. In this essay, I examine the works of several prominent feminist theorists to cultivate a solution for this problem and apply these findings to the current political and social contexts of China. I propose that a unification of global feminism, transnational feminism, and local feminism is a necessity to properly develop the political opportunity window in China. Transnational feminism must act as a bridge between the isolated local feminists within the country and the academic-based constituency of global feminism. Transnational activists have to integrate the teachings of global feminists theorists into their efforts to aid the Chinese feminists. This methodological framework unites global feminists theories, intersectional analysis, human rights framing, and mobilizing structures to bolster the influence of women’s activists in China, despite oppressive conditions. Finally, I examine several alternative theoretical perspectives and explain why each was not utilized or is not applicable to this situation.Copyright for articles published in this journal is retained by the authors, with first publication rights granted to Vanderbilt Undergraduate Research Journal under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (linked here). By virtue of their appearance in this open access journal, articles are available for wide dissemination at no cost to readers, with proper attribution (acknowledgment of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal), in educational and other non-commercial settings. Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process.
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