Under Western Eyes: Feminist Scholarship and Colonial Discourses

Mohanty examines how research on women in the Third World has been shaped by the interests and standpoint of Western feminists who have taken the West as the primary referent. The research on Third World women has frequently been characterized by representations of 'the Third World Woman', a monolithic and passive subject who is variously presented as the victim of male violence, the universal dependant, trapped in the patriarchal family, or subordinated by religious doctrines. The Third World Woman serves as Other not only to men, but also as Other to the implicit self-representations of Western women. While the Third World Woman is ignorant, poor, tradition-bound, sexually constrained, and generally lacks agency, the Western woman is educated, modern, has control over her body, and the freedom to make her own decisions.

Mohanty seeks to show that while Western feminist researchers may draw legitimacy from being members in a 'global sisterhood', thus implying that they are well suited to represent Third World women and have the same interests as them, this covers over the vast differences between different groups of women and the power relations between these groups. She concludes that (feminist) scholarship is inherently political, and that it is necessary to challenge the ideology that portrays research as a 'disinterested' inquiry.