Winner, 2026 ISA Feminist Theory and Gender Studies Book Prize
The idea that culture and women's rights inevitably clash is wrong, and the consequences of getting this wrong are serious. Imperial Sexism: Why Culture and Women's Rights Don't Clash (Oxford University Press, 2025) draws on interviews with 100 activists, policymakers, and women navigating these debates in France, South Africa, and Canada to show how that false choice gets made and who benefits from it.
Practices like veiling and polygyny have become political battlegrounds but the real fight isn't culture versus women's rights. It's about who gets to weaponize that conflict and who pays the price.
The solution is confronting imperial sexism: how racism and sexism compound to harm women. This book shows how compatibility stories—narratives that bring cultural, religious, and women's rights into agreement—can cut through that damage and change the political terms of the debate advancing justice both for women and their communities.
The idea that culture and women's rights inevitably clash is wrong, and the consequences of getting this wrong are serious. Imperial Sexism: Why Culture and Women's Rights Don't Clash (Oxford University Press, 2025) draws on interviews with 100 activists, policymakers, and women navigating these debates in France, South Africa, and Canada to show how that false choice gets made and who benefits from it.
Practices like veiling and polygyny have become political battlegrounds but the real fight isn't culture versus women's rights. It's about who gets to weaponize that conflict and who pays the price.
The solution is confronting imperial sexism: how racism and sexism compound to harm women. This book shows how compatibility stories—narratives that bring cultural, religious, and women's rights into agreement—can cut through that damage and change the political terms of the debate advancing justice both for women and their communities.
Dr. Denise M. Walsh, Ph.D. New School for Social Research Associate Professor, University of Virginia Departments of Politics Photo Credits: Bailey Photography |
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