1Feminism and movements towards women’s empowerment have frequently been analysed within the context of the Global North, while receiving comparatively less attention in the Global South. One reason for this may be the absence of a vernacular equivalent for the term “feminism” in many of these regions. Moreover, feminism is often perceived as an externally imposed, predominantly elite, white Western construct that fails to address the specific concerns of minority women or those from the Global South. However, since the emergence of the #MeToo movement, there has been a growing engagement with feminist discourse in these contexts, particularly through the use of social media, which has sometimes led to the development of more regionally centred interpretations of feminism. This volume seeks to broaden the debate by focusing specifically on the Tibetan and Mongolian cultural spheres.
2In recent decades, many new indigenous women’s groups and movements have emerged, alongside state initiatives aimed at promoting women’s empowerment or gender equality. These initiatives conceptualise empowerment and gender equality in diverse ways, and not all employ the terms “feminism” or “feminist”. Some stakeholders – both institutional and individual – explicitly reject any personal identification with feminism, opting instead to frame their efforts in terms of “women’s empowerment”. This latter term is often understood as a set of measures and values aimed at fostering women’s agency by encouraging economic participation within the community, political engagement in governance, or social involvement in the transmission and preservation of cultural traditions. While these forms of engagement are generally seen in a positive light, feminism, by contrast, is often perceived as a movement that challenges the established order, led by segments of the population who view men as the holders of economic and political power and as the guarantors of social stability. As such, feminism is viewed by some as a revolutionary movement principally concerned with overturning the existing gender hierarchy. Consequently, many women’s voices, as reported by anthropologists, firmly contest the use of the term “feminism” to describe their repositioning within the gender hierarchy and their emancipation.
3This special issue aims to deepen understanding of empowerment and “feminist” movements among both women and men from diverse social classes and positions within Tibetan and Mongolian cultural contexts – including Central Tibet, Eastern Tibet, Tibetan exile communities in India and Nepal, the Zanskar Valley in India, Mongolia, and Kalmykia (Russian Federation). It seeks to situate the various initiatives promoting women’s empowerment and gender equality within their specific political and social contexts, while also critically assessing their limitations.
4While gender studies have often relied on concepts and analytical frameworks developed primarily in the Global North in recent decades, this volume is rooted in extensive fieldwork and grounded in situated anthropology. Thanks to their long-term presence in the field and their knowledge of vernacular languages, anthropologists are able to reflect on how people – both women and men – speak about their own practices and engage with the narratives they construct about their culture. This approach allows for a nuanced understanding of what women’s empowerment or feminism means to women who, since the beginning of the 21st century, have increasingly become their own agents of change.
5If we take as a starting point the definition of “feminism” in the West – without straying too far into polemics or differences within Western cultures themselves – we find the following concise definitions in English dictionaries: “The belief and aim that women should have the same rights and opportunities as men” and “the struggle to achieve this aim” (Oxford English Dictionary 2017, p. 565); or “belief in and advocacy of the political, economic, and social equality of the sexes expressed especially through organized activity on behalf of women’s rights and interests” (Merriam-Webster 2025). These brief definitions reveal that there are two sides to the meaning of feminism within Western cultures. While many non-Western women may identify with the first definition, this is less likely to be the case with the second, as it implies a degree of political activism on the part of the person identifying as a feminist.
6One of the key findings of this volume is how women from Tibetan and Mongolian cultural contexts often avoid the term “feminism”, which they see as referring to hegemonic Western ideas, but nevertheless support the notion that women and men should have the same rights, and younger women should have opportunities to create a better life than their mothers had. This particular conceptual framing means that women are often understood to be the sole agents of their own empowerment. There appears to be a widespread perception across the region that the responsibility for change rests primarily on women’s shoulders, meaning that men are not necessarily held accountable for existing gender inequalities. For the women examined in this study, the burden of self-empowerment is overwhelmingly theirs to carry. They navigate dual roles as homemakers and professionals, actively pursue higher education, and engage in the exchange and discussion of evolving ideas about gender roles. Their efforts are aimed at improving their personal circumstances while simultaneously preserving the social cohesion of their communities.
7Understanding how populations conceptualise and, above all, enact social cohesion has been the subject of considerable research in other parts of the world (e.g., the Manchester School, French Sociology, the Chicago School). Fernanda Pirie (2002) developed the concept of the “web of order”. This philosophical idea was first explored by Louis Dumont (1996, p. 94), who described it as “the implicit basis of our common discourse”, a “common way of being and acting”. Pirie reinterpreted this notion through an experiential lens in her analysis of conflict management in Ladakh (India):
[…] Once in Photoksar, I soon realised that the villagers there had a pronounced attitude towards all forms of fighting, arguing, quarrelling, abusive and insulting language. These are all seen as clearly undesirable, even dangerous. When a fight is reported, people shake their heads and shudder at any sign of fighting. Even expressing anger is seen as reflecting bad personal qualities… Resolution means reaching an agreement between all parties, and the collective authority of the village meeting and the headman as its representative to negotiate and put pressure on the parties is unquestioned. (Pirie 2002, p. 6)
8To the extent that the entire community implicitly agrees to perceive the same facts in the same way – for instance, to dismiss and consider childish any behaviour that might jeopardise this “harmony” – one can speak of social control. This desire for regulation can be expressed, for example, through the establishment of fair arbitration mechanisms within institutions founded on the recognition of otherness, as illustrated by the case study of Mongolia presented by Isaline Saunier and Éléa Boënnec in this volume. As the authors point out, Mongolian women pursue empowerment and agency through adaptive strategies that do not seek to overturn the gendered hierarchies of their society, but rather find ways to navigate within them.
9In Buddhist communities, there exists an underlying paradox: while the doctrine of karma implies that men are born into a superior status and women into an inferior one, the Buddha is nevertheless believed to have granted both genders equal access to his teachings and, ultimately, to enlightenment. Furthermore, social customs place strong emphasis on the principle of harmony as a foundational value governing all forms of interpersonal interaction. As Baimacuo (Padma’tsho) elucidates in her study of the nun writers at Larung Gar Monastery in Eastern Tibet (Sichuan Province, China), these women manage their social relations with considerable care – recognising their own limitations, pursuing avenues for self-improvement, and diligently ensuring that they do not disrupt the shared spaces with monks. Concurrently, nuns from Khachoe Gakyil Ling Nunnery in Nepal have managed to assert their agency and achieve empowerment by inhabiting previously marginalised ritual spaces, as demonstrated in Chandra Ehm’s ethnographic analysis of a fasting ritual at the nunnery. In this setting, empowerment emerges as a communal space forged among women.
10Social cohesion is continuously renegotiated and reimagined by communities in a delicate balancing act, as illustrated in Salomé Deboos’ study of the evolving transgenerational discourses among women in Zanskar (India). Through access to education, younger women’s perspectives are gaining increasing legitimacy, thus allowing them to serve as knowledge bearers for the elder generation of women.
11In the case of Tibetan women, while some explicitly identify as feminists, a broader consensus has coalesced around the concept of women’s empowerment. This has paved the way for the emergence of a locally grounded – or emic – form of feminism, as illustrated by Nicola Schneider in her studies of Tibetan communities both within China and in exile in India.
12In certain cases, processes of women’s empowerment have remained largely unrecognised and can only be identified retrospectively, as Valeria Gazizova highlights in her study of Kalmykia. The suppression of religion during the socialist era created a context in which new roles emerged for women, particularly as religious specialists.
13This volume builds upon the panel “What is ‘feminism’ in Tibet about?”, held at the 15th Seminar of the International Association for Tibetan Studies in 2019 in Paris. It aims to deepen our understanding of “feminist” and women’s empowerment movements among women and men from diverse social backgrounds within Tibetan and Mongolian cultural contexts undergoing change. The contributions included here employ analytical frameworks related to feminism and women’s empowerment, illuminating how these concepts are variously interpreted, embraced, or contested. In doing so, the volume offers nuanced insights into contemporary gender-related practices and their potential implications.
Flux RSS
