Working Papers / Munduan

lntercultural Dialogueand Conflict Transformation:

a Feminist Perspective

Abstract: Muchos conflictos tienen una dimensión cultural. De ahíque la concepción de dialogo intercultural puede contribuir a la transfor-mación de conflictos. Pero los conflictos interculturales no tienen su raízen la diferencia de culturas, sino en relaciones de dominación y de poder.Frente a la concepción de dialogo intercultural que acentúa la diferenciacultural, el presente trabajo subraya la necesidad de entender el otro porempatía. A tal efecto la autora sugiere las siguientes vías: asegurar la exis-tencia de relaciones de igualdad, desarrollar una disposición a respetar ple-namente a personas diferentes, criticar estructuras de superioridad y dedesvalorización del otro, cuestionar las relaciones de poder y de domina-ción. Esta posición se realiza no solamente a nivel cultural, sino también anivel político, económico y social exigiendo a la vez la creación de espa-

1. Licenciada en Filosofía, Sociología y Pedagogía, por las universidades de Colonia, Frankfurt, y Leeds, yprofesora colaboradora de la Universidad de Frankfurt. Especialista en fílosofía arábico-islámica, ha investigado ytrabajado en la práctica, con diversas instituciones públicas y privadas, sobre diversos aspectos del diálogo inter-cultural, con especial atención a los problemas de las mujeres inmigrantes en el seno de la Unión Europea, tantodel mundo árabe, como de América Latina o la Europa del Este. Autora de numerosas publicaciones, ha dictadocursos como profesora invitada en diversas universidades europeas y latinoamericanas. Este trabajo es una versiónactualizada de la ponencia que la Profesora Schirilla dictó en el Seminario Internacional Theoretical and PracticalDimensions of Conflict Transformation, organizado por el Máster en Cooperaci6n Internacional Descentralizada: Paz yDesarrollo, de la UPV/EHU, en abril de 1998.

cios democráticos. En este proceso las mujeres tienen una función particu-lar. El artículo critica la extendida opinión acerca de que las mujeres pue-dan tener más capacidad de diálogo intercultural y de paz a causa de suscualidades femeninas. Las cualidades femeninas también forman parte delas estructuras de poder y pueden contribuir también a mantener estructu-ras de dominación. Pero las mujeres tienen una posición inferior en la ma-yoría de las sociedades, y cuando cuestionan esta posición las mujeres estáncuestionando el sistema mismo de esa sociedad. Las estructuras que gene-ran la desigualdad de los sexos generan desigualdad política, social etc. ytambién la violencia. El problema de la inferioridad de las mujeres es unproblema fundamental y subversivo. En este sentido hay un movimientocomún de las mujeres en muchas sociedades. Las mujeres se rebelan contrasu posición de inferioridad y luchan por una sociedad más igual en todoslos niveles.

The conception of intercultural dialogue is in a certain sense a contri-bution to conflict transformation, as many conflicts have a cultural dimen-sion or are touching cultural problems. Therefore i will first outline in thispaper what i understand by intercultural dialogue and present my idea ofit. Secondly i will show in which way intercultural dialogue can contribu-te to conflict transformation and thirdly I will say what could be a femi-nist perspective in approaching this question.

May i start with an example and describe a situation, where an inter-cultural encounter is leading to conflicts and where a dialogue is necessary.In schools in Frankfurt teachers are frequently confronted with the situa-tion that youngTurkish girls are not allowed to take partin the swimminglesson as their parents assume that Islam forbids them to show themselvesin a bathing suit to boys or male teachers. They think this might arise se-xual desire and is forbidden by Islam. The german teachers will insist onthe non sexual character of the swimming lesson and on their educationalaim to enable girls to exercise their body in the water and learn how toswim. They will make use of their power and force the girls to take part, ifthey do not submit, the girls will get bad marks. On the other hand, theparents will stick to their position, will feel powerless and they will deve-lop the idea that german culture is hostile to Islam. Experiences like thismight further the tendency that these parents will adopt fundamentalistpositions and fight against integration into german society.

Intercultural dialogue

The ongms of the idea of intercultural dialogue go back to twoslightly different backgrounds. First, the idea was born in recent US Ame-rican or western European societies, where the fact of migration has led to

a state where people of different cultures are living together in one societyand are confronted with different norms and value systems or even legalsystems.This confrontation might lead to severe clashes.

Furthermore, the idea of intercultural dialogue should be a conse-quence of the colonial heritage -as for centuries the cultures and value-systems of the countries of the South have been regarded as underdevelo-ped, backward and were thus devalued, negated and suppressed-. So inpostcolonial or neocolonial times the question has to be asked, what canbe the precondition of an equal dialogue of partners from the countries ofthe South and from the North - how can they communicate and unders-tand each other without reproducing the schemes of submission and deva-lorisation.

The communication of different cultures can be seen as a clash andthus touching the question of difference. Intercultural dialogue would me-an on that background how can people from different cultures understandeach other as every member of a culture is bound to a specific worldviewthat shapes reality and presents norms and values that make sense only in aspecific contexto Many theareticians therefore stress the importance of un-derstanding and empathy for intercultural dialogue.

Helmut Essinger, far example, names four dimensions of interculturallearning:

- political dimension (equal rights).

- social situation.

- economic dimension (economic reasons for migration).

- cultural dimension.

Furthermore, he gives four principIes that make up intercultural dialo-gue

- empathy: to learn to understand the othcr, to study their situationand to view it from their standpoint, to come to like the other, to identifywith the other.

- solidarity: to develop a common consciousness that goes beyond na-tional, ethnic and cultural borders.

- cultural respect: to respect difference e.g. different cultures and diffe-rent habits.

- international orientation: to overcome any kind of thinking that isconfined by the boundaries of the national state.

Understanding would mean to give up orientations specific of the cul-ture where one comes from and try to enter a different world.

This conception of intercultural dialogue is very close to a culturalisticposition that gives up universal narms and standards. It departs from theassumption that every culture has got a system of meanings and values ofits own. These meanings and values are incommensurable and make senseonly in their specific cultural context and are legitimate only in that con-text, too. This position is being challenged far example by many womenform the countries of the South, who insist on their participation in uni-versal women 's rights.

Against this understanding of intercultural dialogue i will argue thatwe do not have to stress the question of cultural difference. Understandingcultural differences might be a legitimate question for intercultural dialo-gue, but it is of minar importance. 1 think we rather have to take into ac-count that intercultural dialogue takes place in a context of domination.Intercultural problems are problems that have to do with dominance, he-gemony and suppression -domination of the Narth over the South, of ru-ling majarities over minority cultures-, etc. The problem of interculturalcommunication is not the problem that there are insurmountable gapsbetween different cultures but that cultures meet in a situation of inequa-lity.This inequality exists on the social, political and economic level andon the cultural, too. The german sociologist Birgit Rommelspacher hascreated the concept of Dominanzkultur (cultural dominance or dominatingculture) for societies with an immigrant population.

Rommelspacher analyses the intercultural problem of german societynot by going back to the existence of different cultures in germany but asa dorninance of German majority culture over rnigrant cultures that is ba-sed on a political, social and econornic dominance and a reduction of rni-grants to second class citizens. She shares the analysis of authors like Fou-cault and others that the modern state is characterized by anencompassing control and carne into existence by establishing control sys-tems that led to a thorough transformation of society. The structures ofdomination thus established do not work by repression but through a webof power structures that is working on all levels of society. Thus the cate-gories that shape the self - understanding of modern society and the ima-ges of others are the categories of superiority and subordination-. Domi-nanzkultur is one of these categories and means that that the existingcultural, social, political and economic order is seen as superior whereasother systems will be devalued. Dominanzkultur is produced and reprodu-ced in normal sociallife and not in racist attacks.

As a consequence, migrant women in Germany are politically and so-cially underprivileged, they have no right to vote, mosdy hold badly paidand insecure jobs and jobs that are socially devalued as well, e.g. cleaning,unskilled factory work etc. Furthermore they are regarded as backward,tied to their family and tradition and living a miserable life. These viewsare to be found in the research on migrant women as well, even in femi-nist research. Here they are depicted as dependent, passive, subrnissive une-mancipated beings. They are not presented as a socially underprivilegedbut active group that struggles hard to make a living and establish themsel-ves with their farnily under new and hostile circumstances. This is a goodexample for the notion of dorninance from the field of research on mi.".grant women.

As Sedef Gymen and Leonie Herwartz-Emden have shown, for manyyears migrant women were presented as family orientated, traditional andbackward, although the vast majority of them were working women andmany even migrated on their own - but they were married and had fami-

lies. Emancipation of migrant women was conceived of as an adaptation togerman cultural norms of professional activity, single life or one parent fa-rnily. The recent investigations of these two authors have shown that thesemigrant women had their professional activities and regard econornic in-dependence as an important factor. But they do not regard it as a contrastto their farnily orientation, they want to have a family and work. So theirfamay orientation cannot be called backward.

It is obvious that on the internationallevel there is a clear political andeconomic domination of the US American and Western European coun-tries over the South, mainly in recent times with the renewed self unders-tanding as leading nation on behalf of the US and the growing importan-ce of the World Bank and the IMF in a neoliberal world economy. In thecultural field this means that the ruling political and sociological discour-ses define and standardise the meaning of development, humanity etc. ac-cording to norms and values taken from western philosophy and followingwestern interests. This implies a position of disregarding cultural traditionsof other civilizations and reducing then to underdeveloped and backwardideologies. These discourses presuppose a superiority of western cultureand ignore the rich variety in the cultural heritage of many societies. Theirphilosophies, science and cosmologies are reduced to folklore, exoticismand mystery. The peoples of the South are marginalised and dependant onan political and economic level, they have no means of expression that isregarded as equal by western discourses, they have to speak the languageof the colonizers or they create myths of authenticity like "negritude" re-producing the stereotypes western discourse is attributes to them. "Canthe subaltern speaks" asks Gayavorty Spivak in one of her most brilliantarticles questioning the framing and shaping of international discourse bythe ruling powers and cultures of the world.

Therefore i argue that intercultural dialogue is firsdy a question ofequality and power and secondly a question of understanding. So i willnow give some points that i regard as preconditions for intercultural dialo-gue. In an essay on intercultural dialogue Patrick V. Di~s argues that many

theories of interculturallearning ignore and thus legitimize the dimensionof power. So a theory of intercultural dialogue must tackle the hegemonyof the West over the states of the South and the East. He names the fo11o-wing preconditions for intercultural dialogue:

questioning of structures that produce and reproduce inequality. Intercul-tural learning in this sense entails a non-theoretical practice that aims atstructural changes. It is a philosophical position or a position in educatio-nal science that knows about the línlÍts of its discipline. As i am stressingthis last point, any theory of intercultural dialogue goes beyond an ethicsof discourse in the sense of Habermas. The underlaying theoretical premis-ses are the postulate of equality and the conception that there are univer-sals in a relative sense or common perspectives in different cultures. Theunderlying conception of culture regards any culture not as a closed ho-mogenic entitity that cannot be changed but as an open, flexible system,undergoing continuous change by meeting with other cultures.

Our notion of intercultural dialogue demands a re-thinking of theconception of culture.As Urna Narayan demonstrates in her book "Dislo-cating Cultures", culture cannot be seen as a set of clear, unchanging va-riables but must be regarded as a construction that is shaped by the en-counter of the North and the South, the colonizer and the colonized andmany other factors. Narayan shows that what is seen as central to Indianculture even by Indian themselves is influenced by what the colonizer ma-de appear important. So today we are confronted with many assumptionson the essence of Indian culture (mainly regarding women) that have notbeen essential before the advent of colonialismoAccording to Narayan wecannot talk of clear cultural identities as there are many ways in which aculture is lived and perceived. And as cultures are always changing and de-veloping, cultural identities are developing, too. Narayan for example is afeminist who has often been confronted with the idea that feminism isalíen to Indian culture. But she argues that her feminist stand is influencedby her own culture and is part ofher particular cultural identity.

A notion of culture that is more flexible also a110wsus to see cross-cul-tural perspectives and cross-cultural alliances.To give an example of com-mon perspectives we could regard the status of women. In most culturesor societies women have a minor status, their rights are limited, they areconfined to certain fields, are excluded from cultural or scientific produc-

1. To take a position of departure that expresses the wi11to achieve adialogue by being capable of departing from the position of the partner

3. Taking into account/being aware that the cultures concerned meetin a situation that is characterised by domination and questioning the un-derlying structures of inequalíty and domination

5. Developing a conception of truth that is open e.g. knows its preli-minary function without giving up the notion of truth. This means thatarrival at truth is a co11ective endavour and cannot be achieved on theground of one culture only.

7. A capability of taking the position of the other in the sense of theconcrete other, this means that the partners of the dialogue are capable ofattesting truth to the position of the other. In other words, this means thatthe other has good grounds to argue for his/her position.

So intercultural dialogue is an endeavour that aims at an equal com-munication of unequal partners. This demands processes of learning and a

tion and have no possibility of expressing themselves, being the object ofmale discourse. In neady all societies women suffer domestic violence.

It is interesting to note, as Corinne Kumar has shown, that in most so-cieties women are subject to specific forms of violence: rape, sexual vio-lence, sexual harassment and domestic violence. Most cultures are based ona separation of the private and the public sphere and women are confinedto the household or the private sphere, violence done to women in the fa-mily is regarded as a private affair and there is not much women can doagainst it legally. Kumar says this is the case during periods of peace butshe gives also many examples fram violent conflicts all over the woddwhere women are subject to many forms of sexual violence: rape, sexualtorture, sexual violence, degradation etc. Sexual violence is even morehard on women because as they come home, they will be regarded bytheir families and neighbours as impure and honoudess, because of the ra-pe and sexual violence they have experienced in prison. Women have a si-milar position in many fields of society. Despite of cultural differences inthe symbolic notion of woman and the differences in the socioeconomicrale of women (access to labour market and public realm, visions of bodyand cultural rale etc.) in most cultures women have no voice of their ownand are situated in a minor position of the gender hierarchy .

As we see in a very interesting publication on sexual and social stratifi-cation edited by Alice Schlegel, not all societies are patriarcal societies,there exist egalitarian societies, too. But we see that - not only in patriarcalsocieties, even in rather egalitarian societies - there exists a gender specificdivision of labour. In patriarcal societies the female domain is subordinatedto the male and thus devalorized, in egalitarian society the two realmsmight be regarded as complimentary or there might be interchanges bet-ween the two. Although sexual stratification has various causes and will beinfluenced by a wide variety of factors sexual stratification exists in mostsocieties and goes along with a rather inferior status of women. So we canshare a common perspective as women in analysing, naming and overco-ming this inferior status.

Conflíct Transformatíon

One could argue as in many conflicts differences in cultural or reli-gious attitudes are concerned, intercultural dialogue is a contribution toconflict transformation. But cultural conflicts are not purely cultural. Cul-tural conflicts do not arise fram difference of cultures but fram structuresof domination in the social, political, cultural and economic field (this re-gards one dimension of the origins of conflicts, other origins might beauthoritarian structures, lack of civil society, etc.).

To give an example: fundamentalist or integrist Islamic movements aregrawing in most societies in the middle East and they regard their fight asa religious fight restoring the honour and glory of muslim re1igion. Theypretend to solve social prablems by an integration of religion and politicsin Islam thus they demand an Islamic state and oppose any effort of secu-larization. The reaction of the west reproduces these contentions claimingthat Islam is unable to undergo changes, by its very nature contradicts se-cularization and is a religion of violence. Many authors present Islam asthe eternal enemy of the west and of enlightenment. The effect of thesereflections confined to the cultural sphere, is an equation of integrist mo-vements with the very essence of Islam. But a close look at the rich anddiverse cultural heritage of the Islamic civilization brings us to the pointwhere we see that integrism presents a very limited conception of Islamand that there are many others, that have often met with western culturalheritage. Furthermore, an analysis of the social basis of integrist move-ments and the political situation in Middle East states shows us the socialand political character and their actual political importance of integristmovements. The reduction to Islam and cultural factors is no help in theanalysis of these conflicts. But an understanding of intercultural dialoguethat takes into account the non-cultural background of these conflicts andthe fact that Islam has been devalued and depicted as evil by western dis-

course questions these structures and might be a contribution to conflicttransformation.

Many conflicts are based on the revolt of those groups of a society thathave been exc1uded, marginalized and ignored by dominant structures.Inequality often is hidden or expressed by cultural means. As interculturaldialogue is a strategy to establish or aim at equality it is relevant to conflicttransformation. To come back to the example i mentioned at the begin-ning of my paper: if muslim parents refuse to send their girls to the swim-ming lesson, talk of difference will be of no help.We rather have to se the-se parents as citizens being exc1uded of discussing and shaping theeducational norms by which their children are taught and who are addi-tionally regarded as backward and traditional. The teacher will regard her-self as enlightened and emancipated. Whereas german parents are in a sen-se participating in shaping educational norms by the right to vote, thecapability to be a member of parents' councils at school etc. Turkish pa-rents have neither of these possibilities either by lack of political rights orby lack of self-confidence. They would not apply for being represented inthe parents' council because they do not speak german well, they feel, thatthey are regarded as backward etc.The aim of intercultural dialogue wouldstress the right of these parents to be taken seriously and participate in de-cisions regarding the education of their children. This would imply tofight for political rights for migrants and to enable these parents to expressthemselves and stand conflicts by discussion instead of avoiding them byretreat. It would also mean questioning assumptions that regard certainmigrants as backward, traditional etc. and recognize the multiple factorsthat influence their stand: their wish, to give their girls a good education,religious convictions and moral aspirations etc. In fact this conception ofintercultural dialogue means the creation of a democratic space and an at-mosphere where it is possible to discuss common solutions to the pro-blem.

AJemin istperspective

Now i want to ask if women have a particular position in conflicttransformation. Many authors argue that as women are oppressed, they arerather capable of peaceful reactions, are less agressive and less violent thanmen. Rommelspacher presents this position (which she does not share) asfollows:

Because of the gender specific division of labour, women are mainlydoing reproductive work, e.g. raising children, nurturing, looking after thehome etc. So they rather are concerned with interpersonal relations andare exc1uded from political power and economic decision-making. Thuswomen have to develop emotional qualities, responsibility, communicationand caring. They are rather orientated towards persons (not towards tech-nical objects or abstract values), they are used to direct their lives accor-ding to the needs of others, for them solidarity and care are more impor-tant than competition und professional success. They manage conflictsrather by communication and mediation than by violence. So many aut-hors argue that women could play an important part in conflict transfor-mation - they dispose of the necessary preconditions for mediation andstand outside the power structure and are more free to make alliances with"hostile" groups -. It is also a fact that in many long term political andviolent conflicts women played a major role in overcoming political or re-ligious boundaries and started peace activities or peace movements (e.g.Wamen far Peace in N ortern Ireland, VVomen in Black in Israel and Palestine,Mathers cif the Disappeared in El Salvador and other Latin American Coun-tries).

Carol Gilligan even speaks of a female ethics of care, this would furt-hern a specific intervention of women in conflicts.The idea of an ethics ofcare goes back to Gilligan' s en'lpirical studies. She made a long-term in-vestigation on the moral consciousness of young women and men and re-alized that -as other studies had already shown- that women never really

reached the highest level of moral consciousness in the Kohlberg schemewhich is characterized by a capability to make moral judgement indepen-dandy e.g. according to formal moral laws and not according to personalinclination or personal interest. In contrast to theorists like Kohlberg Gi11i-gan argued that women do take independant moral decisions but thesedecisions do not have the character of formals laws like those of the men.They are characterized by an ethic of care which is based on values likeempathy, solidarity and caring for others. Personal and contextual ques-tions playa greater role in the women 's decisions than formallaws. Do a11these qualities enable women to take a particular part in conflict transfor-mation?

I wi11argue that it is true that women develop different orientations incomparison to men because of their socioeconomic position and there ismuch truth in theories on different moral orientations. N evertheless thisdoes not lead to a female strategy of conflict transformation. The differentorientation of women can be used politica11y in many different ways and itis part of a power structure that produces and reproduces violent conflicts.

First we have to take into account that women are also agressive andexercise power, too, as for example the psychoanalyst Jessica Benjamin hasshown. Benjamin argues that female agressivity takes other forms than ma-le agressivity (masochism, subordination, moral repression etc.), femaleemotional power can also be violent and contribute to the establishmentand support structures of domination. We know many women who weredirecdy involved in exercising power over others and using violence, too.Here I could mention female wardens in german concentration camps.When women are put into a position of power they can very we11exercisepower.

Furthermore, Rommelspacher has shown, that female caring does byno means contribute to the transformation of violent structures, it evencontributes to reinforcing them. She has shown that for exan'lple womenin Nazi Germany were active in social associations, doing caring and be-nevolent work - but caring only for their next family, in this case german

soldiers at war and excluding Jewish citizens and people being persecutedin Nazi Germany -. So the attitude of care meant a support of the warand of the extermination of the Jewish population. She cites a slogan ofthe Nazi women' s winter help association that shows this attitude verywe11:"Keiner so11hungern, keiner so11frieren, aber die Juden, die sollenkrepieren" (Nobody should starve, nobody should suffer from the coldbut the jews have to die). There is nothing inherendy better in women'saspirations, it depends on the political aims and circumstances how wo-men' s qualities are used and deveJoped.

To give another argument: feminist authors often regard women as theinnocent victims of wars whereas they see men as agressors and as beingresponsible. They claim that women are in no way responsible for violentconflicts as they are powerless and confined to activities in the field of re-production only. But feminist research has shown that public realms (thefields where decisions on war and peace are made) depend on the existen-ce of the private realm (family, love, caring) for their reproduction. As fe-minists we know that reproductive work is a precondition for anythingthat goes on in society, so the public and the private are intertwined anddepend on each other. Thus there is no value-free, innocent sphere of fe-male activity. It is always part of the power structure and supports the sys-tem as a whole.

Colonial history also shows that there is a tradition of female racism,too. Historical research has proved for example that women plaid an im-portant role in german colonialismo Imperial Germany colonized Namibiain South- West Africa in the end of the nineteenth century and beginningof the twentieth. Many women were among the pioneers of colonialism,as Engelhard showed for example. The women worked as the wives ofmissionaries and later as missionaries themselves and fulfilled importanttasks like social work and caring for the poor and the ill. Although this en-gagement helped many persons on an individual level, it was an integralpart of an encompasing military and social colonization process based onthe idea of educating the backward and the poor and leading them to path

of christian civilization. Meanwhile their land was taken away from themand their social organisation and value systems were destroyed. As settlerswives women also plaid an important role in the process of taking the landaway from the black peoples and reducing the former owners to badlypaid workers on the white farms.

I have to deceive those who expect any kind of salvation by femalequalities arising from the actual arrangement of the sexes. I stress this pointbecause I think it is important to note that the attribution of salvation towomen is a male myth inherent in the actual gender arrangement. Furt-hermore, i dwelt on this aspect as there has been an ongoing debate inWestern and German feminist research and women's movement questio-ning the supposed unity and impurity of the "we" of feminismoThis deba-te is stlll going on. Authors like Ch~ndra T. Mohanty or ]udith Butler ar-gue that we have to realize that there are differences and relations ofpower among women as well, e.g. difference of class, economic domina-tioil etc. Instead of creating a harmonious "we women" women have tolearn to analyze and name opression exercised by women, as well. I dwelton these points in order to show that they express certain assumptions onthe powerlessness of women in situations of domination. Although womenare touched by extreme violence there exists no pure and innocent holyfemale self. Even powerless women have power as they support a powerstructure. I will rather argue that only by questioning the arrangement ofthe sexes women will make their contribution to conflict transformation.

So i think there is a very important point to make regarding a feministperspective in conflict transformation. I think there exists a feminist pers-pective in a very general sense. From what i have shown follows first thatwomen have to develop a consciousness on how they are contributing tothe reproduction of violent structures. They can realize that they have toquestion the roles they perform. Thus they question the whole system thatdepends on their reproductive work.

Furthermore, as i have shown earlier, women occupy in most societiesa status of minority. Gender arrangements are a decisive element of a

structure of domination of the whole society.Women are regarded as infe-rior and the functions that are assigned to women are devalued. This formsa part of a specific power structure being based on a gender-specific divi-sion of labour and social values. The fact that women occupy a certainspace in the symbolic order is not a contingent factor, but a necessary one.Thus the gender arrangement part of violent structures and is contribu-ting to the generation of inequalities and violent conflicts, too. When wo-men question their status in society and rebel against it, they will questionthe whole system. So the analysis and critique of women 's supposed infe-riority implies a critique of the society in general. Any change of the infe-rior position of women demands a change of society and a new arrange-ment of the sexes - this makes the feminist question subversive -. Womenquestion the structures of domination that are producing gender inequa-lity, cultural inequality, violent conflicts etc. If we regard the women ques-tion as subverting a whole system then women are in a particular positionconcerning intercultural dialogue and conflict transformation. The wo-men 's question is not an extra-question that has to be added to any analy-sis but it is at the very core of the analysis of violent structures.

So we can ask whether there is a common perspective of women indifferent societies and cultures. I think women adopt similar strategies ofcritique and women place themselves a comparable position towards thestructure of their societies. In many societies women question their posi-tion of inferiority and thus question the hegemonic symbolic order andrelations of power. Though the contents of these analises may vary there isthe same intention of critique. Analysis from a women 's perspective meansquestioning dominant structures that reduce women to second class citi-zens thus subverting the order in general. So there exists is a cross culturalmovement of female critique and resistance. In many cultures and societieswomen are marginalised and question the cultural heritage. That is an ef-fort cornmon to all. In a cross - cultural perspective we can analyse howwomen rebel against their status of the Other of male discourse, thus sub-vert this discourse and insert themselves in a discourse ofliberation.

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