Fatou Sow

Publication Title

Fifty Key Scholars in Black Social Thought

Document Type

Book Chapter

Department or Program

Politics

Publication Date

10-14-2024

Abstract

Fatou Sow is a Senegalese sociologist and key feminist scholar in the study of women and the family. As a researcher, teacher, and activist, she has helped to broaden the discipline's ability to tell a more complete story about the forces shaping women's lives globally. For almost half a century, Sow has worked to keep women's issues at the center of discourses about African development and human rights. Her work provides a critique of globalization and neoliberal economic policies, highlighting the gendered impact as privatization channels resources away from women. She documents the ways in which women are compelled to solve problems caused by rapid change while their needs and contributions are systematically devalued. Moreover, she sheds light on the false dichotomy in nationalist and fundamentalist discourses that pits “authentic” African femininity against the “foreign” influence of feminism. She argues instead for an African feminism that can at once reflect and transform the lives of African women.

Comments

Original version is available from the publisher at: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003315063-5

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