Reconsidering the Oppression of Women in the West vs. the Rest.

Many women in western contexts tend to understand “oppression” in a very specific, and rather limited framework. Many tend to think of physical and material subjugation to which they themselves are less likely to be exposed. Nonetheless, oppression can have very real, damaging effects on Western women as well. This article questions this seeming contradiction through the analysis of an ethnographic interview with a 21-year-old, cis-gendered, Caucasian woman. It explores Western women’s perspectives on “oppression,” and its impact on notions of free will, gendered behaviours, and their perception of traumatic life events. Using findings from this interview, this article argues that understandings of women’s oppression need to be further complicated to include more subtle workings of power. In so doing, the article brings ethnographic data into conversation with key thinkers in the anthropology of gender, including Janice Boddy, Saba Mahmood, and Judith Butler. This theoretical framework informs key interview findings, including considerations of the interviewee’s agency and the presence of societal expectations that set behavioural parameters and encourage self-responsibility in traumatic life experiences. The article demonstrates how both material and subtle, taken-for-granted forms of oppression exist in the West and need to be acknowledged.