What Is It to Vote?

Abstract

Unless women in the largest sector of the electorate in developing countries can provide real answers to the question “what is it to vote?” on their own in a generally democratic way, female suffrage is meaningless. The task of the feminist intellectual is to understand how this can be done. Although theoretically and politically incorrect, because it is liberal and bio-political—nonetheless, “other people’s children” is a slogan that travels from elite to subaltern in the electorate and should therefore be used. Since gendering is our first instrument of abstraction, the bio-political should be used strategically as a weapon for democratic emancipation. Humanities-style mind-changing work should supplement statistical calculations, as in the Human Development Index. It must be remembered that, globally, mind-changing work begins with the nurturing of the will to social justice among the children of the world, irrespective of race, class, and gender. Indeed, gendered citizenship must be perceived as also classed and racialized.

This chapter would not have been possible without my research assistants, Yohann Ripert and Pieter Vanhove. I also want to thank Kari Jegerstedt for walking me through this intellectual task.