Moral Choices and Global Desires: Feminine Identity in a Transnational Realm
Author(s)
McHugh, Ernestine
Abstract
Global changes during the last three decades have greatly altered the spatial and moral orientations of individuals in Nepal. This has caused a reordering of gender relations that has influenced the life experience of many women, challenging existing notions of feminine identity. Here, I apply a feminist psychological anthropology to understanding the ways in which social transformations in Nepal have shaped the hopes, ideals, and actions of a particular young woman who has been empowered, rather than burdened and displaced, by the changes of globalization. Her example shows how an analysis of individual lives can illuminate the motivating forces and differential effects of globalization and demonstrates that attention to gender is necessary for understanding the complex relationship between power and experience.
