Feminist Futures: Trauma, The Post-9/11 World and a Fourth Feminism‪?‬

Prologue In 2002, after approximately four decades of struggle, it seems that the futures of feminisms are at stake across of number of arenas, including the academy, social and political policies, medicine, law, and multi-cultural, multi-national sites. Feminist futures are at stake for a number of reasons: while no doubt we would all provide different reasons, and tell different narratives about feminisms past and future, living in the USA the reasons seem to involve having achieved a few modest feminist goals (even if they constantly have to be defended); having produced feminist knowledge within and beyond the academy, which means that new (practical and scholarly) directions opened up; and, finally, the dramatically changing social and political conditions in (and prior to) 2002 on local, national and global levels which are impacting on feminisms. The end of the Cold War altered international relations in unpredictable ways: old constructs, such as "East" versus "West," or "Communism" versus "Capitalism," merge into new constructions, such as the recent "Islam" versus "West." In light of this, wherever feminists are situated, it is time to re-think what feminisms (in all their variety) have achieved, and where different groups need to go next.