SOURCE: Charlesworth, Hilary. “Martha Nussbaum's Feminist Internationalism.” Ethics 111, no. 1 (October 2000): 64-78.

In the following essay, Charlesworth examines two major challenges facing feminist internationalism: state hostility to feminist internationalism and differences among women within the global community. Charlesworth evaluates the extent to which Nussbaum's “capabilities” approach to feminist internationalism adequately addresses these issues.

The term ‘feminist internationalism’ generally means the elaboration of transnational principles and standards to advance the position of women. The move to define international benchmarks to improve women's globally disadvantaged situation has a long history. For example, international women's groups were established in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries to deal with issues such as equal access to education and training and women's suffrage.¹ Women's groups lobbied the League of Nations and the International Labour Organisation to develop standards and practices relating to matters such as the nationality of married women, trafficking in women and...