Imperial feminism is a term used by Pratibha Parmar, a black British filmmaker, to describe the struggles of black women in Britain in the 1970s, when the wave of feminism which emerged rarely captured the experiences of those women. If it did, it was often from a racist perspective. It claims to stand in solidarity with Third World women but in fact perpetuates stereotypes of these cultures as backward through the use of marginalising language and sweeping assumptions.

This form of feminism overlooks the important fact that many of the cultural practices shunned by white feminists have been reinforced by a cycle of colonialism.

Source: Durkhanai Ayubi for The Age