AbstractsWomens Studies

Feminist scholars and reproductive justice activists have connected efforts to deny women control over their own reproductive and sexual health to broader systems of oppression. In addition, it has been well demonstrated that the rhetoric of ???liberating women,??? used to justify war in Afghanistan and subsequently Iraq, was not constituted in reality. However, no existing study has focused on the parallels between the present ???war on women??? and the ???war on terror.??? This study bridges these two bodies of research together by employing narrative policy analysis of how dominant US feminist organizations approach war and reproductive and sexual health. In situating the ???war on women??? within the context of the ???war on terror,??? this thesis explores the possible connections between the role of mainstream feminism in US imperialism transnationally, and mainstream feminism???s implications in imperialism locally through reifying existing class and race hierarchies. Advisors/Committee Members: Ahmed-Ghosh, Huma, Price, Kimala, O'Brien, Cheryl.