Women's Multicultural Alliances: Why They Matter

Female student members of the I-LEAD program at the College of Saint Benedict build multicultural alliances

This issue of On Campus with Women examines the powerful resources available to women through multicultural alliances. Even as all women continue to face gender discrimination on campus, women of underrepresented racial and ethnic groups, sexual orientations, and (dis)abilities find themselves multiply marginalized by identity-based biases. Alliances between women are tools for confronting the multiple matrices of discrimination. But women from underrepresented groups are not the only beneficiaries. Multicultural alliances between women strengthen the professional footing of women of all social identities and improve campus climates for everyone.

In her Director’s Outlook, Caryn McTighe Musil argues that women’s intercultural alliances can and must effectively counter systemic inequities for people of all social identities. Building on the premise of multiple social identities, veteran administrator Sharon Washington examines the difference between temporary and sustained multicultural alliances and outlines what an administrator needs to know to facilitate persistent networks. Applying this practical approach to an interpersonal context, communications professor Marsha Houston outlines methods of intercultural communication that lay the ground for successful alliance building. Kathleen Wong (Lau) calls upon women to become strategic allies for more inclusive institutions, whether they are friends with one another or not.

Expanding the frame of these definitions and practices beyond the U.S., philosopher Linda Martín-Alcoff examines the relationship between identity politics and alliance building, arguing that intercultural collaboration across identity difference is not only empowering but also essential to effecting long-term change. Alcoff calls for multicultural feminisms on a global scale (such feminisms as are illustrated by SUNY--Oswego’s collaborative work to improve girls’ education in Benin). Yet even as collaborative work expands girls’ opportunities abroad, women here in the U.S. examine the role multicultural alliances have played in their professional and personal lives. Mildred García credits multicultural alliances with shaping her career path, while I-LEAD undergraduate scholars at the College of Saint Benedict testify to the powerful resources multicultural alliances can be for young women as well as established professionals.

The voices included in this issue of On Campus with Women have joined in chorus to pronounce the power of alliance building among women. Their temporary multicultural alliance in coming together to produce this issue echoes and affirms the very message they espouse. Imagine, as Sharon Washington suggests, how powerful these alliances could be if they were sustained.