British women joined colonial projects to win equality with Englishmen

Evidence

As travelers, ethnologists, missionaries, and reformers, Englishwomen could show their equality with Englishmen by participating in the colonial project that was defined in purely heterosexual, masculinist terms as a “penetration” and “mastery” of “virgin” territory of feminine and weak cultures. By such participation, they could uphold their supposed racial and national superiority over Eastern women that, many Englishwomen felt, justified their possession of equal rights with men. — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 162

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Suffragists argued women’s rights would strengthen Britain’s empire — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of…, 149; Englishwomen earned equality claims by demonstrating superiority over colonized women — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of…, 162