Abstraction and individualism

Transnational feminists have sought to reframe theory in ways that have radically destabilized the notion of atomistic individualism; that individuals are fundamentally isolated beings (Mohanty Reference Mohanty2003; McLaren Reference McLaren and McLaren2017). They take selves to be deeply embedded in relations not just with other humans and institutions—which many western feminist theories acknowledge—but also with nature, land, spirituality, nonhuman others, etc. (McPherson and Rabb Reference McPherson and Rabb2011; Weir Reference Weir and McLaren2017; TallBear Reference TallBear2019).Footnote ⁴ For some, they are “co-constituted” in these relations (TallBear Reference TallBear2019, 36); “intrinsically connected” (Weir Reference Weir and McLaren2017, 277) to them. This type of rejection of atomistic individualism yields revolutionary political implications. For instance, non-individualism of this kind requires genuine, rather than token, solidarity and collectivity in feminism (Mohanty Reference Mohanty2003; Fultner Reference Fultner and McLaren2017), and it lends itself to structural solutions that can often be overlooked in more individualist theory.

While deciphering what these differences mean for autonomy is less obvious, I attempt to bring this out—first for relational freedom, where there has been relatively more elaboration in the literature, and then for relational autonomy, where there has been comparatively less. When discussing freedom, Alison Weir, for instance, describes Indigenous feminisms as adopting a position of “radical relationality” (Reference Weir and McLaren2017, 276). This is a freedom “situated in relation to land (in the broadest sense), and is deeply connected to struggles for sovereignty [… and is] a quality of ethical relationships” (277, original emphasis). Indigenous women's individual freedom is “intrinsically connected” (277) to communal sovereignty. This is a deeper rejection of atomistic individualism than the Western relational self without this shared goal, casting the net of relationality more extensively. It has implications for freedom itself: “the possibility of a different conception of individual freedom in relationship” (278), and for what freedom entails, requiring connection with land and others.Footnote ⁵

Radical relationality has insights for autonomy too. It resists the individuality or instrumentality that can still be associated with relational autonomy, argues Weir.Footnote ⁶ For instance, radical relationality does not seek to restructure relations to enable the “maximal pursuit of individual ends” or to facilitate “the capacity to discover and to follow one's own will or law” (277), which Weir takes to be the respective views of Iris Marion Young and Jennifer Nedelsky. These are more individual or instrumental purposes and notions of self. Rather, radical relational autonomy implies restructuring relations for—what I will argue are more revisionist—non-individual purposes (communal goals of freedom of land, etc.) and as ends in themselves (for better relations because these are already part of self).

Elsewhere, Weir (Reference Weir2008) offers a helpful expansion of this idea through Cynthia Willett's work. She argues that freedom (which, here, she takes to be relational autonomy) is not to be understood simply “in the context of relationships one has (the project of most theorists of relational autonomy).” Rather, it is a much more positive conception—it “is precisely the capacity to be in relationships that one desires: to love whom and what you choose to love” (16, original emphasis). This is not the capacity to pick and choose relations in a vacuum or, more charitably to relational autonomy theories, one's ends despite being embedded in relations. Instead, it is the capacity to live fully, in ways people find mattering to them, in deep connection with others. It is to fully be ourselves as human beings (Horkheimer Reference Horkheimer1972); an ultimately radically relational state of affairs.Footnote ⁷

I call this position, roughly, “being-with.” Being-with, I propose, is entwined in the notion of autonomy; it is a more radically non-individual concept than standard relational accounts. This, in turn, I offer, is likely to require more demanding political interventions. Being-with suggests more revolutionary measures, such as about land or other groups, than any isolated, individual ends permit.

This discussion on different types of relationality also applies to multidimensional accounts. Both Killmister and Mackenzie take selves to be relational in the non-transnational sense, but not necessarily in the transnational one. This reflects the Indigenous women described less well than a radical relational self does, and I argue that it fosters a less innovative approach for enabling being-with. To see this more clearly, consider the extent to which autonomy itself is relational on multidimensional views.

The accounts are reluctant to take autonomy to be inherently relational; the disinclination being either total or partial. Killmister's view is instrumentally relational in that other people are needed to learn about autonomy and to exercise the skills of autonomy. However, being in a particular kind of relation with others is not definitive of what autonomy is; rather autonomy is always about the capacities of the individual (Reference Killmister2018, 144). This differs from the inherent relational conception of a radical approach to autonomy that I have outlined.

Killmister's position differs too from the (Western) relational idea that autonomy is realized with others through a dialogical disposition to answer for oneself (Westlund Reference Westlund2009). Mackenzie, on the other hand, does mention Andrea Westlund's dialogical approach under the self-authorization axis (Reference Mackenzie, Veltman and Piper2014, 36), so there is some scope for a more non-instrumentally relational autonomy. Indeed, elsewhere, Mackenzie intimates that relational autonomy—which she takes her view to be—simply is socially constitutive (Reference Mackenzie and Oshana2015, 48), which implies it is more similar to a radical view.

However, Mackenzie—as well as Killmister (Reference Killmister2018, 144)—ultimately reject a stronger connection between external conditions and internal states. External and internal are merely causally interdependent not intrinsically connected (Mackenzie Reference Mackenzie, Veltman and Piper2014, 24).Footnote ⁸ In short, both accounts—understandably given current frameworks of many relational models—are at pains to avoid an excessively strong connection between the external and internal. Yet, however the constitutive versus instrumental debate is settled, the focus on it misses an important opportunity: to recognize radical relationality and to reimagine the connection between the external and internal. I argue that such an approach does not primarily ask us to consider challenging the external or to be as progressive as we might. I contend that we need to adopt radical relationality and reinterpret the relationship between external and internal factors for autonomy to do this.

Killmister's interventions, for instance, are based on individual-targeted solutions. Policy-based interventions, like nudging, damage autonomy if—as is almost inevitably the case (Thaler and Sunstein Reference Thaler and Sunstein2008)—they are implemented more broadly than at the level of the individual (Killmister Reference Killmister2018, 180).Footnote ⁹ Interventions concerning peoples or land, taken to be fundamental to selves on a radical relational view (Weir Reference Weir and McLaren2017) and for being-with, may be less pronounced when interventions focus on individuals.

Mackenzie, meanwhile, does conclude that “structural social and political change” may be required to tackle restrictions in self-determination (Reference Mackenzie and Oshana2015, 63). This might include expanding opportunities to be and do. As this centers on the capabilities people can actually function in, rather than a negative idea of freedom from harms, this endorses a more positive conception for autonomy, just as radical relationality does. However, this stops short of the deeply relational approach that radical views imply. It enables people to be and do within their current embeddedness rather than a richer notion of thoroughly being-with others as they find meaningful.

In another example, as already argued, both accounts suggest that autonomy is impaired, even if not negated or determined, by negative externalities. However, the focus on how these diminish an individual's autonomy re-emphasizes and re-centers the individual; the framework that a radical relational view seeks to resist. For instance, contrary to there not being any damage to an individual's autonomy in multidimensional accounts—because such accounts separate internal and external axes (Johnston Reference Johnston2017)—there is a failure that is ultimately associated with the person.Footnote ¹⁰ This is because their overall autonomy is reduced compared with someone without restricted self-determination. It does not suggest the structural, social, or political parts themselves are at fault simpliciter. This effectively gives prominence to, and concentrates solutions on, the individual. In so doing, it curtails interventions that could tackle structures in deeper ways for being-with.

Transnational feminists certainly want to protect and promote women's individual sense of agency (Mohanty Reference Mohanty2003; Welch Reference Welch2013; Khader Reference Khader2019). However, the focus on agency, rather than autonomy, by various transnational feminists is a deliberate strategy. It is to broaden the discussion from mere individual indicators and solutions regarding autonomy to contextual and social ones (Madhok Reference Madhok2007). While relational and multidimensional accounts do better than traditional autonomy theories on this front—by including external factors or capabilities—an individualized focus still remains in two ways. First, multidimensional theories may lead to modest types of interventions relative to even less individualized transnational feminist accounts. Starting with a radically relational view is likely to allow more extensive interventions that enable being-with. Second, at the same time, multidimensional accounts still end up with a view of reduced autonomy of the person overall. The focus of the discussion remains the individual, despite admirable efforts to avoid over-individualizing. Not all transnational feminists will want to discuss autonomy beyond individual capacities, as I will go on to discuss. For now, though, I suggest, there are stronger, non-instrumental, ways to conceptualize autonomy that I claim better fit the transnational critique of challenging individualism.

Identities in oppression

Western feminisms, in general, have been charged with essentializing the group “women”, whereby all women are assumed to share the same oppressions. Chandra Talpade Mohanty (Reference Mohanty2003, 33–37) argues that part of the reason for this is that Western feminisms are inattentive to their power and privilege in theorizing. They employ methodologies that uncritically justify concepts, experiences, values, etc. as being universal when they are not. The methodologies and their resulting theories develop in the West and then are, wrongly, regarded to extend to all people in all contexts. For instance, gendered division of labor anywhere is thought to be oppressive, because it is so in the West (35). As transnational feminists argue, however, women are socially located in complex spaces, with reference to race, sexuality, nationality, disability, caste, class, religion, coloniality, and more. As such, there are both different kinds of oppressions faced by members of the group “women” and varied experiences of gendered practices that may not be oppressive.

Relatedly, transnational feminists challenge the attitude of superiority in the Western assumption that “third world” women are not subjects of power, whereas “first world” women are (Narayan Reference Narayan1997; Mohanty Reference Mohanty2003; Khader Reference Khader2019). The former are regarded as dupes of culture or patriarchy because they behave or choose differently to the latter, who supposedly evade such forces. Yet identities in any location are multiple and also likely to bring both privileges and disadvantages given their complexity. It is not the case that women are entirely either victims (as “other” women are often regarded) or autonomous agents (as Western women are comparatively presented). Rather, they will each occupy various non-binary positions.

The multidimensional accounts I have been considering do not squarely deal with differing identities in these ways, but they do appeal to the broader notions of practical identities and changing selves. That is, they require a notion of identity: having a sense of “who one is” allows us to claim desires, commitments, etc. are meaningfully “ours”, even when our identities evolve over time and are relational. Further, as already discussed, multidimensional theorists are able to identify autonomy in oppression, which recognizes the possible agency of women in the Global South. Likewise, as noted above, in offering individual-specific remedies to improve autonomy, they show there is sensitivity to “woman” being a heterogeneous group. However, differing identities and their connections to autonomy have been less well covered. In particular, the accounts presuppose that the factors that indicate autonomy for some women in one context must be the same for different women in any other context. Yet such a general account is prone to smuggle in Western biases, undermining its usefulness.

One could read Mackenzie picking out the actual opportunities to be and do that are available to individuals (axis i) as her indirectly connecting how identity-specific oppressions can affect self-governance. However, as her philosophical interest is domain-centric (law, political participation, bioethics) rather than woman-centric (woman located in particular spaces), there is no direct exploration of such identity-based specifics for different kinds of women. This, no doubt unintentionally, leaves us with a generalized notion of “woman,” which potentially misses a way of gauging autonomy that is specified to women's identities, histories, etc. As Pinar Dokumaci (Reference Dokumacı2020) explains about “pious feminist” women in Turkey, such women neither fully adopt the language, knowledge, value sets, etc. of “compliant” (religious) or “resistant” (secular) feminists. Rather, they carve their own approach to being feminist women that spans across and beyond multiple feminisms. Given this, it is plausible that they hold their own conceptions of autonomy that are similarly untethered to a single existing model too. As transnational feminists have argued (Mohanty Reference Mohanty2003, 40–41), women may navigate their identities, lived experience, narratives, theories, in unique ways that signify autonomy. Yet it remains invisible to us if we take up a generalized view.Footnote ¹¹

In a different example, Killmister stresses the importance of intention formation and acting on intentions for autonomy (axis ii). This differs from Saba Mahmood (Reference Mahmood2005) who argues that pious women in Cairo, Egypt, perform acts of piety out of habit long before anything like intentionally embracing piety. One's socially located identity matters to how one engages with decision-making in the first place, and habit, according to Mahmood, may well be a form agency takes.Footnote ¹² Assuming a predefined manifestation for aspects of autonomy without specificity to the local, then, can obscure indications of agency. Killmister categorically and exclusively focuses on Western liberal contexts in her theory (Reference Killmister2018, 86), so there is no fault of hers in cross-applying her account. The worry is that the theory—with its liberal Western leanings—may inadvertently be thought of as falsely universal and get co-opted, as it is, to southern contexts. For transnational feminists, avoiding the generalized Western woman in theory from the outset can mitigate this.

In sum, the claim has not been that multidimensional accounts necessarily exclude women in the Global South from being autonomous. Rather, it is that these accounts are both more individualized and more generalized than many transnational feminists may take to be correct or useful.

Guidelines

In order to limit neo-colonialism in theory, a fundamental aim for transnational feminists, I suggest that any amendments should adhere to three guidelines.

First, there needs to be a shift away from ethnocentrism—the idea that the standards of one's culture are best—and eurocentrism—the assumption that Western European culture is best. With regards to autonomy, we might, for instance, reject views that reflection by oneself is better than discussing with others, that rationality is superior to affective responses, and that the mind is more attuned to what we want than the body. The former of each formulation is associated with Western norms, and so regarded better by default (ethnocentrism).Footnote ¹⁴ Likewise, we should be dubious if it turns out that, on a framing of autonomy that is partial to and values certain traits, the white, male, secular, New York, banker is always more autonomous than the brown, female, religious, Jullundur-based, surrogate. There is something askew if Westerners are ceteris paribus more autonomous by default due to a specific configuration of autonomy (eurocentrism). Mindful of these biases, a less-Western-centric conception that is transnational feminist-friendly would be unlikely to automatically take Western framings or agents as the optimal sort.

Second, given that the West has determined the orthodoxy for autonomy, we should be willing to be more open or imaginative about autonomy where helpful. One need not keep the “referent point” for a concept fixed just because it has always been that way, for instance; rather, one must be willing to “unfix” it, if doing so permits a transformative and non-dominating feminist theory (Wynter Reference Wynter1982). In particular, if the concept of autonomy is to be genuinely useful to women of color—such as in recognizing complex instances of agency—and if it is important to highlight histories—such as the hierarchies synonymous with colonialism—then structures cannot be ignored. That is, we might resist the idea that autonomy is merely a capacity of individuals simply because that is the way it has usually been framed. Focusing purely on the individual and whether they are autonomous as the referent point detracts from the feminist and postcolonial structural lens that underpins many transnational positions.

Third, and finally, the concept of autonomy should not be too abstracted from the real world. A lack of concreteness threatens to make autonomy over-demanding and/or over-valued in actual state of affairs. On over-demandingness, having too stringent an account would mean few people can attain it, rendering it unhelpful and insensitive to current conditions. Expecting secondary or tertiary levels of education, for instance, more likely excludes those in the Global South, who may not meet these conditions but be highly in tune with what they desire nonetheless. On over-valuing, only valorizing autonomy falsely aggrandizes it and misses negative consequences in reality (Khader Reference Khader2019). There can be losses of social connection and support if autonomy is conceptualized and realized as greater independence, for instance. Alternatively, harms may accrue from being too subjected to social whims and not pursuing goals different to one's community if autonomy is overly relational (Khader Reference Khader2019). A non-abstracted version, such as one that resists high thresholds and reductive framings, is more achievable and attuned to the world.

Purpose

Philosophers theorizing about autonomy usually have a purpose for their accounts in mind, even if only implicitly. For instance, some advocate autonomy theories for identifying persons who are subject to the moral law (Kant Reference Kant and Timmermann2012), others for showing which citizens can participate in the political realm (Christman Reference Christman2009), and others still for distinguishing which agents are sufficiently self-controlled to count as authors of their personal decisions (Frankfurt Reference Frankfurt1971; Watson Reference Watson1987; Bratman Reference Bratman2007).Footnote ¹⁵ Drawing on transnational (Narayan Reference Narayan1998) and radical Black activist (e.g., Olufemi, Reference Olufemi2020) feminist insights about bettering the lives of women of color, I propose an ameliorative purpose for autonomy.

An ameliorative account of autonomy (AA), following Sally Haslanger's enquiry into gender and race (Haslanger Reference Haslanger2000), would seek to improve, rather than merely describe or conceptually clarify.Footnote ¹⁶ Amendments under AA are for enhancing the situations of women in the Global South in ways meaningful to them. For instance, where there are gaps between what a person takes to be meaningful and what she does, and the deficit is explainable by historic or ongoing identity-based injustices, like racism-sexism in (neo)colonialism, attending to those inhibiting forces in ways that matter to her is prompted. There are also notable constraints on amelioration for transnational feminists. Improving harmful structures, rather than determining or attaining optimal structures (Khader Reference Khader2019), is important.Footnote ¹⁷ Likewise, increasing opportunities, rather than banning options (Narayan Reference Narayan, Antony and Witt1993), is to be preferred.

Versions of AA, of course, are neither new nor immune to criticism.Footnote ¹⁸ But if the improvements suggested do not pay attention to the guidelines of AA, they would not be transnational feminist-friendly, according to my account. For instance, if the proposals decree women of color to always be less autonomous than white men because typically masculine traits are valued, they would not meet this condition. Similarly, if they fail to foreground structural changes for justice improvement alongside discussion of individual capacities, they would not be acceptable. Likewise, if they exclude some women from being autonomous because unjust structures exist, they would not be valuable for transnational feminists.

Critical relational autonomy

I begin with the critical relational proposal. This adopts, but also builds on, radical relationality in two ways: it affirms the deeply relational interpretation of autonomy and it adds an impetus for others to combat relations that undermine this. Through this, I show that any threats to positively being-with is harm to relational persons, not a reduction in autonomy.

First, a critical view adopts a radical position that humans are fundamentally relational. Any conception of an autonomous life is categorically not one that is removed from or despite others, but that is always in good connection with them. This requires that the inherently relational nature of autonomy be made visible and explicit for all. There are deep interdependencies that connect all agents including—through interpersonal, institutional, natural world, nonhuman other, and structural ties—you and I, whether agents know of the significance of these relations or not. That these relations enable people to be-with is what is key under critical relational autonomy.

Second, identifying these relations helps diagnose harmful relations to autonomy, but, more notably in a critical approach, it also presses to improve those relations. The critical focus makes autonomy not simply about a capacity of individuals to live as most meaningful to them, as in a radical position. Instead, it is also an active and practical aim for those to whom they relate. Those who stand in relation to others have reason to advocate for change in ways meaningful to those others to facilitate being-with. This is distinct under a critical position.

Holding these differences in mind, a critical position allows that oppression harms a person being-with, but that this does not mean that they are non-autonomous. When oppression exists, it impacts what people can be or do. This, however, triggers a practical demand to tackle it, not a referendum on the degree of the person's autonomy that exists.Footnote ²⁰ In a reimagined picture, the relationship between autonomy and oppression is inverted. Oppression does not soak up autonomy like the proverbial sponge thereby reducing it, as under multidimensional accounts; rather autonomy—a notion of being-with—acts as a mirror to demand change to the oppression which threatens it.

It is more apt on my view, then, to discuss this in terms of oppression harming the person as a fundamentally relational being. It is well understood as a harm to the person, since oppression—at heart—targets the self (Lugones Reference Lugones2003, 58). It reduces, immobilizes, presses down on persons as members of groups (Frye Reference Frye1983). This relationship does not change one's status as a person qua person on my account.Footnote ²¹ Yet it does threaten it—other people and systems can certainly make one's life go better or worse—and it is disrespectful to a person's status. Using this language enables the claim that the harm is to persons rather than to their autonomy.

To be clear, on my view, poor relations do not equate to (i.e., lead to a negation of) autonomy or, differently to multidimensional accounts, impair (i.e., lead to a reduction of) autonomy. Instead, they are to be identified, and improved, as they encroach upon thoroughly relational persons. Relations that harm agents’ goals and projects are of ethical import because they harm not just fuller expression of oneself but the (intrinsically relational) self itself. This is recognizing oppressive relations not as deficits of an individual's autonomy but as harms to the person, and then working to reduce those harms. More pithily: the problem is the world, not the person. My approach decouples harmful relations and autonomy reduction, differently to multidimensional accounts, but does not wholly detach those relations. On the contrary, like the multidimensional view, it sees the significance of them. But it is in a more profound way, as it stresses the gravity of the harm of those relations to us as human beings.

A critical relational approach is also more extensive than multidimensional accounts. It does not just seek to tweak relations but transform them, including by overhauling dominating structures and systems, to live fully as deeply relational beings.Footnote ²² While this has parallels to a radical relational view, a critical relational approach goes further. As human beings are inherently relational, with all of us connected to each other, the critical approach is the demand for us to contribute to challenging those relations to support other people's being-with. It recognizes our roles in this endeavor too. How might we demand more of ourselves, others, institutions, structures, to enable relational goals and life plans of persons to whom we stand in relation? Importantly, any such demands are initiated from those whose lives they are about and action is in conjunction with them. Together, this reflects an ameliorative, not merely a descriptive or conceptual, purpose.

There are two further reasons for why critical relational autonomy is a useful approach for transnational feminist concerns.

First, critical relational autonomy is not too externalist and does not revert to an internalist-only view. That is, some transnational feminists resist “socially constitutive” (Khader Reference Khader2020) accounts of autonomy, or favor “extremely ‘thin’” accounts of autonomy (Narayan Reference Narayan, Antony and Witt1993, 431).Footnote ²³ This is not because they reject relationality. Rather, it is because “thick” accounts connect autonomy with non-oppressive external conditions. When applied to women in the Global South who may lack these conditions, this risks denying them the very autonomy that may protect them against paternalism, thereby increasing their susceptibility to greater harm. Externalism encourages paternalism.

As intimated earlier, multidimensional accounts, on some views, can evade this concern by distinguishing the internal and external more sharply (Johnston Reference Johnston2017). Indeed, there has been concession that theories like Mackenzie's (when taken to be socially constitutive) could successfully do this (Khader Reference Khader2020). This allows outsiders to offer opportunities to people under oppressed conditions but not override their wills. Yet, Serene J. Khader (Reference Khader2020) argues that this tactic raises other worries for the accounts. One needs to show why self-governance trumps other axes, like self-determination (where oppression is captured), such that it matters most in judgments of autonomy. Doing this, however, ultimately means that self-governance equates to autonomy; an internalist-only position.Footnote ²⁴

The account I am proposing recognizes, like multidimensional accounts, that it is important to capture external features in a conception of autonomy. It also endorses that those under oppression or in harmful relationships can be autonomous nonetheless. Their agency is neither obliterated nor determined by less than perfect conditions. However, as discussed, my account goes further. It dissociates any negative relations as reducing autonomy itself; rather, the issue is that the relations themselves are problematic in some way. This avoids concluding that such women have reduced autonomy at all, and so further limits the risk of paternalism.

As requirements under a transnational-feminist friendly account for self-governance are minimal, many—including oppressed people—will achieve it and so evade having their wills overridden. If internalists take this to be the most important aspect about autonomy, say in preventing state coercion, they can seek out merely self-governing type conditions. Doing this would be enough to not be paternalistic for them. However, under AA this is not the only element or case that matters; rather identifying and improving relations for being-with do too. Indeed, in the state coercion example, the state itself stands in relation to many oppressed persons and so is a candidate for improvement.

If the goals of AA are accepted, it is more conducive to consider structures as part of the framework of autonomy because it also instigates discussion about what to do. The worry with an internalist-only account is that relations often get sidelined; it is more likely, I suggest, that we pick out instances of autonomy without identifying or seeking to address injustice, if we do not overtly consider them together in the same account.Footnote ²⁵ Of course, this is not necessarily the outcome, but it is more probable when done separately than together. Since the aims of AA require something broader than merely discerning individual self-governance, a critical relational autonomy is apt. Paternalism is resisted but other aspects—like harmful relations—are challenged too. The external matters.

Moreover, while internalist-only accounts can attain these non-deterministic outcomes too, they do so at a cost of other advantages. Even though they do not seek to reject relationality, for instance, they effectively regress to a more individualistic autonomy. Khader (Reference Khader2020, 8–9) notes that some internalist-only (i.e., reflection alone) conceptions could acknowledge relationality by “allow[ing] that some forms of socialization are especially compatible with reflection and hold[ing] that caring deeply about others can be reflectively endorsed.” While this is true, it is a more impoverished notion of autonomy than how (for example) Dokumaci understands the pious feminist women in Turkey. The women of her study are “relationally constituted pious sel[ves],” not “socially embedded, individual, pious sel[ves]” (Reference Dokumacı2020, 252).Footnote ²⁶ Such women see their autonomy as perpetually interdependent with their relations, such as religious and feminist values and with the views of others. Meral, one of the interviewees, explicitly connects her autonomy with the restructuring of relations with laws and policies prohibiting headscarves in public places, for instance. These are women, I contend, who see their very autonomy as deeply entwined with their relations. Internalist accounts with a relational component that merely values certain socialization for reflection or allows for reflective endorsement of caring about others less fully embody this type of understanding of relationality than a (radical or) critical relational autonomy.Footnote ²⁷

The second reason a critical relational autonomy is useful is that it applies broadly, not merely to those who endorse it. This is not to falsely universalize interpersonal and structural relations as important, which many transnational theorists would balk at. Rather it is to recognize them as truly foundational; it is an ontological claim about what people are like. While it would be wrong to suggest that everyone has radical relationality involving “connection to land” or “connection to the living enspirited world, in all of its diversity and processes of change,” which Weir identifies for some Indigenous peoples (Reference Weir and McLaren2017, 276), it is right that everyone is radically relationally connected. An inherently relational autonomy, thus, applies to all because such connection is fundamental for all.

For instance, the critical relational account does not apply only to women, who are stereotyped as more relational and so more likely to value a relational approach than men. Nor does it apply only to women of color, who are stereotyped as such and, in addition, as more culturally rooted than white women. Rather, it also applies to those often considered most autonomous, typically by their omission, when discussing autonomy in relation: white men. This group, who are stereotyped as disvaluing interpersonal connection, is harmed by its absence too. White men in the West notoriously suffer deficits in emotional care and connection because there is gendered value placed on stoicism and not expressing one's vulnerabilities. Their relations are not conducive to being-with, so they are harmed and something needs to be done.Footnote ²⁸ Relations are fundamentally important to all, and, on a critical view, poor relations harm many types of people being-with.Footnote ²⁹ Ultimately, the world, as it is, with its multitude of anti-being-with relations, requires significant change for us all.

Critical relational autonomy and surrogacy

One aspect of the dominant discourse in surrogacy that a critical relational autonomy helps challenge is that Indian surrogates are to be understood in an “either/or” way. That is, either (through an individualized, ethnographic approach) autonomous or (through a universal, moral framework) exploited and non-autonomous (Banerjee Reference Banerjee2010; Bailey Reference Bailey2011). Critical relational autonomy allows comment on both.

For instance, surrogates in India may be highly reflective, but this is not (contra internalist-only models) the end of the matter. If better relations are important within the account of autonomy, as per the critical approach, there are improvements to identify and make in the situation of the surrogates. Likewise, surrogates may face oppression, but this is not (contra multidimensional views) a reduction of their overall autonomy under critical relational autonomy. There are changes to propose to relations, but this does not reflect damage to or failings of the surrogates. Finally, the women may want certain relational ends but this is not (contra radical relationality) the only focus. We are inherently connected to those women in varied, complex relationships. This invites deeper interpersonal and systemic improvements under critical relationality. Let us consider these in turn.

The evidence in the literature is that surrogates reflect in ways that show they have minimum levels of competence to satisfy internalist theories. However, many surrogates also express regret and sorrow at severing ties with the child (Sama 2012; Saravanan Reference Saravanan2013). Withholding this relationship harms these women as persons; their relations, which are bound up with their very autonomy in a critical approach, suffer. This instigates seeking change—such as to the compulsory end to the surrogate-child relationship imposed in such arrangements, for instance. People as people are harmed by not being able to live fully (in some form) within fundamental relations that just matter to them. This is so much so that relations, and how to improve them, becomes part of every discussion, including that of a theory of autonomy.Footnote ³⁰ To not do this, as internalist accounts suggest, curtails an opportunity to improve the lives of women in the Global South in ways that matter to them and that better fit how they understand themselves.

That surrogates make assessments and form judgements about their situations, likewise, meets many internal requirements of multidimensional accounts. The surrogates weigh up their options and take surrogacy to be best for them in very difficult circumstances, for example (Pande Reference Pande2010a). Yet suggesting there is less autonomy overall for the women due to these contexts—since they have fewer opportunities or changed goals, for instance—as under multidimensional accounts, does a disservice to the women. The women have views on what needs to change, including having greater employment options or welfare provision. Recognizing their autonomy as intact, including relative to non-oppressed persons, is politically important in making systemic change happen. Critical relational autonomy, which both seeks to practically improve relations and sees oppression as a harm to the person rather than a diminished autonomy, does this.

Finally, the surrogates have goals and plans that are highly relational: they focus on protecting their families, and decisions are localized around their immediate lives. But it would be a mistake to suggest that they and we are disconnected in our day-to-day lives. Some surrogates in the Global South, for instance, note disparities between them and intended parents in the Global North (Pande, Reference Pande2010b).Footnote ³¹ These inequalities emerge from particular colonial histories, from which those in the Global North benefit. There are also ongoing colonial attitudes toward the Global South as a site of cheap labor, including for surrogacy. Pressing for change in these relationships—such as reparations for resetting unjust colonial relations that could fund better terms and conditions, jobs, or safety nets that the women want—is action that those in the Global North can take. This would support the autonomy of the women to whom they stand in relation as colonial benefitters and “service users.” This differs to a radical relationality that does not connect others, narratives, frameworks, between all and beyond the immediate in the same way, and does not insist on others’ involvement in such change given these ties.

Critical relational autonomy helps to avoid the pitfalls of the siloed (individual ethnographic or universal moralized) approach that some transnational feminists have identified as problematic in current evaluations of surrogacy. It is, thus, well-placed to navigate the autonomy of the surrogates and serve the surrogates in an ameliorative way.

Intersectional relational autonomy

I argued earlier that social identity is often overlooked when theorizing autonomy. I now argue that multidimensional accounts would benefit from recognizing intersectional identity more overtly. This would enable a richer understanding of decisions within constraint and a search for varied signs of agency.

Intersectionality describes the unique oppressions that result from membership of various subordinated social classes (Crenshaw Reference Crenshaw1989; Wynter Reference Wynter, Davis and Fido1990). The oppression is unique because it is neither reducible to oppression experienced as a member of any single social class (Crenshaw Reference Crenshaw1989) nor merely additive or intensified versions of any single oppression (Khader Reference Khader2013). Through the case of intimate partner violence (IPV), for example, Kimberlé Crenshaw (Reference Crenshaw1991) describes how Black women in the US hold intersectional identities. They may want to report IPV to authorities (important for their membership of the group “women”). Simultaneously, they may not want to fuel stereotypes of Black men as violent (important for membership of the group “Black”). Thus, as Black women, they face distinct limitations regarding IPV compared with white women or Black men.

To meaningfully include intersectionality in the discussion of autonomy, I propose to: (1) recognize the varied quality of options at the intersection, which foregrounds their complexity; and (2) highlight intersectional agency, which identifies possibly obscured agency.

First, on quality, Crenshaw's example has already shown that fewer good options limit what Black women can do in IPV. However, there may be positive effects of intersectionality for autonomy too. Diana Tietjens Meyers (Reference Meyers, Mackenzie and Stoljar2000), for instance, argues that understanding one's complex identities is important for greater self-knowledge. “Knowing oneself”, including knowing what one might do when intersectional identities conflict, provides greater visibility of what is meaningful to persons. Uma Narayan (Reference Narayan, Antony and Witt1993) suggests that those who are cognizant of their oppression hold epistemic privilege. Such a position enables a unique and realistic perspective of one's options. These views indicate that, while intersectionality often highlights harms to persons, it can also be helpful for autonomy. Agents knowing their complex selves and situations better fosters autonomy insofar as it increases the chances of “being true to oneself.”

Second, on agency, the women navigate their worlds in ways specified to their multiple identities. Khader draws on Naila Kabeer's work to show that women in Bangladesh, who do not have legal divorce, may appeal to “verbal divorce” instead. This form of divorce publically functions to admonish men to uphold their duties in marriage, thereby achieving what they want while remaining in their communities (Khader Reference Khader2019).Footnote ³² The women in Crenshaw's example too might want interventions that stop their partners’ harmful treatment of them in ways that do not compromise their identities. They may wish to “report” them to others that are properly sensitive to their racist-sexist contexts, and want official authorities to not be excessively interfering and violent in their interactions (Reference Crenshaw1991). These women demonstrate high levels of agency—whether they (e.g.) resist, modify, accept, reform their situations—despite less good options and with particularity to their identities.

There are both conceptual and political advantages to including intersectionality in AA. One conceptual benefit is that there is greater visibility of the complex kinds of opportunities afforded to, and desires of, particular agents.Footnote ³³ Another—the one I will focus on here—is that it permits conceptual space for different manifestations of autonomy, not merely those commonly noted, such as reflection (Mackenzie Reference Mackenzie, Veltman and Piper2014) or deliberation (Killmister Reference Killmister2018). Intersectionality, I argue, primes theorists to be open to the ways those with multiple identities could navigate their options, express their desires, or understand autonomy within their contexts. For example, some may live in non-individualist societies without a norm to reflect in isolation at all, so a test for reflection per se (or for reflection to be adequate and sensitive to desire formation) is not as meaningful (Mackenzie Reference Mackenzie, Veltman and Piper2014). Others may be in contexts where it is the norm to work out desires only in collaboration with others, not via pre-known intentions and attempting to enact them (Killmister Reference Killmister2018). Indeed, these non-reflective and collaborative approaches may not be so distinctively “other-context” but apply to us all (Doris Reference Doris2018). These examples suggest that it is better to adopt a stance of epistemic humility; one should be open to varied indicators of autonomy more generally in any context. Ultimately, intersectionality allows pluralism in recognizing ways to demonstrate autonomy, and avoids prematurely foreclosing signs of agency.

There are also political benefits. One example is that the concept reveals that those at the intersection may have a better sense of how to improve their autonomy than we, as outsiders, do (Lugones and Spelman Reference Lugones and Spelman1983). While Killmister argues that we must provide limited autonomy-enhancing supports to others, a worry is that it is still more top-down than bottom-up; “us” giving them predefined support rather than “them” telling us what they want. For instance, the women in the Crenshaw and Khader examples hold preferred ways of dealing with their predicaments that would meet their needs more than, or only by, a generally prescribed and formal intervention, such as providing more information, calling the authorities, or legalizing divorce. Intersectionality within AA opens up space for the unique perspectives and needs of the women, making their agency and desired support more discernible.

Intersectional relational autonomy and surrogacy

How does each aspect of the intersectionality proposal help clarify autonomy in surrogacy? On the first part—the quality of options—surrogates in the Global North and South, and indeed within those locations, hold differing identities. Given this, contrary to common perceptions and as others have argued, the practice of commercial surrogacy may affect them and their options differently (e.g. Khader, Reference Khader2013).Footnote ³⁴ However, it is the second aspect of intersectionality—intersectional agency—that is most significant for AA. Details about interlocking identities, oppressions, and opportunities offer a richer way to discern autonomy. For instance, surrogates in several studies are relatively poorer, from lower caste groups, and are less educated than many around them—yet their agency is apparent in varied ways. Intersectional account of autonomy enables us to see particular women as not just passively having constraints wash over them, but as operating in sophisticated ways within them, even when we might not interpret it as such given our preconceptions.

For example, surrogates may decide what to do collectively with others, develop strategies of engagement, and see possibilities for themselves that belie narratives of them as non-agents. Amrita Pande (Reference Pande2010a) describes how surrogates at Hope Maternity Clinic in Anand, Gujarat, make demands for better terms based on their shared experiences. They negotiate that contracts should stipulate that intended parents, rather than the surrogate, pay the broker's fee. This is because it is a substantial cost for surrogates to bear while comparatively little for intended parents (990). While ambivalently accepting surrogacy, within their situations, these women restructure their relationship to the clinic, intended parents, each other, and themselves. They work out what they desire collectively, moving as a group, without reverting to any specific individual, and with focus on changing the structures and frameworks around them. This is a collective autonomy not reducible to individual reflection (Mackenzie Reference Mackenzie, Veltman and Piper2014) or commitments (Killmister Reference Killmister2018), and it is not deferential (Killmister Reference Killmister2018), but it is a form of autonomy characteristic of this surrogate group nonetheless.

In a different example, Sayani Mitra and Silke Schicktanz (Reference Mitra and Schicktanz2016) show how surrogates in Delhi and Kolkata experience loss and grief when the conception phase of IVF fails. They are not expected to feel anything about this “liminal stage” of the process and their crying is disregarded as naive and as misunderstanding the technology (6), such that they are silenced (7) by the clinics. Yet they weep and informally attend to the loss with each other and their husbands. Despite their lacking precise vocabulary and full awareness of the technicalities, and their feelings not being recognized, validated, or even permitted by the clinic, they process an embodied experience others deny them in their own way. The surrogates are not assumed to be subjects entitled to feel this sorrow; in this regard, they lack social recognition as agents by the authorities (Mackenzie Reference Mackenzie, Veltman and Piper2014). They cannot express or seek clarity from the clinic or intended parents about their plight as they do not allow space for it; so, they attempt something that their situation makes impossible (Killmister Reference Killmister2018). Yet, they are certainly agents who find a narrative to make sense of their very real anguish amongst each other.

In highlighting intersectional autonomy, AA encourages a closer look at perhaps unseen ways in which these women engage with their environments and compels theorists to identify instances of agency they may not immediately recognize as such. It does not presuppose one approach to discern autonomy pre-theoretically or based on an idealized form. It does not shoehorn these experiences as, in the end, individual reflection or deliberation, but accepts them as different but nonetheless valid. Once seen, this agency demands that we pay attention to what the women want and how they wish to engage in those spaces, whether that involves resistance, acceptance, or anything else.

Moreover, intersectionality requires paying attention to the least well-off in societies. It presses theorists and practitioners to consider the breadth of how the marginalized understand and exert themselves. This necessitates framing autonomy not from a privileged perspective, but as it is in reality for the majority of world's people. It also facilitates asking the right question: what is it that the least well-off seek for their lives to go better and to live more fully? If we focus on this group and see them as agents, it is more likely that we do the right things in the right ways when engaging with those already oppressed.