Fifteen women of various age-groups, from different cultural, religious, social and geographical backgrounds, were asked to write about the lives of their grandmother, their mother, themselves and their daughters (or, if this was impossible, other women of those generations close to the family). These life narratives served to prepare an encounter at which the authors came together to share their perceptions of the currents and undercurrents of the narratives. According to the comments of those invited to take part, the main stimulus to participate in this rather demanding process was precisely the request to write this four-generations story. In their professional contexts none of these women had ever been asked to write about her own life or about the lives of her close family. The act of doing so had an influence, in different ways, on the relationships themselves. It compelled the participants to try to look at the mother'' or grandmother'' own perception of her life. It gave rise to discussions between grandmothers, mothers and daughters about their respective appreciation of their own and the other' s life – discussions which, in some cases, had never taken place before.

The narratives span a great variety of contexts. They tell the stories of fifty-four women in Asia, Africa, Latin America and Europe, covering a period of more than a hundred years.

The insights gained from the analysis strengthen the motivation for the theme in the sense that they confirm the need for a nuanced and specific approach to women's perceptions and ways of shaping their realities. The narratives illustrate the changing meaning of 'place' in women's lives over time and across space. They have a strong de-stereotyping effect. They move beyond traditional feminist concerns and North South divides. They highlight women's own implicit ways, in day-to-day dealings with their lives, of disregarding the dominant tendency to define realities in terms of dichotomies. These ways intertwine rather than separate seemingly opposite elements. And -last but not least- the analysis makes one aware of misleading similarities created by the use of dominant languages in intercultural relations. (…)

Feminist thinking and acting, outspoken as it was, may have created the impression of dealing with one universal problem of submission to patriarchal models of society, and of working on global, uniform strategies to empower women. However, a closer look at the emphases placed on the various aspects of the issue shows not only different waves in feminist thinking but also its inherent heterogenity. We cannot speak of one feminism. There exists a variety of feminisms, each with its own angles and foci.

 At different times and at different places, one finds varying degrees of emphasis on such issues as women's rights in society, emancipatory politics and life politics. Many feminists focus particularly on gender equality and equal access to decision-making, or on the `relations of ruling'. Some, especially those from the Southern hemisphere, feel that feminists should not be too preoccupied with sexuality. They challenge the hierarchies within the global feminist sphere and denounce western feminist writing as `colonial discourse' on `the third world woman', thus ignoring differences. At the same time there are many Northern feminisms which acknowledge or advocate plurality. Sometimes they go even further by challenging the whole category of `woman' as too fixed and too dichotomized, whilst life in fact is much more fluid. For some within this heterogeneous feminist movement explicit political action through a well-organized movement is the main focus. For others, it is not even on the agenda.