Postcolonial criticism and feminist criticism are similar in that they are responses to the "universal" claims of the structuralist criticism that dominated literary theory in years prior. Both post-structuralist theories (feminism and postcolonialism) question said universality, and focus instead on identifying hegemonic forces that inform the text, characters, language and ultimately the writer. Critics working with both ideologies also analyze how writers resist the hegemonic force in question.

The main difference between the two ideologies are the hegemonic structures that they address. Feminism addresses the patriarchal structure (i.e., stereotypical gender roles, objectification and commodification of women), while postcolonial criticism focuses on how certain social structures benefit the colonizing race (i.e., linguistic dominance, economic advantages, colonial standards of beauty).

It is also important to note that feminist criticism and postcolonial criticism are not necessarily mutually exclusive.