Is It Really a Fight for Equality? Hierarchies in the Feminist Movement
Swetha Nakshatri 1851. The Women’s Convention in Akron, Ohio. After a tone of acceptance shifts to one of exclusion, African American abolitionist and activist Sojourner Truth gives a speech with no name. Only a pleading question: “Ain’t I a Woman?” 1974. The first meeting of the Combahee River Collective. Finding that they struggled with white women regarding race and black men regarding gender, a feminist coalition forms in recognition of the black woman’s struggle in both race and gender hierarchies. 2013. The modern Twitterverse. In a moment of self-described frustration, Mikki Kendall starts a hashtag which ends up trending in 61 US cities, with an estimated 7 million participants. #SolidarityIsForWhiteWomen Three centuries with the same sentiment. Feminism is, and cannot continue to be, an exclusive movement, with power struggles within the fight for equality almost definitively placing white women on top, uncontested. Progressive leaders …show more content…
Issues like the wage gap, reproductive rights, and domestic and sexual violence are often put on the feminist agenda by those in positions of power. While it is true that feminists should be discussing these inherently “female” issues, there comes to be a divide between the goals of white feminism and intersectional feminism. White feminism is seemingly content with finding a “one-size-fits-all” solution for these issues and proceeding onward. However, feminism can’t be “one-size-fits-all” because “woman” does not have a homogenous definition. Through studying these historical contexts, I’ve found that as much as we would like to simplify things, there is no “real” woman, and there is no real women’s issue. Feminism is as individual as it is collective, and we need to recognize that in order to explore new, relevant issues as well as truly understand the current
Swetha Nakshatri 1851. The Women’s Convention in Akron, Ohio. After a tone of acceptance shifts to one of exclusion, African American abolitionist and activist Sojourner Truth gives a speech with no name. Only a pleading question: “Ain’t I a Woman?” 1974. The first meeting of the Combahee River Collective. Finding that they struggled with white women regarding race and black men regarding gender, a feminist coalition forms in recognition of the black woman’s struggle in both race and gender hierarchies. 2013. The modern Twitterverse. In a moment of self-described frustration, Mikki Kendall starts a hashtag which ends up trending in 61 US cities, with an estimated 7 million participants. #SolidarityIsForWhiteWomen Three centuries with the same sentiment. Feminism is, and cannot continue to be, an exclusive movement, with power struggles within the fight for equality almost definitively placing white women on top, uncontested. Progressive leaders …show more content…
Issues like the wage gap, reproductive rights, and domestic and sexual violence are often put on the feminist agenda by those in positions of power. While it is true that feminists should be discussing these inherently “female” issues, there comes to be a divide between the goals of white feminism and intersectional feminism. White feminism is seemingly content with finding a “one-size-fits-all” solution for these issues and proceeding onward. However, feminism can’t be “one-size-fits-all” because “woman” does not have a homogenous definition. Through studying these historical contexts, I’ve found that as much as we would like to simplify things, there is no “real” woman, and there is no real women’s issue. Feminism is as individual as it is collective, and we need to recognize that in order to explore new, relevant issues as well as truly understand the current