May 29th, 1851. Sojourner Truth walked into the Women’s Convention in Akron, Ohio, a room filled with white middle class women. Sojourner Truth does not seem to fit the crowd as a former slave, but she is forever remembered for her speech at the Women’s Convention “Ain’t I a Woman”.
That man over there says that women need to be helped into carriages, and lifted over ditches, and to have the best place everywhere. Nobody ever helps me into carriages, or over mud-puddles, or gives me any best place! And ain't I a woman?
Truth’s speech infers that feminism is a privilege of white women only. Indeed, throughout US history, women of ethnic minorities cannot fit into or even are discriminated against in mainstream or so-called “white” feminism. …show more content…
Betty Friedman’s famous feminist literature “The Feminine Mystique” that signals the second wave of feminist movement mainly focuses on the issues of middle-class white women whose lives revolve around domestic work including child bearing and taking care of their husbands. The goal of Friedman is to raise awareness for women in the workforce and encourage married women to seek employment. Friedman’s use of “feminine” refers to all women but it is impossible to generalize the life of a poor, uneducated and homeless woman of racial minority under such category. Women who labored for survival and were concerned with making ends meet cannot possibly relate to the point of view of Betty Friedman who was a suburban housewife herself. Friedman’s stance on the unity of women and gender solidarity simply cannot exist. Caroline Ramazanoglu argues in her book “Feminism and the Contradiction of Oppression” that “the assumption of common sisterhood in white feminism [is] rooted in the narrow version of western experience.” The difference here is that common expression may exist for white woman, but oppression comes as a overlapping form for women of racial minority. It is impossible to ignore the existence of intersectionality in finding women’s identity. The definition for womanhood and feminism that assumes all women are the same is improper but widely shaped all three waves of women’s
That man over there says that women need to be helped into carriages, and lifted over ditches, and to have the best place everywhere. Nobody ever helps me into carriages, or over mud-puddles, or gives me any best place! And ain't I a woman?
Truth’s speech infers that feminism is a privilege of white women only. Indeed, throughout US history, women of ethnic minorities cannot fit into or even are discriminated against in mainstream or so-called “white” feminism. …show more content…
Betty Friedman’s famous feminist literature “The Feminine Mystique” that signals the second wave of feminist movement mainly focuses on the issues of middle-class white women whose lives revolve around domestic work including child bearing and taking care of their husbands. The goal of Friedman is to raise awareness for women in the workforce and encourage married women to seek employment. Friedman’s use of “feminine” refers to all women but it is impossible to generalize the life of a poor, uneducated and homeless woman of racial minority under such category. Women who labored for survival and were concerned with making ends meet cannot possibly relate to the point of view of Betty Friedman who was a suburban housewife herself. Friedman’s stance on the unity of women and gender solidarity simply cannot exist. Caroline Ramazanoglu argues in her book “Feminism and the Contradiction of Oppression” that “the assumption of common sisterhood in white feminism [is] rooted in the narrow version of western experience.” The difference here is that common expression may exist for white woman, but oppression comes as a overlapping form for women of racial minority. It is impossible to ignore the existence of intersectionality in finding women’s identity. The definition for womanhood and feminism that assumes all women are the same is improper but widely shaped all three waves of women’s