t is prominent today that women of color have struggled to have their own voice in the U.S. It is important to realize what women of color have gone through in history because not everyone realizes how badly women of color have been treated. There are numerous effects of what happened to women of color from having been dominated by white men. This essay is prominently focusing on the effects of how women of color dealt with birth control.
To first understand the struggles of women of color, one must first understand what women in general have had to deal with. As stated by John Scott, “Gender” as a substitute for “women” is also used to suggest that information about women is necessarily information about men, that one implies the study of …show more content…
Although some may be thankful for what Sanger did for women to be able to take contraceptives, it is clear that the birth control movement did not particularly help women of color. Andrea Smith states, “As Betsy Hartmann (1995) has argued, while contraceptives are often articulated as an issue of choice for white women in the first world, they are articulated as an instrument of population control for women of color and women in the third world (Hartmann 1995).” Birth control was easily accessed by upper-class white women because they had access to health education and their doctors would talk to them about birth control. The lower-class mainly consisted of women of color, so Sanger was trying to eliminate the race of these people which were women of color. Women of color have no control of what class they were raised in, so this arises the issue of women of color not being able to have access to contraceptives as easily compared to white women. This article by Andrea Smith describes a meeting of the United Council of Tribes in Chicago where a the legality of abortion was being discussed, “representatives from the Chicago Pro-Choice Alliance informed us that we should join the struggle to keep abortion legal or else we would lose our reproductive rights. A woman in the audience responded, "Who cares about reproductive rights; we don 't have any rights, period." This quotation goes to show that women of color still feel like they have no voice when it comes to their own bodies. Andrea Smith goes on to say, “a reproductive justice agenda must make the dismantling of capitalism, white supremacy, and colonialism central to its agenda, and not just as principles added to organizations ' promotional material designed to appeal to women of color, with no budget to support making these principles a reality” It is important to understand what makes it so difficult for women of color to
To first understand the struggles of women of color, one must first understand what women in general have had to deal with. As stated by John Scott, “Gender” as a substitute for “women” is also used to suggest that information about women is necessarily information about men, that one implies the study of …show more content…
Although some may be thankful for what Sanger did for women to be able to take contraceptives, it is clear that the birth control movement did not particularly help women of color. Andrea Smith states, “As Betsy Hartmann (1995) has argued, while contraceptives are often articulated as an issue of choice for white women in the first world, they are articulated as an instrument of population control for women of color and women in the third world (Hartmann 1995).” Birth control was easily accessed by upper-class white women because they had access to health education and their doctors would talk to them about birth control. The lower-class mainly consisted of women of color, so Sanger was trying to eliminate the race of these people which were women of color. Women of color have no control of what class they were raised in, so this arises the issue of women of color not being able to have access to contraceptives as easily compared to white women. This article by Andrea Smith describes a meeting of the United Council of Tribes in Chicago where a the legality of abortion was being discussed, “representatives from the Chicago Pro-Choice Alliance informed us that we should join the struggle to keep abortion legal or else we would lose our reproductive rights. A woman in the audience responded, "Who cares about reproductive rights; we don 't have any rights, period." This quotation goes to show that women of color still feel like they have no voice when it comes to their own bodies. Andrea Smith goes on to say, “a reproductive justice agenda must make the dismantling of capitalism, white supremacy, and colonialism central to its agenda, and not just as principles added to organizations ' promotional material designed to appeal to women of color, with no budget to support making these principles a reality” It is important to understand what makes it so difficult for women of color to