Women Hold up Half the Sky

There are so many social movements that have originated in the US that have changed the world. But there are many who never really took off. I think the many successes of social movements can be attributed to what we know of as the “American Dream”, especially in the 20^th century. Some that come to mind are those that effect women, senior citizens, welfare recipients, people of color, and those that I work directly with, people living with or effected by disease. Each was sparked by grass root movements, by those affected the most or “change from below”.  Because there are so many effected by the lack of medical insurance and universal health care, you have to wonder why it is just now become an issue that needs to be addressed.

One social movement that is still evolving is the feminist movement. It is so hard  to believe 100 years ago, women didn’t even vote, many could not even spell their own names. Once given the opportunity, they began running for political office. In this area, feminism is still underdeveloped. Only a small fraction of politicians are women.

20th century feminism didn’t speak to all women,  especially women of color. Those that led the feminist movement of the 60s were white middle to upper class women, who felt they needed to be freed from middle to upper class white men. Historically oppression towards these women was only from the male counterparts. Women of color, especially African American women, didn’t have the same struggles as these women. Many times than not, they are equals to African American men as far as oppression, therefore their oppression is different than Caucasian women. “Although it is contested that all struggles are the same, placing all women under feminism is the epitome of racist arrogance and domination, suggesting that white women’s experience is the standard and authority above any other experience” (Hudson-Weems 209).

With the third wave of feminism was coined the term “Womanist” by Alice Walker in her works,  “In Search of Our Mother’s Gardens: Womanist Prose”. Walker’s “Womanist” is committed to the survival and wholeness of an entire people, therefore men are included in the definition.

To assume that a white woman’s experience is the same as a woman of colors is offensive to me.  I just don’t believe you can define every woman’s experience to that of the ruling class. I don’t believe that Feminism is better or worse than Womanism, it’s just different. For this movement to be successful (and its far from it at this point) It’s a matter of understanding the differences that women in each group experience, recognizing that there are clear and distinct differences in each group of women and then tackling the forces that oppress each of us together.

References:

Hudson-Weems, Clenora.(2003). Africana Womanism. Out of the Revolution: the Development of Africana Studies. Lanham: Rowman and Littlefield, Inc.,