Mapping the History of Feminism

Feminist Studies 60Women of Color: Race, Class,

Ethnicity

Professor Oscar F. Gil-Garcia

First Wave Feminism & Anti-Slavery

First Wave FeminismWomen’s Convention of 1848

stated the belief of its framers in the equality of men and women

demanded for women educationthe liberty of entering all trades and

professionsthe right to appear in publicthe right to "work with men in any good

cause,“Women’s suffrage .

Sojourner Truth"I have ploughed, I have planted and gathered into barns and no one could head me -- and ain't I a woman? I could work as much and eat as much as a man -when I could get it -- and bear de lash as well, and ain't I a woman? I have borne thirteen chilern and seen most of dem sold off into slavery, and when I cried out in my mother's grief, none but Jesus heard me; and ain't I a woman?

"Den dat man ober dar, he say women can't have as much right as men 'cause Christ wan't a woman! Whar did your Christ come from?" (Rolling thunder couldn't have stilled the crowd as did those deep wonderful tones as she stood with outstretched arms and eyes of fire.) "Whar did your Christ come from? From God and a woman. Man had nothin' to do with him!"

Resolution Condemning Southern Disenfranchisement of African AmericansResolved, that the women who are trying to

lift themselves out of the class of the disfranchised, the class of the insane and criminal, express their sympathy with the black men and women who are fighting the same battle and recognize that it is as unjust and as undemocratic to disfranchise human beings on the ground of color as on the ground of sex.

Shortcomings of the First Wave• lacked a sustained critique of private (read female) and public (read male) and how each reinforced gender hierarchy• lacked a sustained critique of labor inequality• lacked an intersectional analysis of race and gender

Public & PrivateWhat constitutes the public and the private?

Sexuality and procreation are viewed as constitutive of the private sphere

Biology (sex) is naturalized to link women with procreative labor

The association of women to procreation naturalizes women as sex objects and as mothers.

Second Wave Feminism

Production and ReproductionProduction – participation of labor in waged

work. Proletariat (waged workers) vs. Bourgeoisie

(owners of means of production)Reproduction – the biological, social, and

cultural reproduction of human life.

Marxist FeminismCapitalism requires the reproduction of

surplus (profit) and accomplishes this in a variety of waysArtificial creation of a “reserve army of labor”Use of “labor-saving” technological innovationsDecrease of wages

Patriarchy & CapitalThe proletariat in male dominated

occupations along with capitalists reinforce gender segmentation in the labor market

Reinforces traditional family structures

What about race?Key Women’s Organizations:

National Organization for Women (NOW)New York Radical WomenRedstockingsWomen’s International Terrorist Conspiracy

from Hell (WITCH)Women’s Liberation Union (WLU)

Nationalism or Feminism?Anti-colonial and nationalist movements

critiqued racial inequality but reinforced traditional gender roles.

Mainstream feminism critiqued gender oppression, but largely ignored race.

Autonomous black women organizations Black Women’s Liberation Committee Third World Women’s AllianceBlack Women EnragedBlack Women Organizing for ActionNational Black Feminist Organization

Third Wave Feminism

The Figurative Mother-Daughter in Distinguishing Generational Feminist Waves

Centers on the nuclear heteronormative family.

Creates a generational division

Death & Rebirth Narrativeframing feminism under a “Death & Rebirth”

narrative has its drawbacks:Presumes that women’s movements are in

declineUsed as “proof of mass rejection and failure of

feminismSignifies the “success” of feminism and the

arrival of a “post-feminist” era

Weaknesses of Astride’s AnalysisThird wave feminists succumbed to

generational model.“By depicting second wave feminism as

primarily white and racist…enables third-wave feminists to position themselves as superior to the feminists of the past.” (p. 33)

“Third wave feminism as more about textual and cultural production…than large-scale social justice movement.” (p. 34)