I Am a Woman, Too: Feminism to the Black Woman
Written by Tammy Carter
In history, women have always struggled to gain equality, respect, and the same rights as men. Women had had to endure years of sexism and struggle to get to where we are today. The struggle was even more difficult for women of color because not only were they dealing with issues of sexism, but also racism. Many movements have helped black women during the past centuries to overcome sexism, racism, and adversities that were set against them. History tells us that movements such as the Feminist Movement helped empower all women, but this fact is not totally true. In this paper, I will discuss feminism, the movements, and its "minimal" affects on black women.
The word feminism comes from the word féminisme, which was thought of by Utopian socialist Charles Fourier. He argued that the extension of women's rights was the general principle of all social progress. This later led to the organized movement that dated from the first women's rights convention at Seneca Falls, New York, in 1848 (See Exhibit:3). There is no one definition of feminism. It is a view that women are inherently equal to men and deserve equal rights and opportunities. Feminism can be described as the following:
a range of contemporary theoretical perspectives, including political, sociological, legal, psychoanalytic, literary, philosophical, in which women's experiences are examined in relation to actual and perceived differences between the power and status of men and women;
A social justice movement in which issues of particular importance for women, such as domestic violence, pay equity, globalization, are analyzed, understood, and addressed from feminist perspectives (familypride.uwo.ca/glossary/glossary5.html).
Feminism became a large movement in the 19th century when people increasingly felt that women were being treated unfairly. Much of feminism and feminist theory represented issues concerning Western, middle-class white women, but it
In history, women have always struggled to gain equality, respect, and the same rights as men. Women had had to endure years of sexism and struggle to get to where we are today. The struggle was even more difficult for women of color because not only were they dealing with issues of sexism, but also racism. Many movements have helped black women during the past centuries to overcome sexism, racism, and adversities that were set against them. History tells us that movements such as the Feminist Movement helped empower all women, but this fact is not totally true. In this paper, I will discuss feminism, the movements, and its "minimal" affects on black women.
The word feminism comes from the word féminisme, which was thought of by Utopian socialist Charles Fourier. He argued that the extension of women's rights was the general principle of all social progress. This later led to the organized movement that dated from the first women's rights convention at Seneca Falls, New York, in 1848 (See Exhibit:3). There is no one definition of feminism. It is a view that women are inherently equal to men and deserve equal rights and opportunities. Feminism can be described as the following:
a range of contemporary theoretical perspectives, including political, sociological, legal, psychoanalytic, literary, philosophical, in which women's experiences are examined in relation to actual and perceived differences between the power and status of men and women;
A social justice movement in which issues of particular importance for women, such as domestic violence, pay equity, globalization, are analyzed, understood, and addressed from feminist perspectives (familypride.uwo.ca/glossary/glossary5.html).
Feminism became a large movement in the 19th century when people increasingly felt that women were being treated unfairly. Much of feminism and feminist theory represented issues concerning Western, middle-class white women, but it
Cited: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feminism http://familypride.uwo.ca/glossary/glossary5.html http://www.mit.edu:8001/activities/thistle/v9/9.01/6blackf.html