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Multiracial feminist theory refers to scholarship written by women of color (WOC) that became prominent during the second-wave feminist movement. This body of scholarship "does not offer a singular or unified feminism but a body of knowledge situating women and men in multiple systems of domination." [1]
Multiracial feminist theory is rooted in critiques of "normative accounts" of the second-wave feminist movement; criticising them as predominately focused on white and middle-class women, without accounting for women of color's contributions to women's liberation movements.[ citation needed ] Multiracial feminist theory holds that mainstream accounts of feminist activism do not address the overlap between racism and misogyny in how women of color navigate oppression. [1]
Different scholars and communities of women refer to multiracial feminist theory in different terms. For example, Professor Chela Sandoval uses the term "U.S. Third World Feminisms," which intends to map out how social efforts of U.S. and global political opposition intersect. [2]
Having first gained momentum in the 1970s, multiracial feminism grew as a movement that analyzed racism, classism, and sexism singular as interlocking identities that make up both privilege and oppression. [1] Multiracial feminism is described as a “liberation movement spearheaded by women of color” and focused primarily on intersectional analysis and both an international and a multiracial approach to oppression. [3]
Although not considered to be sufficiently acknowledged by "normative accounts" of the second-wave movement, women of color and white women took a stand to combat racism and colonialism. [4] Black feminists believed that "cross-racial struggle made clear the work that white women needed to do in order for cross-racial sisterhood to really be powerful." [4] White women also recognized that sexism was not the root of women's oppression. [4] They collaborated to put forth an anti-racist movement that incorporated inter-related forms of oppression. [4]
Scholarship in this topic, including work by Becky Thompson, considers how second-wave feminism was inspired by other political movements in the 1960s and 1970s, like the Black Power, New Left, and Civil Rights movements. [4]
Multiple groups of feminist organizations focus on their differing identities. for example, Hijas de Cuauhtémoc, which is a Chicana-based group. Another group, the Asian Sisters, focused on the drug abuse that was happening in Los Angeles around the 1970s. [1]
A fundamental belief of multiracial feminist theory is the requirement of intersectionality to broaden contemporary feminist discourse. Despite this, however, multiracial feminism struggles to gain momentum as an intersectional approach to combating oppression and is a fairly new concept in the world of quantitative research. Though it may be new, Catherine Harnois writes in her book, Feminist Measure in Survey Research, that multiracial feminism may be more beneficial to feminist discourse than once thought. [10]
Family study, formation and power relations have been extensively examined using a multiracial feminist approach, the results of which reveal a hidden power dynamic between “advantaged families and disadvantaged families.” [11] Advantaged families have been shown to rely on the labor and disadvantage of poorer families, women, women of color, minorities and immigrants.
Women of color provide an "outsider within" perspective as they are active participants in dominance while also continuing to be oppressed by it. [12] In understanding multiracial feminism, it is important to note how interlocking forms of oppression persist to marginalize groups of people. [12] Although people continue to be oppressed, others are privileged at the sacrifice of those who don't obtain the benefits of the system. Patricia Hill Collins defines the term, Matrix of Domination, to refer to how various forms of oppression work differently depending on what social location one obtains. [12] In reference to this term, people will have varying experiences with gender, class, race and sexuality depending on what social position one has in relation to structural powers. [12] In terms of interlocking oppressions, this results in different social groups experiencing varying subordination and privilege. [12]
Though women of color are rarely credited as being prominent in the second-wave feminist movement, multiracial feminism was present in the 1980s, 1990s and even today. [4]
In the 1970s, women of color worked alongside hegemonic, white feminist groups but found them to be mostly centered on the white, middle-class feminist issues of the time. With the help of white, anti-racist women, women of color gave rise to multiracial feminist theory and led to the development of organizations created by and for women of color. [13]
Multiracial feminists of the 1980s challenged white feminism by speaking out about the individual experiences of women of color, immigrants, and “third-world women” who had been largely swept under the rug. [14] This was mostly done through multiracial feminist writings, which have been revealed to date as far back as the 1960s.
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There has been a noticeable increase in the number of multiracial feminists, journalists, and bloggers using online media to write about and theorize on intersectionality and multiracial experience in contemporary society as it relates to class, gender and race cooperatively. [15]
A journalist for msmagazine.com , Janell Hobson, wrote a critique of white feminist activism, pointing out the fact that women of color are still being left out of the conversation in current feminist discourse. She writes that it is time for feminists to "reclaim solidarity" by acknowledging race and gender as intertwined issues that must be addressed separately. [16]
Similarly, Lara Witt, who writes for rewirenewsgroup.com, calls upon both her privilege and oppression to understand her role as a multiracial feminist with the ability to speak out against racism towards Black, Hispanic and Indian people. [17]
In her 2020 book, Hood Feminism , Mikki Kendall calls attention to white women's valorization of "fierce" women, noting: "The women most likely to be called fierce are also the most likely to be facing the greatest social risks." [18]
In April 1996, there was a rally in Middletown, Connecticut led by a multiracial coalition. [19] Taking place at Wesleyan University, the rally was organized in defense of journalist and author Mumia Abu-Jamal who had been placed on death row in Pennsylvania.
The Combahee River Collective was a black feminist group that started in 1974 and influenced multiracial feminism to be included in Second-Wave feminism. [20] They created a Black Feminist Statement to express their political views and the changes they desired.
Women of All Red Nations (WARN) is a feminist group created by Native American women that was formed in 1974 to fight the promotion of sterilization and the act of sterilization in Native communities. [13]
In 1971, a group of Chicanas created one of the earliest feminist organizations of the Second Wave, due to sexual harassment within The Chicano Movement. The revolutionary group was named after the Mexican underground newspaper, Hijas de Cuauhtémoc. Later, some of the founders launched the first national Chicana studies journal, Encuentro Feminil. [21]
Some criticisms have been raised challenging whether or not multiracial feminist theory can produce measurable results due to a lack of “existing survey tools” by which to quantify or examine those experiences. [22]
Triple oppression, also called double jeopardy, Jane Crow, or triple exploitation, is a theory developed by black socialists in the United States, such as Claudia Jones. The theory states that a connection exists between various types of oppression, specifically classism, racism, and sexism. It hypothesizes that all three types of oppression need to be overcome at once.
Postcolonial feminism is a form of feminism that developed as a response to feminism focusing solely on the experiences of women in Western cultures and former colonies. Postcolonial feminism seeks to account for the way that racism and the long-lasting political, economic, and cultural effects of colonialism affect non-white, non-Western women in the postcolonial world. Postcolonial feminism originated in the 1980s as a critique of feminist theorists in developed countries pointing out the universalizing tendencies of mainstream feminist ideas and argues that women living in non-Western countries are misrepresented.
Second-wave feminism was a period of feminist activity that began in the early 1960s and lasted roughly two decades, ending with the feminist sex wars in the early 1980s and being replaced by third-wave feminism in the early 1990s. It occurred throughout the Western world and aimed to increase women's equality by building on the feminist gains of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Lesbian feminism is a cultural movement and critical perspective that encourages women to focus their efforts, attentions, relationships, and activities towards their fellow women rather than men, and often advocates lesbianism as the logical result of feminism. Lesbian feminism was most influential in the 1970s and early 1980s, primarily in North America and Western Europe, but began in the late 1960s and arose out of dissatisfaction with the New Left, the Campaign for Homosexual Equality, sexism within the gay liberation movement, and homophobia within popular women's movements at the time. Many of the supporters of Lesbianism were actually women involved in gay liberation who were tired of the sexism and centering of gay men within the community and lesbian women in the mainstream women's movement who were tired of the homophobia involved in it.
Socialist feminism rose in the 1960s and 1970s as an offshoot of the feminist movement and New Left that focuses upon the interconnectivity of the patriarchy and capitalism. However, the ways in which women's private, domestic, and public roles in society has been conceptualized, or thought about, can be traced back to Mary Wollstonecraft's A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792) and William Thompson's utopian socialist work in the 1800s. Ideas about overcoming the patriarchy by coming together in female groups to talk about personal problems stem from Carol Hanisch. This was done in an essay in 1969 which later coined the term 'the personal is political.' This was also the time that second wave feminism started to surface which is really when socialist feminism kicked off. Socialist feminists argue that liberation can only be achieved by working to end both the economic and cultural sources of women's oppression.
Feminist sociology is an interdisciplinary exploration of gender and power throughout society. Here, it uses conflict theory and theoretical perspectives to observe gender in its relation to power, both at the level of face-to-face interaction and reflexivity within social structures at large. Focuses include sexual orientation, race, economic status, and nationality.
Intersectionality is a sociological analytical framework for understanding how groups' and individuals' social and political identities result in unique combinations of discrimination and privilege. Examples of these factors include gender, caste, sex, race, ethnicity, class, sexuality, religion, disability, height, age, and weight. These intersecting and overlapping social identities may be both empowering and oppressing. However, little good-quality quantitative research has been done to support or undermine the practical uses of intersectionality.
Patricia Hill Collins is an American academic specializing in race, class, and gender. She is a distinguished university professor of sociology emerita at the University of Maryland, College Park. She is also the former head of the Department of African-American Studies at the University of Cincinnati. Collins was elected president of the American Sociological Association (ASA), and served in 2009 as the 100th president of the association – the first African-American woman to hold this position.
Black feminism is a branch of feminism that focuses on the African-American woman's experiences and recognizes the intersectionality of racism and sexism. Black feminism philosophy centers on the idea that "Black women are inherently valuable, that liberation is a necessity not as an adjunct to somebody else's but because of our need as human persons for autonomy."
Standpoint feminism is a theory that feminist social science should be practiced from the standpoint of women or particular groups of women, as some scholars say that they are better equipped to understand some aspects of the world. A feminist or women's standpoint epistemology proposes to make women's experiences the point of departure, in addition to, and sometimes instead of men's.
Chicana feminism is a sociopolitical movement, theory, and praxis that scrutinizes the historical, cultural, spiritual, educational, and economic intersections impacting Chicanas and the Chicana/o community in the United States. Chicana feminism empowers women to challenge institutionalized social norms and regards anyone a feminist who fights for the end of women's oppression in the community.
The Combahee River Collective (CRC) was a Black feminist lesbian socialist organization active in Boston, Massachusetts, from 1974 to 1980. The Collective argued that both the white feminist movement and the Civil Rights Movement were not addressing their particular needs as Black women and more specifically as Black lesbians. Racism was present in the mainstream feminist movement, while Delaney and Manditch-Prottas argue that much of the Civil Rights Movement had a sexist and homophobic reputation.
A variety of movements of feminist ideology have developed over the years. They vary in goals, strategies, and affiliations. They often overlap, and some feminists identify themselves with several branches of feminist thought.
The Third World Women's Alliance (TWWA) was a revolutionary socialist organization for women of color active in the United States from 1968 to 1980. It aimed at ending capitalism, racism, imperialism, and sexism and was one of the earliest groups advocating for an intersectional approach to women's oppression. Members of the TWWA argued that women of color faced a "triple jeopardy" of race, gender, and class oppression. The TWWA worked to address these intersectional issues, internationally and domestically, specifically focusing much of their efforts in Cuba. Though the organization's roots lay in the black civil rights movement, it soon broadened its focus to include women of color in the US and developing nations.
This is a timeline of feminism in the United States. It contains feminist and antifeminist events. It should contain events within the ideologies and philosophies of feminism and antifeminism. It should, however, not contain material about changes in women's legal rights: for that, see Timeline of women's legal rights in the United States , or, if it concerns the right to vote, to Timeline of women's suffrage in the United States.
Chela Sandoval, associate professor of Chicana Studies at University of California, Santa Barbara, is a noted theorist of postcolonial feminism and third world feminism. Beginning with her 1991 pioneering essay 'U.S. Third World Feminism: The Theory and Method of Oppositional Consciousness in the Postmodern World', Sandoval emerged as a significant voice for women of color and decolonial feminism.
Multiple jeopardy is the theory that the various factors of one's identity that lead to discrimination or oppression, such as gender, class, or race, have a multiplicative effect on the discrimination that person experiences. The term was coined by Dr. Deborah K. King in 1988 to account for the limitations of the double or triple jeopardy models of discrimination, which assert that every unique prejudice has an individual effect on one's status, and that the discrimination one experiences is the additive result of all of these prejudices. Under the model of multiple jeopardy, it is instead believed that these prejudices are interdependent and have a multiplicative relationship; for this reason, the "multiple" in its name refers not only to the various forms of prejudices that factor into one's discrimination but also to the relationship between these prejudices. King used the term in relation to multiple consciousness, or the ability of a victim of multiple forms of discrimination to perceive how those forms work together, to support the validity of the black feminist and other intersectional causes.
Intersectionality is the interconnection of race, class, and gender. Violence and intersectionality connect during instances of discrimination and/or bias. Kimberlé Crenshaw, a feminist scholar, is widely known for developing the theory of intersectionality in her 1989 essay, "Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex: A Black Feminist Critique of Antidiscrimination Doctrine, Feminist Theory and Antiracist Politics". Crenshaw's analogy of intersectionality to the flow of traffic explains, "Discrimination, like traffic through an intersection, may flow in one direction, and it may flow in another. If an accident happens in an intersection, it can be caused by cars traveling from any number of directions and, sometimes, from all of them. Similarly, if a Black woman is harmed because she is in the intersection, her injury could result from sex discrimination or race discrimination."
White feminism is a term which is used to describe expressions of feminism which are perceived as focusing on white women but are perceived as failing to address the existence of distinct forms of oppression faced by ethnic minority women and women lacking other privileges. Whiteness is crucial in structuring the lived experiences of white women across a variety of contexts. The term has been used to label and criticize theories that are perceived as focusing solely on gender-based inequality. Primarily used as a derogatory label, "white feminism" is typically used to reproach a perceived failure to acknowledge and integrate the intersection of other identity attributes into a broader movement which struggles for equality on more than one front. In white feminism, the oppression of women is analyzed through a single-axis framework, consequently erasing the identity and experiences of ethnic minority women the space. The term has also been used to refer to feminist theories perceived to focus more specifically on the experience of white, cisgender, heterosexual, able-bodied women, and in which the experiences of women without these characteristics are excluded or marginalized. This criticism has predominantly been leveled against the first waves of feminism which were seen as centered around the empowerment of white middle-class women in Western societies.
Feminism and racism are highly intertwined concepts in intersectional theory, focusing on the ways in which women of color in the Western World experience both sexism and racism.
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