Empowering
Beyond Feminism
Admitting women to a
patriarchal world of higher education opened the topic of women to study and
research. Prevailing hegemony presumed that knowledge came from men, was about
men, and women were merely a limb on the tree. A new focus on women validated uniqueness
and awareness of gender issues. Writing
in Women’s Voices, Feminist Visions, Susan M. Shaw and Janet Lee note, “WGS
is generally associated with feminism as a paradigm for understanding self and
society (13)”. Feminism now expresses intersections of gender across diverse
identities of race and class.
Shaw and Lee say,
“Patriarchy…shapes how women and men think about the world…and their
relationships with one another (15)”. The first wave of feminism emerged to
give women a voice in political matters affecting them. Nineteenth century suffragettes stumped for
equality and, by 1920, finally won the right to vote in America. A second wave of feminism was directed at
inequality in the workplace and family, with special emphasis on sexuality and
reproductive freedom. However, injustices affecting women, and those who
identified as women, were world-wide issues. The intersections of
post-modernism, LGBT voices and multiracial awareness resulted in a third wave
of feminist activism. Thanks to the Internet and economic globalization, women
across the world are connected against institutional male inequality. (17) Diverse perspectives and motivations
contribute, even as they complicate, political progress.
1. Beverly Guy-Sheftall describes the strides that
women’s studies have made in the forty years. Efforts to mainstream into male
dominated curriculum have come a long way to balance gender in the academic establishment.
Heightened awareness and sensitivity in a predominately male society produce
advocacy for women of color and the poor. Black women’s studies, incorporating
intersectional analysis into topics of women and gender, contributed to the
third wave. (31)
2. Bonnie Thornton Dill says, “We wanted feminist
theory to incorporate the notion of difference… (32)”. If girls are stereotyped
as not able to do math, they will be limited to lower status opportunities. If blacks
are stereotyped as less intelligent than whites, then they will be steered to non-academic
opportunities. Intersectionality means
that gender depends on elements of race, class, etc. which reinforces a
classism of white privilege. (32)
3. Bell hooks defines feminism as “…a movement to
end sexism, sexist exploitation, and oppression (37)”. America’s
white/male/power balance shifted when white women gained agency. While they
made gains in the workplace, they were still allied with the system which left
women of color struggling. (39) She
thinks that sexism, not men, is the real problem. Although patriarchy is
sexist, this does not make feminism anti-male or feminists man-haters.
4. C.V. Harquail writes, “When it comes down to
distinguishing between women and feminists, we need to separate marketing and
politics (43)”. The essay proposes a model of Facebook for women. She says, “Feminist design of a product is a
political action….intended to change power relationships and advance social
change… (44)”. Faced with challenges stirred up by technology, the male
(technology) can be subverted by designing women who are determined to reflect
feminist priorities.