Sisters of Struggle

“If the first woman God ever made was strong enough to turn the world upside down, these women together ought to be able to turn it right again.” ― Sojourner Truth

From the beginning of the Americas being created womxn have been excluded in history and were seen as less superior. They shared similarities with the enslaved, with no freedoms and rights and forced against their will to obey their masters bidding. Womxn of color faced double oppression. This led to womxn rights activists also supporting abolitionist movements as well as prison reform and healthcare. Womxn of early America were exploited for their bodies and strict gender roles were placed on them. There were womxn who challenged the patriarchy and broke gender roles but often faced consequences. However, they managed to step out of the gender norms slowly. They worked in textile factories and educated themselves by becoming elementary teachers. They were one of the first groups to hold work strikes, protests, and walkouts. The creation on America never included womxn especially womxn of color from coming here only seen as possessions to never even being included in the Declaration of Independence.

“Our very existence is the resistance.” - Ayanna Pressley

As a young womxn of color, this topic hits close to home. We still live in a society where womxn aren’t completely equal. We are underrepresented, faced with glass ceilings in the workplace, being told what we should and shouldn't do with our own bodies, treated like nothing more than objects, and some aren’t even considered true womxn. The word “feminism” itself has a negative connotation to it. I feel like feminists are seen as men-haters and want to overcome men and become more powerful. This is not the case, feminism is a lifestyle fighting for equal rights for all womxn. I believe ALL womxn should be treated as equal. All classes, genders, sexualities, and ethnicities. Different groups of womxn are underrepresented and often forgotten about in feminist movements like Indigenous womxn and Trans womxn. In the first emergence of feminist movements it only applied to a certain demographic, this was the first and second wave of feminism.

The first wave of feminism involves something many are familiar with, voting rights for womxn. However,, a misconception is that ALL womxn were included in this movement. The very first waves of feminism only included rich white womxn. Womxn of color and working class womxn were excluded from the picture. Even with the right to vote they “still weren’t free”. White womxn mostly dominated both the first and second waves of feminism which birthed a new term, womanism and the third wave of feminism. According to Kate Schatz book, Rad American Women A-Z, Womanism is a term created by Alice Walker as a new form of feminism that acknowledges the oppression from race and class. The third wave of feminism is where “womxn of color and minorities insist the fight is not over.” With mainstream media only highlighting first and second wave feminism left other groups of womxn in the dust. During the second wave of feminism, when the men went to war mostly womxn of color took up their jobs. However, in the media it is shown only white womxn to take on this role leading to the lack of representation. This was common to exclude a certain demographic of womxn and the 1915 film Birth of a Nation incorporated the idea to “protect white womanhood '' We need to bring different types of feminism to the surface as mentioned earlier. In Kimberle Crenshaw's essay “ Mapping the Margins,” womxn of color and white womxn experiences with oppression are different. Indigenous womxn are missing and being murdered but coverage about it is pushed down and most of their murders go unsolved. Schatz reveals when referring to Crenshaw’s works, black womxn “experience the stigma of poverty” more harshly compared to poor working class white womxn.

This goes to show that there are other issues falling into each other and everything is connected. It is shown that even in Feminism there can be racism, classicism, homophobia, and transphobia present. Which signifies the importance of the third wave of feminism. We must support each other despite our differences. I think this topic is extremely important to educate others on. To educate womxn all over the world and even more importantly, men. To include allies in this movement because we are not superior to men, we are equal. Whether it be “taking up space or “protecting yourself,” because as U.S. Representative Ayanna Pressley says, “there is no right or wrong way to protest.” We are “sisters of struggle.”