Intersectionality Within Feminism

Intersectionality in feminism acknowledges the interconnected oppressed groups including, but not limited to: race, gender and class. 

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Oppression in the Workplace for Women.

Intersectionality ties in all different women of all different backgrounds and brings them all together as a whole. When feminism first came around it was mostly focused on middle class white women, but what about all the rest of the women? That is where intersectionality comes into play and talks about the oppressed groups and one of those types of women being oppressed are all women in the workforce. It is very well known that women make less than men in the workforce, it has been a form of oppression that has been around for a very long time and still continues to this day. To every dollar that men make, white women make 78 cents, black women make 64 cents, and Hispanic women make 56 cents. Employers still continue to discriminate against women in terms of pay and conditions.   The reason that many employers are even so hesitant to hire women employees and the reasoning behind why they pay them less than a man is because they are considered to cost more to an employer. The reason why “they cost more” is because if a women was to have a baby and start a family she would have to be paid for maternity leave. In some parts of the country if your employer finds out you are even pregnant they fire you right that instant because you are of no value to them anymore, instead you are a just an extra cost.  A way to make this fair is to have the men have paid paternity leave, so that way women are not just costing a company more money but the men as well. It would make the paying equal for both men and women. Another type of oppression in the workforce is not just the pay but rather the type of harassment one has to deal with just being a woman. In Cuidad Juarez for example the only types of jobs for women you see are in what are considered sweatshops and they are in red light districts. Mexican women there are being murdered and raped and assaulted and some even killed. Working in the maquiladoras the women are not only faced with the possibility of being raped and assaulted at work but on there way home as well.  There have been over hundreds of cases where women have been assaulted and raped at work and they get fired for speaking up about it. Over 500 women have been murdered since 1993 after getting off work, they are raped, mutilated, and for most cases no one is held accountable. Oppression in the workplace happens to women every single day. For many different reasons, it could be because she is a women of color therefore she is not seen as valuable as a white man. It could be any women knowing she gets paid less then a man for the simple biological fact that she is a woman. It could also be knowing that if you get pregnant that you could possible lose your job or not even get hired. It could be oppressing women with disabilities in the workforce. It could be oppressing women to not speak up when they are being sexually harassed and even raped by other coworkers in the workplace. Intersectionality ties in all these issues.    

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Intersectionality is very important when addressing unemployment amongst women because there are plenty variables that contribute to this issue. Though intersectionality is also probably one of the most important, if not the most important, concept in feminism-- it’s often overlooked by white feminists who fail to take race and other forms of oppression into account. A huge form of oppression that is not receiving enough attention is that of the unemployment rates among disabled women.

According to the 2015 Bureau of Labor Statistics, 12.6% of disabled women were unemployed as opposed to 12.1% of disabled men. This is more than double the rates for unemployed men without disabilities (5.6%). These numbers have been relatively stable in recent years, showing a lack of progress. Women with disabilities face obstacles and prejudices in various aspects of daily life such as education, employment and housing. Discrimination experienced by women with disabilities is complex since it is the result of the intersection of multiple oppressions related to disability, gender, sexual orientation, level of urbanization, ethnicity, economic circumstances and employment status. Women with disabilities are poorer than their male counterparts.

Women with disabilities are highly concentrated in semi-skilled, unskilled, or part time work, which increases their risk of low earnings. Disabled women also usually stick with traditionally gendered patterns of employment. They tend to hold occupations, such as homemaker, secretary, or nurse which models traditionally female roles which have lower social status. These lacks of appropriate accommodations in the workplace for women with disabilities make it difficult for many of them to keep paid work, thus leaving them to live in inadequate housing, which puts women with disabilities in dangerous situations like developing health problems or forcing them to stay with an abusive partner.

Disabled women tend to also face discrimination and sexual harassment at the workplace from other employees. It becomes difficult for women with disabilities to report these situations because they often have problems with communication. This is especially true when there are usually large barriers between people with disabilities and coworkers without disabilities who have a lack of understanding in accommodating disabled people—thus making them feel further isolated when trying to seek help.

Unfortunately, the issues surrounding women with disabilities remains neglected entirely in feminism. Scholarly articles on feminism and women’s rights movements fail to address the issues of disabled women because studies on disability have traditionally used a gender blind approach to examine these people’s lives. This completely fails to look after the opportunity to explore the influence of gender in the lives of men and women with disabilities.

Another reason why feminism doesn’t take the advantage to address women with disabilities is because feminism tends to invoke disability as a metaphor. Ableist speech is often implemented by many women’s rights activists who use words like “crippled”, “handicapped”, and “disabled” when attempting to describe the disadvantages that women have in society. These words are often thought of as figurative examples when comparing the inability for women to perform the basic things that men do. These words, although helpful in understanding the disadvantages of women, put disabled women at greater disadvantage, because the use of the word “disabled” accumulates a further emphasis to people that being disabled is negative and inferior. This creates an unintentionally more exclusive understanding on the perception of people with actual disabilities. This is why intersectionality is important in feminism and needs to be a more emphasized study because it involves gaining a better understanding of the disadvantages of women on other levels and dimensions.

~ Aleksandar 

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Intersectionality is a term that was coined by Kimberle Crenshaw which is a theory that claims that social categories such as race, class, gender, age, sexuality etc. function interconnected rather than alone.  These systems are not only interconnected but also influence each other. Many women have different levels to their oppression, and each one is not one that exists alone. For example a white cis-gendered women does not experience the same amount of injustices, oppression as a queer, Xicana.

There is this fear of the other, of difference which has created a dominant culture of superiority within our society. However Audre Lorde’s “Women Redefining Difference” states that, “Certainly there are very real differences between us of race, age, and sex. But it is not those differences between us that are separating us. It is rather our refusal to recognize those dif­ferences, and to examine the distortions which result from our misnaming them and their effects upon human behavior and expectation.” Intersectionality is a theory that bridges these gaps, and exerts an understanding of what being in these “superior” social categories can do to folks that are marginalized through this. This “mythical norm” as Lorde puts it to be white, male, heterosexual, financially secure, Christian, young is a norm that entraps our society and blinds them to the fact that there is beauty in difference

Intersectionality is about being inclusive, which is something that a multitude of movements throughout history have failed to do. The feminist movement, (just one example,) which has been overly white, middle classed, and cis-gendered has ignored the issues of many women of color who are not as privileged as they are. WOC issues have been excluded time and time again in movements. Racism and classism are issues that can still be found in the feminist movement along with many other movements.

However, this does not mean that WOC have been utterly silenced. We look at movements like Black Lives Matters, whose work has been led by predominantly queer black women. “In the Class Politics of Black Lives Matter” Barbara Ransby states that ““Not only have some of the most vocal and respected members of this current cohort of organizers embraced economic justice demands, they have also recognized the many ways inequalities can exist within a movement, and have made statements about the importance of female and LGBTQ leadership.” This is an organization that understands how inequalities can exist within movements and thus pushes for those most marginalized to lead.

It may seem complicated to interconnect all the social categories that oppress us. As a queer Xicana, you can say I am triple oppressed because of my sexuality, gender, and class. However this stance is one that has provided me a view of both worlds, and a knowledge far deeper than that of a white, straight upper class woman. Our oppressions are not isolated, and the more we understand the connections and the interrelatedness the stronger I believe our organizational efforts to fight for justice will be.

-Karla

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White Feminism

White feminism is “any feminism which comes from a white perspective and universalizes it” as defined by Razia Aziz. This means that white feminists are those who fail to acknowledge all the other subgroups being oppressed. This does not necessarily mean that just because someone is white, they are strictly white feminists. White feminism leaves women of color, and those part of the LGBTQ community out of the feminist movement by failing to acknowledge their privilege and the oppression of others. This is something that may be done blindly and unintentionally, but this stalls the feminist movement from succeeding. One woman cannot speak for all women no matter how much they can relate. As feminists, it is our responsibility to listen to other race's struggles, acknowledge them, and work toward a positive shift. With that said, here are the numerous ways in which white feminism fails intersectionality within feminism.

We constantly hear about the gender wage gap, which reports that women make $0.79 for every dollar a white man makes. What fails to be acknowledged is that according to a report done by CNN, white women make $0.79 while black women make 64 cents and Latina women make 56 cents per dollar. In addition, women with children make even less. Not to mention the fact that these minority groups like Black and Hispanic women mostly work part-time jobs in the service industry because they lack the opportunity of working full-time jobs. Meanwhile, 16% of white women in service industry jobs are able to find full-time employment.

Other problems that might go unaddressed due to the white feminist blindfold might be White feminists may assume Muslim women are oppressed because of the article of clothing they are wearing to cover up. Truth is, that many of these women in the US choose to cover by choice and in a way to empower their culture.

In terms of street harassment, all women have had this experience at least once in their life. Cis-gender women are not the only ones being harassed-- transgender people suffer more aggressive harassment. A transgender victim of harassment stated, “[I was] harassed in public during high school, rocks thrown at me in the parking lot of high school, harassed in restaurants, drug-seeking behavior, suicide attempt, nothing about my gender identity is a conscious choice — this is the way I came out.” In addition to the harassment they constantly face, transgender people are constantly discriminated in the workforce, 44% of them who are working are underemployed. This leads to disabling them from moving up in the socioeconomic class.

The term feminism has been extremely popular in the media, unfortunately most of the media is composed of white women—yes, there are more women of color than before, but it is still predominantly white. White feminists in the media are a great example of this when Tina Fey states in her book, Bossypants, “All Beyoncé and J-Lo have done is add to the laundry list of attributes women must have to qualify as beautiful.” Due to her white feminist blindfold, she fails to see that women of color who have a different body type than normally portrayed white women, are finally being admired in the media. In return, this empowers those with different body types. In addition, high-end designers contribute to cultural appropriation without it benefiting the culture and only being worn by top models, who are of course—mostly white. This past year there were designers such as Valentino who were “inspired” by tribal African cultures and used tribal prints, feathers and had models wearing cornrows for his designs while only 10 black models were actually wearing the clothing.

-Valentino 2016

The issues which white feminism ignores are endless! That being said, white feminism fails intersectionality miserably. It would be ideal for white feminists to stop and listen to others working for the feminist movement and allow them to give a voice to those struggles– which they obviously cannot relate to because they are for the most part more privileged. As feminists our goal is to help each other with our different struggles and go against the oppressive patriarchal society we are living in.

-Nixie