#intersectionality feminism

[young-activists]

find this print on redbubble (at least 25% of proceeds will be donated to various orgs currently in need)

[zahramars]

Defined: Internalized Racism Part 2 | Episode 5 | Ft. Dear White People

[zahramars]

Defined: Internalized Racism Part 2 | Episode 5 | Ft. Dear White People

[gws350project-blog]

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 

[ranty-mc-rantface]

Thoughts on intersectional feminism:

Intersectionality is a buzzword often used by feminists these days. Supposedly, it's meant to describe how feminism has broadened its sights to also envelop race, sexuality, gender, and all sorts of other social factors alongside being a woman. It's supposedly because "feminists want to fight for gay rights, black empowerment, trans acceptance as well as women's rights", yada yada yada. But that's not the reality. The reality, for far too many modern feminists, is that intersectionality is when their movement realises that it no longer has issues to address, that women aren't oppressed, and that more and more people are realising their claims of injustice are merely falsehoods and baseless paranoia. Intersectionality is the feminist movement saying, "shit, we've run out of things to campaign for. Better steal some from everyone else." It makes it seem like they care about everyone else and their problems - right up until the point where they find a way to make it all about women again. They claim that black people have it worse than white people - then move to claim that black WOMEN need supporting. They claim that homosexuals have it worse than heterosexuals -then move to claim that gay WOMEN need empowering. They claim that we all need more sexual freedom - then move to fight the shaming of slutty WOMEN-- you get the picture. Intersectionality is not caring about everyone else's problems. It's appropriating everyone else's problems and applying them to yourself.

[amydonguyetanh]

Any feminism that does not address land rights, sovereignty, and the state's systematic erasure of the cultural practices of native peoples, or that defines native women's participation in these struggles as non-feminist, is limited in vision and exclusionary in practice.

Maria Anna Jaines Guerrero's challenge to Western feminism.