Hillary Clinton Womanhood

One of the most useful lessons learned in the seminar class was that of what it means to shift the center. In her article “Shifting the Center: Race, Class, and Feminist Theorizing About Motherhood”, Patricia Hill Collins discusses the importance of looking at issues from the context of people of different racial, social, economic, and political backgrounds. She writes that “varying placement in systems of privilege, whether race, class, sexuality, or age, generate divergent experiences,” which allows to engage in “theorizing that embraces differences as an essential part of commonality.” Only when we are able to look at an issue or policy from different perspectives and contexts can we understand its implications on

These women feel as though “men were guilty of having kept all the joys and privileges of the earth for themselves” (796). Sanders does not understand -- from his perspective, the only privileges men have are laboring themselves to an early and miserable death, or the privilege of killing and being killed in war. In his childhood, it appeared to him that women had all the privilege; the women he knew stayed home, read books, ran errands in town. Sanders acknowledges that that his vision is not entirely correct, that women have been oppressed for many years and their grievances with his gender are valid. But he does not exactly retract his argument -- he instead introduces his last dichotomy, and with it his final and most nuanced point: that when the women at his college thought of male privilege, they did not think of the men he grew up with, but rather men with money. They thought of lawyers, bankers, and stockbrokers; not the poor who “grew up in dirt poor farm country, in mining country, in black ghettos, in Hispanic barrios, in the shadow of factories, in Third World nations” (797). In closing, Sanders places himself on what he calls the “side” of women, identifying himself an ally and an equal to them.

Women have long been fighting for their right to be seen as equal to men. Even to this day, women continue to fight for their rights, things such as the right to non-gender discriminatory wages. While there may be some arguments over the state of gender equality in the modern world, it is undeniable that there have been great strides made toward recognizing the female 's worth in the workforce and as a human being. Despite these strides, however, things are still not yet ideal for women and many of the issues females face today are the very same issues that have been plaguing them for decades. While it is unfortunate the oppression of women has been so long-lived, the length of that exposure has thankfully enabled many talented writers to both lament over the fact and emphasize the need for gender equality.

This week, the readings touched on issues relating to resistance and social change. Martinez explains how the U.S. has struggled to see issues of race beyond just Black and white. She also stresses the importance of including other races when speaking on these issues. Hernandez argues that the mainstream feminist movement fails to include minority and low-income women and the issues they face. She states that the movement only benefits white middle class women. Collins explains how people’s ideas and behaviors actualize other people’s inequalities. She says comparing levels of oppression is a competition for attention and instead we should use a new mentality that interlocks these inequalities. Harris

Throughout this course, we have discussed how the differences in the social construction of gender, race, class, and sexuality have led to discrimination and inequality of those classified under a variety of these categories. Through understanding the significance of these social constructs on society it becomes apparent the intersectionality they have when it comes to understanding why certain groups may face discrimination or inequality. This paper examines gender inequality and how the social construction of gender makes it difficult for the pursuit of equality amongst genders.

Crenshaw uses the term structural intersectionality “to refer to the way in which women of color are situated within overlapping structures of subordination. Any particular disadvantage or disability is sometimes compounded by yet another disadvantage emanating from or reflecting the dynamics of a separate system of subordination.” (Crenshaw 1997, 552). What this means is that back women are going to experience discrimination and be perceived as subordinate based on a socio-economic system. Often cases of structural intersectionality include class as well as race and gender as the basis of

In 1989 Kimberlé Crenshaw coined the term “intersectionality”. It can be defined as the way multiple oppressions of race and gender are experienced in a person’s life. Kimberle’ explains that the experience of being a black woman cannot be defined by just race or gender alone but by the joined forces of both. She argues that Black women are discriminated against in ways that often do not fit into the systematic categories of oppression of either “racism” or “sexism” but as a combination of both.

"Reforming Their World: Women in the Progressive Era, The Status of Women in the Progressive Era." Nwhm.org. N.p., n.d. Web. 6 October 2016.

How does intersectionality effect the movement? Intersectionality is the multilayered or combined oppressions in people. When a person or persons are part of multiple groups that face oppression, they have a unique perception of oppression due to experiencing many simultaneously. This multifaceted oppression has given rise to movements of feminism that alter the focus, away from white middle class women, to issues of class, race, sex, and culture that many others experience. How does this altered focus effect the feminist movement?

Celeste Scott is a black femme activists who recruited other women of color and created their own woman’s march titled “Our Feminism Must be Intersectional” which was hosted on the same day the white woman march was scheduled. The main idea of hosting the intersectional rally was to raise awareness the women of color experience gender and race discrimination. When Celeste Scott commented “Is this a white feminist thing?” on the event page, many furious women argued back and forth, which led to having two different marches hosted by two different color groups. According to Rebecca, “They say that when they tried voicing their concerns about the march’s lack of inclusivity, they were silenced and told they were being divisive” (1). For this reason, women of color do not voice out their opinion and are blocked from hearing what a white women’s group must say. To further explain, Whirl Magazine apologized to the indigenous women but did not take reasonable ownership of their mistake, which does not get rid of the damaged that was caused (Kerr 2). Although a city was divided with two separate women marches, raising awareness and demonstrating that women of color do not always have an opportunity to voice out their concerns proves that they are not equally treated with respect.

As I listened and re-listen to my interview with Adeena, I was constantly reminded how lucky I was to have the privileges that I do. I am a White woman who grew up in a middle class family with parents who unconditionally love me. However, I am a woman and although I have never been discriminated because of my race, I have been treated differently than my male counterparts. It took a long time for me to become the person I am today, someone who would speak up for herself if she was put in the situations that I went through in High School, but it is hard for me to imagine how much more difficult my life would’ve been if I happen to be born a different color. This sickening reality makes me admire women of color like Adeena who speak out against interlocking systems of oppression.

To begin with, when looking back into history, we notice that the female gender was a barrier to certain privileges before the Women’s Right Movement. Yet, race and ethnicity always played a bigger role even before that. With both a person’s sex and race being ascribed characteristics, (9/27/2016) a person would assume similar lifestyles, but reality is far from that. Instead, we have social problems like women competing against other women just to achieve the same pay for the same job, as if competing against men wasn’t enough. To be more specific, I am referring to women of color working twice as hard to keep up with White women.

Throughout our time in class, we’ve hosted conversations about the injustices women face, more specifically, the struggles endured by black women throughout history. Most, if not all, of these experiences may be direct results of a woman’s class, gender, sexuality, nationality, also due to the intersection of structures of races. According to the Tumblr page, Intersectional Feminism for Beginners, intersectionality, originally, referred to the discriminations black women faced. These discriminations were not only in the form of racism, sexism, and class oppression. Today, the term includes an analysis of the discrimination faced by those who identify with any group of people, whether it be cultural, biological, or social, that aren’t “favored

Even though Barbara Ehrenreich does not specifically talk about the feminization of poverty, her experience in Nickeled and Dimed teaches us about the feminization of poverty in that she offers compelling evidence that women tend to be more likely than their male counterparts to be poor in the United States, mainly due to oppression and discrimination of women in the workplace as a result of stereotypical belief that they cannot handle some tasks. Barbara’s experience also teaches us about gender stereotypes within the

The author concentrates on the identity politics as a source of strength, community, and intellectual to illustrate some of the problems that women of color face within both antiracism and feminism.