Women and Gender
Summary
Women have in the recent past become vigilant in advocating for equal rights as men, although the advocacy has been full of challenges. Several authors have tried to bring to light the challenges that women go through while advocating for equal rights.
The second chapter of the “Feminist Issues; Race, Class, and Sexuality” has highlighted the challenges posed by race, indigeneity, and colonialism on feminism advocacy. Carmella Murdocca writes about the impact of race on the feminist movements that have tried to advocate for the rights of women. First, the race has been on various occasions treated as a current issue in western culture. The definition of human beings among racial lines has significantly changed the perception of individuals. The division among racial lines has further been caused by the desire by some races to dominate over others and exert superiority to other races. Besides, colonization was most felt in the western countries with slavery being viewed as a cheap way of forcing inferior races to provide labor to the superior races. Unfortunately, the racial division has come back to affect the operation of feminist organization with women failing to bury the racial divisions that have cost the movements in the long run.
Intersectionality has been a key point of consideration by Murdocca (2017) since race; colonization and class have been interconnected to the disadvantage of feminism. Colonization and slavery were based on the ability of powers going beyond borders to establish leadership on foreign lands. The primary perception of colonization was that the colonized were inferior and required the help of the colonizers to access civilization. However, the idea of colonization and slavery eventually narrowed down to race, and military power was used to demand the cooperation of the colonized. Most of the colonial powers ruled by suppressing any form of resistance from the indigenous people and mistreatment were reported in several colonized areas. However, the impacts of colonization were not forgotten immediately. The notion of race and colonization developed to complicate the functionality of feminist movements. Also, colonization and slavery involved torture and sexual harassment of the indigenous people with racial discrimination is evident in the treatment done on different groups.
Moreover, modernity appears to have become the recent blow for feminism. The claim that racism is part of the modernization of western culture has been becoming true with time. The superior western races appear to be realizing that racial definition is crucial in maintaining superiority. However, the incorporation of race and class in the modern world has borrowed immensely from the impacts of colonization. Therefore the activities surrounding land theft, genocide, and slavery have not left a clear mindset and thus reconciling the different races remains a difficult task. Unfortunately, the colonial mentality formed the basis for Canadian nationalism. As expected, nationalism should be focused on building a fair playing ground for all races. However, the Canadian nationalism cultivates for white supremacy at the expense of other races. The fact that nationalism forms stronger roots when history is considered means that the idea of race and class has remained firm in the minds of Canadians. Eventually, feminism has suffered a similar fate with women being defined according to color and class.
Murdocca (2017) discusses the relationship between race and representation by highlighting the position of race in the advocacy of feminism. The class has come along with the incorporation of ‘third world’ women into the feminism issue with color being used to define the position of different races in the feminist discourse. Also, the race has been the most common obstacle when feminist movements try to create a universal definition of women. White feminism has, for a long time, dominated the feminist discourse and the idea of a diversified feminism movement has remained a dream for the larger part. For example, the 18th and 19th centuries were marked by colonial projects that were based on the category of race. The categorization of colonial projects eventually led to devaluing, undermining, and subjugating indigenous women in several ways. The few women who were courageous enough to resist the treatment of the colonialists faced the wrath of colonial powers by ridicule and violence. Also, the representation of indigenous women was based on an attempt to remove the traditional authority of the women from the feminist movements.
The third chapter of “The Feminist Issues; Race, class, and Sexuality” is based on the globalization of the feminist issue. Mason (2017) explains the changes that occurred in the 20th century leading to the expansion of the feminist discourse across the world. Also, Corrine outlines the status of the feminist issue in the 20th century and its impact towards the wave of worldwide move to try and make the fight for gender equality a global project on the wake of the 21st century. The framework for the current fight for gender equality has, therefore, been based on the transnational feminism, where women slowly recognize the efforts of other women from different races towards the feminism issue. Generally, the transnational feminism considers the impacts of colonialism and imperialism on the current state of gender equality across the world.
Transnational feminists have a special interest on globalization. First, the definition of globalization takes a more sensible meaning when transnational feminists take the perspective of the movement of people and ideologies across borders. Similar to any other ideology, globalization is subject to ups and downs. Besides, globalization is subject to criticism with most of the critics living for the belief that globalization has more negative impacts than benefits. Also, the few benefits associated with globalization are criticized for being unfairly distributed.
Most importantly, critics have claimed that globalization is the modern way of sugarcoating imperialism under the excuse of projects that bring more harm than benefits to the subjects. Also, the example of exports and imports is used regularly by critics to portray the picture of an unfair globalization definition. The movement of goods across borders differs in volume while the profits are not shared equally between the players in globalization. Therefore, Corrine believes that the reliance of feminism on globalization may as well not enjoy the desired benefits in the long run.
Globalization has however worked to the advantage of feminism where the positive side has been given sufficient attention. Mason (2017) believes that the shift in culture and social interactions due to globalization has been essential in creating job opportunities for women across borders. Also, the belief that globalization is inevitable has played a significant role in ensuring that feminism takes advantage of globalization to spread the idea of gender equality. Generally, globalization is a process that cannot be resisted, and thus, feminism should be incorporated into the process.
Integration
Global feminism has, however, not played the desired roles in the advocacy for gender equality. Therefore, transnational feminism has been tried as the alternative for global feminism. Western feminist interventions have mainly been involved in transnational feminism in addressing the challenges of globalization.
Currently, the world is witnessing several cases of women coming up to advocate for gender equality. However, the advocacy for feminism takes different twists every day, with each day bringing a new hope towards achieving a gender just society. Unfortunately, race, class, and slavery have not left the feminist discourse to go uninterrupted, with women failing to speak in one voice towards fighting for their rights. The discrimination of color women has been the major obstacle towards achieving gender quality. The move towards fighting for equality among genders, however, leaves several questions unanswered with the issue of race playing a significant role in keeping women away from achieving their dreams.
Questions and Reactions
The main objective of the feminist discourse has remained unclear. For example, are women united in fighting for their rights? Do women receive the support they require to pursue their cause? Does the world favor a male-dominated society? Are the women the enemies to their efforts? The lack of answers to the questions may imply that the feminist issue is not showing any improvement from the past.
Women have shown a considerable lack of unity on issues related to advocacy for equal treatment. The divisions based on race have been disastrous and have cost the feminist cause significantly. Different agencies have provided the support needed by women to support their cause but unless the women learn to fight for their issues, feminism may not make significant steps. Generally, the main challenge facing the fight for equality is the women’s lack of purpose and the issue of race, class, and slavery.
References
Mandell, Nancy, and Jennifer Lesley Johnson, eds. Feminist issues: Race, class and sexuality. Prentice-Hall Canada, 2017.