Chapter 24 (Continued)

I admire the more aggressive approach of the women’s liberation movement, but think it was also important to feminism in general to maintain the more traditional political lobbying of the equal rights feminists. I believe that more radical groups serve the purpose of capturing the public’s attention, but the less radical groups tend to change laws and make measurable progress in society. This is not to devalue the importance of the role of some radical groups, only to say that their more conservative counterparts have an easier time working within the system.

From the women’s liberation movement, I especially liked the comparison of patriarchy as a system of domination on the level of race and class. This speaks to the fact that gender was historically not afforded the same importance as race and class in terms of oppression. Gender inequality was widely accepted and the women’s liberation movement suggests that not even many oppressed women were aware of their plight: “Because we live so intimately with our oppressors, we have been kept from seeing our personal suffering as a political condition.”

I found the differing concerns of African American women very interesting and enlightening. To these women, racism and poverty were far more oppressive than patriarchy. They had long worked outside the home, and viewed the family as a secure base. They viewed mainstream Western feminism as “a family quarrel between White women and White men.” This stance gets at the question of which form of oppression is more severe and relevant to one’s circumstances. It is easy to see how racism and poverty would take precedence over patriarchy. This is said not to diminish the importance of the feminist movement, but to bring to light the fact that other forms of oppression may have more severe and immediate consequences for some women.

Feminism in the 20th century was able to “gain international recognition for the view that women’s rights are human rights.” I believe it was highly successful in exposing the many inequities and injustices that women have endured. However, as is the case with other forms of oppression, there is still a long way to go. The text also points out that there are still differing views within feminism, but this should not stop the general progress towards equality.