African American Feminism Essay

The term feminism can be used to describe a political, cultural or economic movement aimed at establishing equal rights and legal protection for women (Bardon, 1978:23). Feminism involves political and sociological theories and philosophies concerned with issues of gender difference, as well as a movement that advocates gender equality for women and campaigns for women's rights and interests (Stambler, Sookie, 1970:102-105). During much of its history, most feminist movements and theories had leaders who were predominantly middle-class white women from Western Europe and North America. However, at least since Sojourner Truth's 1851 speech to American feminists, women of other races have proposed alternative feminisms (Sinclair, 1975: 235-238).
By 1968, although the term Women’s Liberation Front appeared in the magazine Ramparts, it was starting to refer to the whole women’s movement (Henry, 2004:193). Bra-burning also became associated with the movement, though the actual prevalence of bra-burning is debatable (Harding, 2004:153-154). One of the most vocal critics of the women's liberation movement has been the African American feminist and intellectual Gloria Jean Watkins (who uses the pseudonym "bell hooks") who argues that this movement glossed over race and class and thus failed to address "the issues that divided women." (Henry, 2004:83) She highlighted the lack of minority voices in the women's movement in her book Feminist theory from margin to center
“Rethinking Standpoint Epistemology: What is ‘Strong Objectivity’?”.
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