Women in Movement: Lifting Everyone

Melissa Aybar

After my reading of Dubois, it seemed appropriate to follow it up with Angela Davis’ Women, Culture and Politics. Since Dubois was so outspokenly advocating women’s rights, it was important to add the voice of women to the discussion of radicalism, reform and revolution. What better voice to add than that of Angela Davis? In this particular book Davis discusses three main issues: the pursuit of equality and peace, international issues and, education and culture. Yet among these broad categories encompassing the rights of women, there is an overarching message Davis wants to send and it is an important one. She starts with a chapter entitled “Let us all rise together,” and the book continually comes back to this point in discussing reform and the struggle for not just women’s rights, but all rights for a disenfranchised minority. 

I will focus on specific, informative, chapters (chapters 1, 2, 3 and 6) to outline Davis’ major arguments. The start of her discussion is as I have mentioned, the role of Black women and poor women in the Women’s Rights Movement. Within a movement trying to empower all women, poors and Blacks are marginalized yet need the movement the most. This marginalization led to the creation of new groups, especially as the third wave of feminism rose. Yet, though there were a lot of issues to address for the overall advancement of women and other groups, the movement rendered the most powerful calls to action invisible because they were Afro-American names. Why were Black women and poor women marginalized within a movement that was supposed to advocate for them? One reason could be that rich and White women did not believe they needed the same things from the nation and in turn did not want to use the movement to advocate for the needs of “others.” Some have argued that Black women are not compelled by where the nation is headed, or that Black women do not care about the politics of their bodies in the United States, but Black men and women have made their political voice heard even if in silence. Seeing as “more than 90% of Blacks did not vote for Reagan,” who articulated the “Black family model” as one headed solely by women on welfare, I would say they have taken their stand and have chosen to disagree.

This is useful in considering the Women’s Rights Movement. Movements need not just invite outsiders into the circle of advocacy and then expect them to fight alongside everyone else. Movements need to address the issues that affect everyone in the group as well as issues that affect the minorities within the group, so that the movement advances together. The Women’s Rights agenda needs to be comprehensive and Davis argues it needs to address the issues that affect poor working class women. Some of the issues Davis brings up throughout include unemployment, reproductive rights and unions.

I appreciated her discussion of reproductive rights because it brought to the forefront a ground that women can stand on together, even if in disagreement. Davis lets her opinions known, utilizing chapter two of the book as a platform for calling to action women of color in the fight against anti-abortion movements and sterilization policies. She wonders where the women of color are in this fight, especially since they are the biggest victims of this. This is an example where it serves individuals right to think about what the movement stands for and who benefits from it. This example debunks the idea that if Black women were the majority that the fight would be about them. On the contrary, though Blacks are the majority of women being affected by anti-abortion and sterilization projects, the movement still excludes them. Does this stem from the myth that all Black families are matriarchy? The idea that “x” causes poverty as opposed to the idea that poverty causes “x?” Regardless, movements cannot discuss structural issues without making it about those who the structures affect most. Therefore, the Women’s Rights Movement, as an example, cannot discuss poverty or reproductive rights in the lives of women is they do not speak about poverty and reproductive rights for Black women. The ignorance of this propels a subset of individuals within the group and further suppresses an already disenfranchised minority. 

There is no one factor that is the sole cause for disenfranchisement. Davis demonstrates through exhaustive examples that there are more and more reasons to be comprehensive in our fights. For the women’s movement, one thing is to incorporate the voice of those who need to be heard, and desperately need a platform to do it. Recognizing the voting pattern of Black men and women, for example, is not enough. While issues such as poverty, restrictions on reproductive rights, rape and sexual assault, teen pregnancy, etc. all affect women everywhere, it is affecting mostly black and poor women. Therefore, the movement cannot speak to freedom for women if it does not seek freedom for Black women and it does not allow for Black women to speak up for themselves as opposed to allowing others to share how they think they feel and what they think they need.  

Movements have to lift all. This reading segues nicely into my readings of movements and reform in Latin America. Davis argues that the minority in the United States, be it gender, race or sexuality, are all facing a disenfranchisement that is important to battle on a united front. I continue exploring how these movements are not just similar across the nation, but global as well. How do women fall into the sphere of radicalism in countries where patriarchy is even more pervasive? How do other movements incorporate the minority? Furthermore, within the United States how did the disenfranchisement of women play a role into the Black Power movement? Understanding the role it had for Dubois incites further curiosity of how it fit into the rhetoric for others. It will be interesting to read texts on the Black Power movement through a more specific lens, like that of feminism.