Ethnicity: Black feminism

Question 1

Black feminist view:

Answer 1

• Developed as a disagreement with other types of feminism
• White middle-class feminists are often seen in the media, but Black feminists say that these people are not talking about the most pressing needs of the majority of women.
• (especially ethnic minority women)

Question 2

Black feminist view on intersectionality:

Answer 2

• Women face different types of oppression
• Black feminism criticise the feminist movement for failing to reflect the differences in how women live their lives

Question 3

Abbott: Mainstream feminism is 3 things

Answer 3

Ethnocentric = Only looks at white middle class perspectives

Victim ideology = Black women are helpless victims of racism and sexism. Mainstream feminism ignores how women have tried to resist oppression

Theoretical racism = Mainstream feminism expects women to write about their own experiences rather than include them in the main feminist theory.

Question 4

Brewer:

Answer 4

• Sees the basis of Black feminism as ‘Understanding race, class and gender as simultaneous forces’
• This means that black women suffer from disadvantages because they are black, women and working class.
• The problems are more than the sum of these issues as each inequality multiplies and reinforces the other inequalities
• This leads to black women have fewer life chances

Question 5

Evaluation of Brewer:

Answer 5

• It emphasises the importance of race over other factors
• Fails to acknowledge new legislations that have come into place (e.g. Equal pay act) that allows for more equality

Question 6

Mirza:

Answer 6

• Claims that Black women don’t have a unique view however they do have the ability to make an important contribution to the development of the feminist theory.
• Says that Black women can challenge the wrong assumptions that dominant groups make and can offer other ways of thinking.
• By Black women challenging these stereotypical images of Black women it has led to improvement in Black women’s lives. (Less domestic violence)

Question 7

Evaluation of Mirza:

Answer 7

• Ethnic minority women still feel pressure to conform o expected roles
• Appears to be a concrete ceiling rather than a class ceiling for ethnic minority women in the workplace

Question 8

Connell:

Answer 8

• There is a link between Black feminism and Post colonial feminism
  Explains that gender inequalities are caused by colonialism and that feminism is based of western ideas and femininity
• By basing theories of gender upon the minority experiences of women in the UK it means that these inequalities are misjudged
• Connell believes that most women live in the ‘majority world’ of the southern continents

Question 9

Evaluation of Connell:

Answer 9

• Has helped us understanding the origins of gender inequality
• But it emphasises the importance of colonialism rather than gender inequalities