November 16, 2015 - 18:38
While reading Personal Politics by Sara Evans, I was immediately struck by the liberal use of the term “women”. Throughout the book, although intersections of gender and class and race are acknowledged at time, Evans speaks of “women” as if there is a shared experience of women in the U.S. My understanding of modern mainstream feminism is that it’s very exclusionary and focused mostly on upper/middle class white women and does not often consider the needs of a majority of women in the U.S. I believe that the specificity of the women’s liberation movement of the late 20th century directly informs mainstream feminism in the United States today. These concerns compelled to interview my mother, a woman whose ardent feminism was sparked by the women’s liberation movement; she serves as a primary source for understanding the women’s lib movement through the lens of a white middle class woman. Throughout the conversation think about these ideas: how my mother’s feminist values were formed, how they align (or do not) with the women’s liberation movement of the past, and how her thinking has (or has not) evolved over the years.
Abby: How were you initially exposed to the women’s liberation movement?
Laura: For me, I initially got exposed to it [because] at the time, there was social turmoil in so many areas… the war in Vietnam, the Civil Rights Movement… the upending of social norms and expectations in society. It struck a chord with me and I read more about it. It was in line with my belief system of equality. I felt like I was always treated the same as my brothers… I think that that helped me along in that way. I didn’t think I was rebelling against anything.
A: Did you see gender inequality enacted in your home?
L: I think my mom and dad were definitely not in the mindset of social equality. My mom was a forerunner, she was one of the women that did it all. She ran a household, raised five children, and worked. Most women weren’t doing that then. The downside of that was that she didn’t get any help from my dad. She was working too, but she was the traditional wife and he was the traditional husband. They would fight about stuff like that, like my mom would pack my dad’s suitcase when he went on a trip. He took care of [men’s work] and she took care of [women’s work]. My mom was not a traditional 50’s mom role model for me.
A: Do you remember the demonstration at the Miss America pageant?
L: I vaguely remember that.
A: A group of women went to the pageant and burned bras and talked about the objectification of women; they crowned a sheep “Miss America”…
L: Yeah, burning bras. Everyone talked about that, about women rebelling against what they were told they have to do. But that wasn’t the main issue. Birth control became more widely available and that was huge for women. They could determine how many children they could have and when. They could do things with their mind as well. Women taking control of their reproductive life. Bra burning was a symbolic thing that to me was not the central component of women’s lib.
A: So then what did you think were the central components of the women’s lib movement?
L: That’s a hard question, and it’s changed a lot over time. At the time that I was growing up, the ability to have a career and not just stay home and take care of the children was important, [going against the idea] that your career is secondary to your husband’s career. It led to equal pay arguments and equal employment opportunities. Men have to step up and do part of the work and they’re still not doing it. And that raises questions of marriage, like “do I even get married at all?” What’s the link between getting married and having children? That’s eroding these days. People don’t need to be in a marital relationship to have a family. To me, the central tenants of the women’s liberation movement were equality of opportunity and treatment; taking the focus off what women look like and appearance. That’s where bra burning comes in: men aren’t going to tell me what to wear, what to put on my face to attract them. In advertising, [these values] are pervasive. But that’s secondary to opportunities and fairness. There are still issues of how do you balance having children with the other parts of your life and how women shoulder the vast parts of that job.
A: I remember you gave me the book Sisterhood is Powerful when I was younger [a book on struggles central to the women’s liberation movement]. What does sisterhood look like to you? How is it enacted?
L: Women working together, not against each other. Not competing with each other but working to advance their condition as a gender. I know I may be stereotyping here, but I think women tend to be more collaborative and consensus oriented and I think that’s part of it too, embracing that part of it and not adopting the male imperative to succeed in life. Let’s do it the way that women are known for historically, collaboration, consensus, cooperation, nurturing… I’m really stereotyping here. Female values tend to be submerged and disavowed when you’re trying to advance your career, etc. And sisterhood embraces those values.
A: I have been reading a lot about how the women’s liberation movement was born out of the civil rights movement. Keeping that in mind, how do you see multi-racial sisterhood being enacted? Or not?
L: Not at all when I was growing up. I didn’t see the mixing of races in Madison, Wisconsin because there were no black people. There is a big divide between women of color and women who are white. There’s the question of do you feel more oppressed as a women or more oppressed as a person of color? In this day and age it is much more to your disadvantage to be a person of color than it is to be a female. Women of color don’t have the same issues as white women.
A: So what does intersectionality mean to you thinking about feminism?
L: Well, you’ve talked about it before, but I don’t really know what it means. It’s a way of thinking that I’m not used to. Can you explain it?
A: Yeah, I can use an example based off of what you just said actually. You posed the question of “do you feel more oppressed as a women and more oppressed as a person of color?” But intersectionality basically is about how you can’t separate those experiences of being a woman and a person of color. The oppression is dually experiences because those identities cannot be separated from each other. Or a related example, the women’s lib movement became centered around the home and inability to work, but since the dawn of time working class women have had to work. Working class women aren’t facing the same issues as middle class women.
L: That totally makes sense. Yeah. Take Betty Friedan’s book The Feminine Mystique for example: it’s all about women in the suburbs feeling super alienated from their lives. I agree with you 100%. A lot of the opportunities that have opened up for women have been for women of means. I had the ability to go to law school but it’s different for someone who grew up in a working class family or a poor family. I think there’s a lot of tension there between white women and women of color.
A: I find it interesting that the women’s lib movement grew from the civil rights movement and a lot of the initial philosophies of women’s lib were focused on change from the bottom up. [Sara Evan’s book] kind of glosses over the period of time where the ideologies shifted to be much more centered on the gains of white women. So when do you think the movement changed? In your opinion, why did the women’s lib movement focus more on white women, especially in the middle class?
L: Problems were different. Different in terms of more severe for racial minorities. So much of the struggle is economic, those are the people you tend to associate with. If you aren’t comfortable or familiar with the language and norms of that group then it’s hard to work together on things. Why aren’t they together? That’s a really tough question. Why does a woman of color have to choose between working on behalf of race discrimination or sex discrimination?
A: How important do you think independence and financial stability are to women’s empowerment?
L: It’s huge for women’s empowerment. I think women are making big strides in that area but I don’t think it’s emphasized enough as women are maturing and thinking of moving on in their life. I think they get distracted by having a family. [When I was doing work in domestic abuse shelters], so much of what kept women in abusive relationships had to do with not having financial stability. They’re stranded at that point [when they don’t have a job or a career]. If the guy turns out to be a jerk, you’re stuck. It’s a really big deal. Everyone, women and men, need to focus on how they become financially stable and independent.
A: I think it gets more complicated though as you consider women who are unable to gain financial independence because of their social situation. For example, the woman who is on welfare, working a minimum wage job and has to support her children, too. She’s not going to be able to be financially dependent in the way you’re talking about. So how can society lift her up? Or considering disability, too… There are a lot of individuals have a significantly harder time supporting themselves financially.
L: Things have to commingle a lot more in terms of justice. Let’s face it, high wage jobs are harder to come by all the time. That’s a fight that all workers are going to have to be in on, not just women or people of color. Collapse of labor unions and rise of income and equality. It’s a universal issue, not just focused on women, but men too. … There is a lack of clear cut pathways to get ahead. Corporate greed is a big deal, workers are getting crushes. Separating these movements into categories doesn’t work. We should be working together for justice. But we don’t. There’s too much propaganda out there - why do poor white men love Donald Trump? It makes no sense.