Intersectionality And Women Equality

Words: 666
Pages: 3

America's glorified women's rights movement of the 1800's and early 1900's was for some women the beginning of equality and for others another false victory. Black suffragettes, and black women in general, not only faced racism but gender oppression, from both suffragettes and the ranks of black men fighting for racial equality. The barriers that white women had to face getting the vote was doubled for black women, as “being black and being female required a dual focus” (McGoldrick 271), and apparently a different kind of fight. The women's rights movement delayed black women's right to vote because of racial and even gender prejudices, but I think the real effect it had was setting the groundwork for the bigger fight leading up to the Voting …show more content…
Intersectionality is a word coined by Kimberle Crenshaw in 1989 in her essay “Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex: A Black Feminist Critique of Antidiscrimination Doctrine, Feminist Theory and Antiracist Politics”. Intersectionality is explained as being “a description of the way multiple oppressions are experienced” (Smith). This concept shows how discrimination can come from any and all directions, very like an intersection. Crenshaw even suggested that discrimination against black women is not “'racism' or 'sexism', but...a combination of both racism and …show more content…
But in the end, it was the women's rights movement that paved the way for these voting rights, even with the discrimination against black women. Forcing black women to confront the prejudices and inequality in their own lives fueled their fight for the right to vote. Without the women's rights movement black women might have faced more gender prejudices and had more barriers.
In conclusion, the women's rights movement introduced the Voting Rights Act of 1965 after black women were denied the right to vote. That movement forced black women to strengthen their fight and face the inequality that came from all sides, even from the white suffragettes they had stood with for so long. The women's rights movement was one of many battles black women fought in for their right to vote and the last battle, they decided, they were going to