Historical Diversity In Feminism
Throughout history, the word feminism has been associated with an exclusive movement for elite and middle-class white women. This is how feminism is taught in most schools, starting with the upper-class suffrage movement and then second-wave feminism in the 1960s and 70s, before moving on to the fourth-wave movements of today. This history ignores the diversity of feminists in the 20th century and reduces their cause to "women's rights", hiding the women who fought agaisnt discrimination against their combinations of identities and hiding their importance to mainstream feminism. Black women, Latina women, immigrant women, labor feminists, womanists; all of these groups are vital to the emergence of second-wave feminism in the 60s, and feminism today would be unrecognizable without their contributions. Many of the tactics used and issues raised by second-wave feminists were pioneered by working-class women in the 1940s and 50s. The womanist movement and Chicana feminism serve as something of a precursor to the concept of intersectionality, advocating for specifically women of color and how the discrimination they face is fundamentally different from what white women face. Migrant and refugee women also have specific issues that cannot be addressed by anyone but them. Even women in politics face unique barriers, especially in modern times.
Without these groups' influence, feminism would be radically different. Understanding women in minority groups and their activism is essential to understanding feminism as a whole, and they deserve just as much attention as second-wave feminists and suffragists do.
This website is organized as a timeline of events in labor feminism, womanism, Chicana feminism, immigrant and refugee feminism, and Latina women in politics; that will contrast with a timeline of more widely known femnist events throughout the 20thand 21st centuries.