Introduction
The topic that the writer decided to focus on is feminism in ethnic minority groups and how it undermines their ability to contribute but also having the effect to empower them on a minimal scale and how the media highlights it. Before coming to university, I did not know who I was, and it was a chance to explore and understand myself as a being, and throughout this journey I have gotten to explore who I really am and where I stand about feminism. I grew up in a very traditional household whereby the woman in the house had certain roles and the man also had specific roles and one could not do the other’s chores. I grew up with my grandmother and she was very strict about traditional customs for example, a lady must never sleep in, at the crack of dawn, before school, one must wake up and go and sweep the yard, do their morning chores like cleaning the house, doing laundry and washing dishes; and these where all daily tasks that needed to be done before school and on weekends.
These tasks and chores where to train us to be good wives when the time came to be, and it seemed as though it where a competition amongst neighbouring families as to who could sweep the yard best and could wash dishes, not only the fastest but the cleanest as well. However, having a mother that was a flight attendant and travelled the world, picking up amazing little quirks was inspiring and also confusing. She wore trousers and yet my grandmother never allowed us to at her house and whenever I was left in my father’s care, he would cook and clean the house and wouldn’t wait for my mother to get home, unlike my grandfather. Seeing this role reversal at times caused a culture shock to myself.
However, as not only did most of my modules in Global Studies cover this topic, but they also allowed me to understand a lot more about it as well as start to apply the teachings in my life in accordance to the feminism aspect. Despite having been on the fence about whether or not I am a feminist, I thought choosing the topic for my dissertation has allowed me to be even more open minded and become an advocate for equality alongside my traditions. It has helped me now to understand that I neither have to choose one or the other (feminism & traditional customs), but rather they can co-exist together in my life, in harmony.
Feminism in the dictionary is defined as
Aim & Objectives
The aim of this project is to examine feminism and whom the term refers to and includes when it comes to the many different types. As well as whether it was created to accommodate women and men of different backgrounds such as race, religion and gender whom still believe that men and women should be equals in both the workplace and home as it is a patriarchal world. It aims to identify the factors and include the opinions of those of a minority group, be it religion, sexuality, race or gender.
Research Question
The writer explored several different questions to base their research proposal which are as follows:
1 Does the term feminism include the ethnic minority groups and to what extant is this true?
2 Feminism was not created for women of power to be equal to men, however how does the media work to include the ethnic minorities and what problems may arise from this exposure?
3 How does Feminism empower and exclude ethnic minorities?
After much thought and research, I decided to go with question one, this is because in my journey to discover my feminist identity I found myself asking “where does the black woman fit into this ideology, how flawed is it into what extent does that include and empower me?”
Overall structure of this dissertation will explore the literature review, the methodology my analysis and discussion of the topic and then the conclusion. This is my journey to discover my identity as a feminist alongside my traditional and cultural values. One of my favourite black feminist is Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (2015), and she once said, “Think about what really matters to you. Think about what you want to really matter to you.” I love this quote because it entices me to break the barriers of traditions and culture that have tied me down.
Methodology
McNeill (2005) said that, ‘some research only aims to describe, in detail, a situation or set of circumstances. It aims to answer questions like ‘how many?’ and ‘who?’ and ‘what is happening?’ Qualitative research collects information that is not in mathematical form (McLeod, 2008). Although there is still some debate, the consensus is that qualitative research is a representational, revealing approach concerned with understanding the significances that people attribute to actions, decisions, beliefs, values and within their social world, and accepting the mental mapping process that partakers use to make sense of and understand the world around them (Ritchie and Lewis, 2003).
I chose to use qualitative methods for my research as reviewing literature the secondary research however I am not collecting any quantitative data of my own and I am basing my conclusion of my research from my understanding of the selected literature reviewed. Secondary research is desk research; this involves gathering existing data that has already been produced. For example, researching the internet, newspaper and company reports (BBC, 2006a). The difference concerning descriptive research and explanatory research is often very unclear. Any description needs explanation, and it is very hard, or perhaps even impossible to label something without at the same time explaining it (McNeill and Chapman, 2005).
Conducting a literature review is the most important part of conducting a research paper. “Literature searching is not about how much knowledge you have, it is to help one to become more aware of research and the review process,” Timms and McCabe (2005). Hek et al (2002) said that ‘the purpose of a literature search is to gather as much information as possible about a certain topic from as many sources.’ As the research topic concentrated on feminism within ethnic minorities worldwide, a combination of journals and articles were utilised. Due to a universal nature of the area under discussion, concentrating on just the United Kingdom (UK) make the sample size too small for the research question. This also meant there was much information to help answer the research question, with just the focus on the UK. The journals and articles were written in English and published within the last ten to fifteen years.
All research journals, articles and books that are in this research paper helped with the analysis and answering the research question. To find these articles, I used the Nottingham Trent University Library One Search and to ensure that the results that I found were best suited for my research question, I narrowed down the databases that were searched for the information. I used databases such as Applied Social Science Index and Abstracts (ASSIA), JSTOR, International Bibliography of the Social Science (IBSS), Nexis UK, The British Library Catalogue and Kanopy for video streaming.
The research articles that were selected were found to be relevant to the analysis and the definition of the title. One describes attention to search techniques that produce a number of irrelevant articles as titles can often be deceptive. Likewise, potential sources may be accidentally overlooked. Finding articles that were suitable to the dissertation research question, turned out to be difficult due to the fact that not many people have researched this before. The journals, books and articles that I found in relation to research question, where from other countries other than the UK. This set a challenge in trying to approval hypothesis correct. However, after a discussion with my supervisor, I was informed that the purpose of the dissertation what’s to fill in the gap in research it whatever topic one chooses.
Literature review
Article 1
Robnett, R., Anderson, K. and Hunter, L. (2012). Predicting Feminist Identity: Associations Between Gender-Traditional Attitudes, Feminist Stereotyping and Ethnicity. Sex Roles, 67(3-4), pp. 143-157
An outline of the main argument
The article focuses on the correlation between holding gender-traditional attitudes and a reluctance to identify as a feminist is well-established however not much information is available as to the reason why this is the case. Many stereotypes that feminist exist, most which are negative despite there being different types of feminists. However, society class is it under one type, which is mostly the radical feminists. The paradigms of ambivalent sexism (Glick and Fiske 1996) and ambivalence toward men (Glick and Fiske 1999) provide a strong theoretical basis for the prediction that traditional attitudes toward women and men are related to the perception that women are somewhat of little worth when they do not subscribe to the traditional feminine stereotype of the gender role. The study used path analysis to test a model which in turn predicted feminist identity, based on the traditional attitudes towards women and men to predict the tendency to stereotype feminists. The study also explored the correlation in the variables between three different races, African-American, European American and Latina women.
A description of research methods used
They used 1163 undergraduate students from a large non-residential, Hispanic-serving public university in the southern U.S. students partial course credit for their participants. Participants consisted of 544 women from the southern United States who, despite being undergraduates, were in their mid-to-late twenties on average.
Identification of conclusions made by authors
The study’s purpose was to test a mediational model in which traditional attitudes toward women and men such as hostile sexism, hostility toward men, and benevolent prejudice, to predict the tendency to hold negative stereotypes about feminists which then predicted feminist identity. The study found that participant ethnicity moderated the paths in the model. Among African American and Latina women, hostility toward men and hostile sexism predicted the tendency to stereotype feminists, which then predicted feminist identity. Support for the mediational model was not obtained among European American women; instead, the model for European American women was characterised by direct paths from traditional attitudes toward women and men to feminist identity.
A discussion of the reliability of text and its strengths and weakness
The main strength of the study is there found that feminist ideology and other ethnicities could provide a fruitful avenue for further research as not much is known about feminism in other ethnic identities. This supported by research as I was looking for the gap in research for feminism in people of colour and what it meant to them, whether the ideology included the ethnic minorities or further research needed to be done. A few weaknesses could be identified from the steady, such as the results from the open-ended questionnaires being subjective. They were open to interpretation from anyone despite their being variables to limit this from happening. This is also only limited to America; the results cannot be generalised to the rest of the world.
A discussion of the relevance or usefulness of the text for your research question
This study is relevant to my research because it asks the question “What does feminism mean to each individual, male or female and it also asked a few different races. This is important because, feminism was created by the suffragettes who were Caucasian women and it was for the Caucasian woman.
Article 2
Park, H. (2011). Migrants, Minorities and Economies: Transnational Feminism and the Asian/Canadian Woman Subject. Asian Journal of Women's Studies, 17(4), pp.7-38.
An outline of the main argument
This paper researchers the dollar frameworks that Asian Canadian women have been conceptualised. It looks at, researches and analyses three main bodies of academic inquiry. These are immigration, settlement studies and ethnic studies specifically Asian Canadian studies and Asia Pacific studies. Park focused on these reviews as the highlighted how the Asian Canadian women where really represented despite being migrants and an ethnic minority in Canada.
A description of research methods used
The article reviewed Studies that have been conducted in different fields. These studies are immigration, settlement studies and ethnic studies specifically Asian Canadian studies and Asia Pacific studies.
Identification of conclusions made by authors
Park found that Asian Canadian women were not considered to contribute directly to the growth of the country but rather were marginalized rather than be viewed as dislocated migrants and radicalized minorities or just a representation of Asian economies.
A discussion of the reliability of text and its strengths and weakness
A strength of the study is that it explores many other reviews and summarises them for any person to understand. The weaknesses this study is that there was not much information on file about Asian Canadian women. Another weakness is that the information obtained from these studies was open to interpretation from the person, meaning the findings are subjective and therefore cannot be generalised to the rest of the population of the world.
A discussion of the relevance or usefulness of the text for your research question
This is relevant to my research question because it shows diversity and that this is not only an issue for some races compared to the Robnett study which excluded the Asian race. It also begs the question, “is feminism really for anyone?”
Article 3
Balancing Acts: The Rights of Women and Cultural Minorities in Kenyan Marital Laws (Hardee, 2004)
This article looks at the literature that surrounds feminism and ethical minorities such as Kenyan women and their different tribes, religious beliefs, culture and practices. It mainly explores and focuses on their concept of marriage and the different types there are and how being a feminist affects the Kenyan Marital Laws. The article advocates for the middle-ground approach that levels the rights of both the culture and women as far as they try and be equal with the patriarchal figure in the household. According to Hardee, ‘…giving minority groups security from the law of the mass if, and only if, their practices do not impede with the rights of individuals within that culture to fully participate in society’ (Hardee, 2004). Through looking at the Kenyan Marital Laws, she found that the multiple types of marriage available to the Kenyan women, creates a market for marriage and therefore allowing to give the women a voice in their choice.
Article 4
Religious and Ethnic Feminist Minorities in Turkey: from Marginalisation to the Fight for Feminist (Frank, 2011)
This article talks about how the Islamist and Kurdish feminist are not identified as real feminists due their religion. This article highlights there is intersectionality and discrimination. The methodology is the evaluation of primary sources of Turkish Muslim and Kurdish feminist activists, and an expansive deconstruction of hegemonic dissertations of Kemalism, state feminism, Turkish and Kurdish nationalism, and patriarchal Islamism. The author supports the need to recognise the prejudice of women in religious and ethnic feminist situations, since they fight for their justices and in contradiction of hegemonic discussions in a radical spirit. Their critique centres on nationalist and orientalist discussions of construction of the Other and on radicalisms that uncritically function on behalf of regal and public beliefs.
Article 5
Anthias, F. (2002). Beyond feminism and multiculturalism: Women's Studies International Forum, 25(3), pp.275-286.
An outline of the main argument
The paper focuses on the differences between Scylla of feminism fundamentals and the Charybdis of cultural relativism. According to the Oxford Learners Dictionary (2018) Scylla and Charybdis are used to refer to a situation in which an attempt to avoid one danger, increases the risk from another danger; being stuck between a rock and a hard place. The author believes that Scylla and Charybdis (which is an idiom of Greek mythology meaning “having to choose between two evils” – Evslin, 1989). This study implies that the author believed that to avoid the feminism fundamentals and cultural relativism, there needed to be changes on both minor and major scales in order for there to be democracies within multiculturalism and to ensure that any one group of the minority ethnic or cultural groups where left out. The author believed that relationships between nations and states needed to be improved and create equality for all parties involved, as well as within the nations and states. This article also looked at the restrictions of interim politics and in reconsidering the concept of equality.
A description of research methods used
The research method in this article was a literature review. The author explored other works of other authors for example Susan Okin’s (1999) controversial essay, ”Is multiculturalism bad for women”. The response that the essay gained was a mixture of agreement and more questions were incited to be explored regarding oppression and subordinates. This also explored how ethnic minorities and cultures need to proceed as well as the dominate races in order to implement the changes to allow inclusion for all; in other words, to move from ‘freedom from over freedom to’.
Identification of conclusions made by authors
The author developed the concept of “translocational positional”; this refers to the interconnecting and possibly refuting personalities in relation to social identities. She believed that organisation on the basis of identities seems difficult whilst on the other hand, organisation on the basis of struggles and the development of unity is more beneficial. She also came to the conclusion that, “if justice is relative, in any society the more voices heard and represented, the greater the safeguard against violations and exclusions although the issue of competing claims remains…” in other words if each account or opinion on a minor or major scale, where to be taken into account then, society would have more beneficial gains, and it would be a more in the potentially the right direction according to the current and changing needs of each personality. She also believes that to implement inclusivity for all and for the Western Feminism to be for everyone, there needs to be social correction in a few areas such as thinking radically about dismantling the conditions that allow to enable oppression of social and cultural practices.
A discussion of the reliability of text and its strengths and weakness
The main strength of the study is that it explores and pushes the boundaries in the sense that it identifies that not only does change need to occur on a personal level but also globally and also interconnecting all the nations. Another strength is that this can be generalised due to the world being better interconnected and the growth of technology, it allows for the implementation of the ideology on a wider scale. A weakness of the study is that this
A discussion of the relevance or usefulness of the text for your research question
This study is relevant to my research because it asks the question “How does feminism need to proceed to include each individual, state and nation?” It entices one to think ‘to what extent is any model of politics inclusive of each individual’, despite the different personalities that are about. It also explores how ethnic minorities may be included in feminism despite cultural and traditional differences. It is about how each individual can live in harmony and not have the battle of having to be one (traditional) or the other (feminist).
Article 6
Anthias, F. and Yuval-Davis, N. (1983). Contextualizing Feminism: Gender, Ethnic and Class Divisions. Feminist Review, (15), pp.62-75.
The outline of the main argument
‘Sisterhood is powerful.’ The paper explores the issue of the correlation between ethnic and gender divisions. The authors believed it was a topic that needed a theoretical approach to be explored in addition to the political issues raised which are central to the feminist struggle. ‘Sisterhood’ is a notion of assumption in the sense that there is a common interests, goals and inspirations among women. However, the difference in the struggles is seen in the ethnicity, class and gender of the feminist. The authors believed that the ‘ethnic’ contributed to inclusivity and exclusivity that created boundaries and yet these where ignored, which in turn helped to disseminate both political and theoretical shortfalls within feminist and socialist studies. The authors wrote this paper due to their own frustrations due to wanting to be included in the literature and for ethnic divisions to be seen as necessary rather than non-existent or as a fixed community to feminist politics.
A description of research methods used
The research method in this article was a literature review. The authors focused on issues they believed tackled and were inclusive of all races. To avoid the notion of black versus white feminism and in the belief of including every individual as well as being comprehensive, they focused on ethnic divisions. By focusing on ethnic divisions, this allowed for other concepts such as racism, gender, class and ethnicity to be included and not just broaden the research. They also analysed the Marxists theory in the ways in which it has also been partly responsible for not exploring the ethnic divisions. They examined these divisions within two areas which are central to feminist analysis, which are employment and reproduction.
Identification of conclusions made by authors
The conclusion in which the authors came to is the implications of the analysis present for the western/third world feminist debate. The analysis in this paper is that any political struggle in relation to any of the divisions considered in this paper, i.e. class, ethnic and gender has to be waged in the context of the others. Feminist struggle in Britain today cannot be perceived as a homogeneous struggle, for the participation and oppression of women, both in the family and at the work site, are not homogeneous. White middle-class feminists have to recognize the particularity of their own experiences, not only in relation to the Third World but also in relation to different ethnic and class groupings in Britain and integrate is recognition into their daily politics and struggles. Only on this basis can a valid sisterhood be constructed among women in Britain.
A discussion of the reliability of text and its strengths and weakness
The main strength of the study is that it can be generalised as the authors explored this in the hopes of adding to the literature of the ethnic minorities in Britain. A weakness of the study is that the paper was not written for academic purposes, rather as an exploration of their frustration making the findings of this study rather subjective. Although, the points raised were valid, there is bias that runs with the findings of the paper.
A discussion of the relevance or usefulness of the text for your research question
This study is relevant to my research because it ethnic minorities and migrant women have been in invisible within the feminist movement in Britain as well as within literature. As stated before, there is limited literature in this field regarding my topic of choice for my final year dissertation and this paper here, explores this. In addition, it has also played a role in adding to the literature on women and/or feminist studies.
“One major form of women’s oppression in history has been their invisibility, their being 'hidden from history'. The invisibility of women other than those who belong to the dominant ethnic collectively in Britain within feminist analysis has been as oppressive. Except for black feminists who fought their own case in isolation, minority women have been virtually absent in all feminist analysis.”
– (Athenias and Yuval-Davis, 1983)
Article 7
THE MEDIA DEPICTION OF WOMEN WHO OPT OUT
An outline of the main argument
The study has analysed media prints and a comparison of media images with trends in women's behaviour, the authors explore the rhetoric and reality surrounding the exit of college-educated women from the workforce to become full-time mothers, a phenomenon that has been dubbed "opting out" The major imagery around opting out highlights motherhood and family, elites, and choice. A close reading reveals some inconsistencies that counter the prevailing positive depiction. The authors also find that media coverage of opting out appears in leading publications reaching large and diverse audiences. A comparison of articles' themes against actual trends in women's opting-out behaviour shows that there is a disjuncture between the two. The authors
A description of research methods used
Their research addresses these questions primarily through a content analysis of articles specifically about heterosexual women who left the work force and became stay-at-home mothers. For the textual analysis, we used quantitative and qualitative techniques (Massoni, 2004), which allowed us to identify themes based both on their frequency and meaning. We examine the text of articles (omitting pictures but including their captions) published in the 16-year period between 1988 and 2003.
Identification of conclusions made by authors
The study’s Our systematic assessment of opting-out imagery adds to the consider able body of research on the media depiction of women and extends past findings. The sustained publication during a 16-year period of articles on opting out is consistent with prior research showing that the media promulgates traditional images of heterosexual women. When Friedan wrote about educated women at home, the feminine mystique characterized a relatively large group of women and was a far better fitting depiction of the women it portrayed than is the case today. In 1960, roughly two-thirds of married women with children under 18 were out of the labour force; in 2000, less than one-third were (Hesse-Biber and Carter, 2005). Unlike the women Freidan studied, many stay-at-home mothers today have had careers, allowing them to look to that experience in assessing life at home, and identify more closely with working women as peers or role models. Women who opt out are a minority, albeit a significant minority; Friedan's women were not. This disjuncture between the rhetoric of opting out and the reality of women's lives allows for the possibility that the new feminine mystique will not be as powerful as the old.
A discussion of the reliability of text and its strengths and weakness
The main strength of the study is that it is valid, it can be replicated even ten years down the line to obtain same or similar results. However, this can be evaluated in the
A discussion of the relevance or usefulness of the text for your research question
This study is relevant to my research because
Article 8
Intersectionality and Feminist Politics
An outline of the main argument
The article looks at various analytical issues involved in conceptualising the correlation between gender, class, race and ethnicity and any social divisions. It equates the discussion on these issues that took place in Britain in the 1980s and throughout the 2001 UN World Conference Against Racism. The article explores issues such as the comparative effectiveness of preservative or common constitutive models of intersectional social divisions. It also looks at the different levels of methods levels at which social divisions need to be studied, their association to each other the basis of these associations. The last segment of the article critically challenges and examines a precise intersectional methodology in employing aid and human rights work in the South. In addition, this article also looks at the issues raised by the 1983 paper Yuval-Davis published with Floya Anthias, in which they argued against the ‘triple oppression’. As the author critiques their earlier work, they also enhanced it by no longer limiting the research to the preoccupations of Black and other ethnic minority feminists but broaden and continue, in certain methods, to be at the heart of feminist theory and practice. The author believes that the debate of postmodernist has not been lost in the aspect or rather notion of ‘difference’ and it has continued to maintain its unprecedented political importance. However, the question of ‘whether to interpret the intersectionality of social divisions as an additive or as a constitutive process’ still central stands central in many ways since the 1983 paper.
A description of research methods used
The author researched through literature reviews and set parameters in which they wanted to explore to help better understand and explore parameters that concern social divisions in feminism studies as well as how it comes to play and other countries as well such as South Africa with the help of the United Nations (UN) World Conference Against Racism. In order to help combat these ongoing issues, Yuval-Davis argued that intersectionality had to be taken into consideration as an additive due to to it being central to the heart of feminism.
Identification of conclusions made by authors
The study’s Intersectional analysis of social divisions has come to dominate central spaces in both sociological and other analyses of stratification as well as in feminist and other legal, political and policy discourses of international human rights. There has been a gradual recognition of the inadequacy of analysing various social divisions, but especially race and gender, as separate, internally homogeneous, social categories resulting in the marginalization of the specific effects of these, especially on women of colour. However, the analysis and the methodology of intersectionality, especially in UN-related bodies is just emerging and often suffers from analytical confusions that have already been tackled by feminist scholars who have been working on these issues for longer, outside the specific global feminist networks that developed around the Beijing Forum. Wider dialogue and articulation of problems would be useful to both feminist scholars and global feminist networks.
A discussion of the reliability of text and its strengths and weakness
The main strength of the study
A discussion of the relevance or usefulness of the text for your research question
This study is relevant to my research because
Discussion
Although, there is a limit in what is available in terms of literature and research in Europe, it was rather interesting to see the perspectives and results of research in North America and Africa. This goes to show there is not that there is a gap in research when it comes to feminism being for people of colour. According to Haskell (2017), Black women were often ignored in the woman's suffrage movement and women like Sojourner Truth had to fight for the black woman to be remembered in the Abolitionist, so they could also have the right to vote in 1851, just like their counterparts, the suffrages. In the speech that should gave she said Women were considered delicate to vote however Black woman we treated less courteously than white women in terms of chivalry. Ethnic minorities have been oppressed for many decades, however, through the Civil Rights Movement there was a rise in equality for all. As well as
Silverston (2006) suggested when looking at ideology of feminism, one must focus only on the ideology and not the specifics such as gender and race due to these causing problems. Barnett and Rivers (2004) and Hyde (2005) believed that some of the studies that were conducted
A limitation is that articles 3 & 4, only focus on developing countries and therefore the research cannot be generalised to women of ethnic minorities in developed countries or to be of true effect that they are marginalised but only in the countries of the research was conducted.
The issue of multiculturalism and feminism must be located in the context of racism and other forms of exclusion faced by minority ethnic groups as well as the position of women within them.
In the light of the problems related to thinking of cultural or other rights, it may be useful to turn to exploring the concept of equality. Within contemporary debates the concept of equality appears old fashioned and has been replaced by a number of other concepts such as difference, exclusion and identity. This is not surprising. The theoretical and political purchase of equality gave way under the twin sways of postmodern theory on the one hand and the demise of radical left politics on the other hand. Both these trends constitute are cognition of the variations and diversities as well as fragmented nature of the subjects and groups which in the past raised their voices towards equality. Equality has been located within a theory of rights found within ‘‘human’’ rights and ‘‘civil’’ and ‘‘social’’ rights of citizenship as in the work of T.H. Marshall (1950).
As mentioned in the introduction to this paper, our interest in the subject is far from being merely academic. It originates from our own frustration in trying to find a political milieu in which ethnic divisions will be seen as an essential consideration, rather than as non-existent or as an immovable bloc to feminist politics.
During my research of feminism in ethnic minorities, I fell in love with the work of Anthias and Yuval- Davis. These two women’s grasp of the role of the black woman and ethnic minorities is such a beauty in the sense that it explores the unknown and fills that gap in research as what feminism is for women of colour and ethnic minority background as well as what other factors such as class divisions and equality.
Conclusion
In conclusion, while I researched this question, I found that feminism and ethnicity cannot simply be explained as having been created by a white woman, only for the white woman because since the beginning of the Suffrages movement, all women have had one goal and that is equality. Many women, despite their ethnicity, have fought for fair and equal rights for all, women like Winnie Mandela are the pinnacle of the women rights movement in Southern Africa. Sojourn Truth, she fought for our rights as women before the term “FEMINIST” was around and this was in the late 1800s.
The word “feminism” is just like any other word in the dictionary, however, it is not just a label. It is a name that empowers and strengthens women, so they may feel free and strong enough to fight any injustices they face due to their gender. It does not focus on ethnicity, class, or religion because it unifies each person who believes in the ideology.
Culture is always changing is also dependent on where how you are brought up. In a developing country the main focus is education, most believe it is the only way out of poverty. Children are rarely brought up to follow their dreams, rather they are encouraged to study the conventional subjects and take the traditional route to success. Whereas in developed countries, children are pushed to follow their dreams and there is an understanding that education is not the only way to be successful, there are less conventional ways such as talent for example, being an amazing pianist or vocalist, these may lead to endless ….
I have also found that the term feminism has a different meaning to different people. To me feminism is embracing the good and the bad of being a woman in today’s society. It is a far cry as to where it came from with the Suffragettes through the civil rights movement to what it is today in my eyes. Getting to explore the possibilities as to how far I can achieve, the barriers I am yet push as well as break, the new discoveries as to who I am as a feminist daily. I have also discovered that, though the theory and ideology of feminism stays the same, I do not; the feminist I was yesterday differs to the feminist I will be tomorrow, a year from now, a decade even. However, that is the beauty that is feminism. One can interpret what it means to them and shape it to best fit their life.
I mean I fight for equality each day amongst my peers, whether in the classroom, at home or just outside. Oppression and injustices are always unfair to the next person. It is important to be a voice for women as well as people of colour or rather, ethnic minorities, in a world that has fast become smaller and very well interlinked through faster transport modes and technology, for example, on social media, an individual can easily type out an empowering message for the world to see and it can be shared a million times over at just the click of a button. Globalisation may yet be the best thing that has happened to me, in the sense that there are many young girls and women in the world to whom I can easily empower and inspire without knowing it because I was bold enough to embrace my differences, my individuality and learnt what it means to be a feminist as a woman of colour to me, how I define the term ‘feminism’ and why I live to ensure it is inclusive of me as well as many more like me.
Feminism is not just about believing in an ideology, it is also about living it, Gabrielle Wilson (Rolling Out, 2018) best described it as “women need someone to say the things that they are to say and someone women and some are not comfortable with vulnerability. It is perceived that have to be strong all the time however, it is hard to be strong at times.”
Bibliography
Anthias, F. (2002). Beyond feminism and multiculturalism: Women's Studies International Forum, 25(3), pp.275-286.