Upon reading “How feminism became capitalism’s handmaiden- and how to reclaim it” by Nancy Fraser, as well as “White Feminist Fatigue Syndrome” by Brenna Bhandar and Denise Ferreria da Silva, I felt irritatingly ambivalent.
On one hand, I understood her frustration with so called “new wave feminists” because they seem to have taken 3 steps forward and 10 leaps backwards. Nancy Fraser is under the impression that second-wave feminists have to some extent, “sold out to individualist neo-liberal free market agendas”. In simpler terms, Fraser believes that second wave feminists are no longer thinking about enhancing the feminist movement to ensure and promote gender equity, but rather focusing more on the economic development of the country in question (which in this case is the United States).
Fraser claims that neo-liberalism “harnesses the dream of women’s emancipation to the engine of capital accumulation”. My interpretation of her arguments insinuate that she does not believe that women should be in the work force.
However, as a middle classed Caucasian female who was “fighting to emancipate women” in the 1960’s, there is a level of awareness she has yet to attain. The issue (not really an issue but Fraser would interpret it as such) is that feminism is no longer about guaranteeing that the Caucasian female has equal rights.
There is an explosion of new social issues and demands (not all are new but have become less taboo) that need to be addressed. That being but not limited to;
- Racism. Women of colour tend to be discriminated against not only because they are women, but also because of the colour of their skin.
- This concept links back to the fact that the long hand of histo
ry still rests permanently on the shoulders of many - Stereo-typically speaking; women of colour in so called “first world” nations such as the United States are immigrants; ergo, a lot of the jobs that they are able to undergo are primary sector and if they are educated and lucky; secondary sector jobs.
- This concept links back to the fact that the long hand of histo
- The rights of LGBTQ women have become a bustling phenomenon that is consistently growing;
- There are no longer the rights of straight Caucasian women that need to be liberated; but also transgender women, queer women, women of colour, and so forth.
- More men are realizing that the rights of women are a valid and appropriate concept to campaign and fight for;
- During the era of first wave feminists, the majority of societies across the globe were very patriarchal. That ideology is time and time again being trampled with a surge of women entering the work force and killing the game.
- Women are proving that they add an irreplaceable amount of value to a variety of work places, and as such are threatening jobs many have always presumed to be male dominated.
There is an almost laughable presumption made by Caucasian feminists in the Western world that, feminism is equality between the sexes; full stop. However, that ideology fails to incorporate factors that affect any other type of woman. There is an embarrassing amount of inequality between female and male in several developing nations.
Notwithstanding there are a basket of developing countries that are thrashing the “tradition” where the female’s job is in the house. For instance, Rwanda has the largest number of female representation in government in the entire world, additionally; Tunisia has recently implemented a law which states that there has to be at least a 26.71% female representation in parliament.
Taken together, I believe that the thought process of the first wave feminist movement was very static and very dry; it fails to consider “cultural sexism” and other such ideologies. In Bhandar and Da Silva’s article they refer to a variety of scholars that have “shattered the limited and exclusionary nature of the conceptual frameworks developed by White feminists in the English speaking world”.
Works Cited & Bibliography
Fraser, Nancy. “How Feminism Became Capitalism’s Handmaiden – And How To Reclaim It | Nancy Fraser”. the Guardian. N.p., 2013. Web. 26 Sept. 2016.
Silva, Brenna and View →. “White Feminist Fatigue Syndrome”. Critical Legal Thinking. N.p., 2013. Web. 26 Sept. 2016.
“Jontyson | VSCO”. VSCO. N.p., 2016. Web. 26 Sept. 2016
“Sexual-Communication – First-Wave Feminism”. Sexual-communication.wikispaces.com. N.p., 2016. Web. 27 Sept. 2016.
DeMichele, Thomas. “Men Can’t Be Feminists – Fact Or Myth?”. Fact / Myth. N.p., 2016. Web. 27 Sept. 2016.
