Intersectional Feminism

For so many years feminism and intersectionality are issues that have been affecting women and girls over race,age,ethnicity and color over the years the meaning and aim of Feminism and Intersectionality Feminism have been misinterpreted and misrepresented. In this article we dive deep into the meaning of Intersectional Feminism and Why It Matters.

 

Feminism is a range of social political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic personal and social equality of the sexes feminist movements have campaigned and continue to campaign for women's rights including the right to vote run for public office work and n equal pay on property and receive education to mention a few 

 

Crenshaw 1980 intersectionality is a theoretical framework for understanding how various social identity such as rest gender sexuality and class intersect and interact to create unique experiences of oppression or privilege 

Intersectionality is a way in which different social identities such as rest gender class and sexuality of a lab and intersect creating unique modes of discrimination and privilege she emphasize that traditional frameworks for understanding social inequality often overlook how this identities collectively impact individuals particularly women of color leading to specific challenges that cannot be fully understood by examining each identity in isolation 

 

Intersectional feminism Crenshaw 1989 defines feminism as a prism for seeing the way in which various forms of inequality often operate together and exacerbate each other. Intersectional feminism recognizes that oppression and gender inequality are shaped by intersecting social structures such as race class sexual orientation religion ability and age 

 

Why it Matters 

Intersectional feminism has been a grounding phenomena in spearheading the change in policies declaration and acts to favor in women and girls as it dive deep into the various issues that affect women and girls at large The main goals of Intersectional Feminism are as follows

 

1) challenging multiple forms of oppression 

Intersectional feminism recognizes that individuals experience multiple intersecting forms of oppression such as racism, sexism , homophobia , transphobia albaism and classicism intersectional feminism recognizes and acknowledges that each woman has a different experience of each one of these oppression in relation to their race, color or sex.

 

2 centering marginalized voices 

Intersection of feminism prioritizes the voices, experiences and perspective of individuals from marginalized communities who have historically been excluded from mainstream feminist movements. 

 

 

3 Promoting Inclusivity and Diversity 

Intersectionality feminists 6 to create inclusive spaces and movements that will come and value individuals from diverse backgrounds, experiences and identities.

 

4 Dismantling Systems of Power and Privilege intersection of feminism aims to challenge and dismantle systems of power and privilege that perpetuate inequality and oppression such as patriarchy white supremacy and capitalism.

 

 

5 Fostering Solidarity and Coalition building intersectional feminism encourages solidarity and coalition building among different social justice movements and communities to create a more just and equitable society addressing intersection of policy and practice intersection of feminism seeks to develop policies and practices that address the sectional needs and experiences of marginalized individuals and communities 

 

 

Significant Movements 

 

Since the late 1800s different feminism movements have been spare heading the inclusion of women and girls rights taken into consideration in the various experiences that different women and girls experience across the globe on a sectional level movements that shapes revolution of women and girls rights are as follows 

 

First wave feminism.

Key objectives 

 

The first world was believed to have started with the women suffrage movements in New York in 1848 led by Susan B Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton.

It end to allow women to vote Members of the suffrage engaged in social campaigns that expressed dissatisfaction with women's limited rights to work education property and social agency emmeline Pankhurst was considered later of the suffrages.

 

The Second Wave 

 

It started in 1960s after the chaos of the second world war spearheaded by Simone de beauvo's book the second sex this book said the foundational tone for setting the next wave of women's rights activism 

This movement involved focusing on social roles in women's work and family environment spreading the debate to include wide issues such as sexuality family reproductive rights legal inequalities and divorce law In addition the movement from this wave aiming towards women's rights included the signing of the EcoPay act of 1963 which stipulated that women could no longer be paid less than men for comparable work The civil rights acts of 1964 included a section which prevents employers from discriminating against employees on the basis of sex race religion or national origin the famous Rose V Wade decision protected a woman's right to have an abortion from 1973.

 

The third wave 

This way have happened in the 1990s and it focused on fighting workplace sexual harassment and working to increase the number of women in positions of power Kimberly Crenshaw's work in 1980 rooted this movement she expressed how a black woman is oppressed on two ways for being a woman and for being black.

 

The fourth wave 

The fourth wave began in 2012 and 18 campuses sexual abuse and harassment specifically of celebrities which gave birth to campaigns such as every everyday sex is in project by Laura Bates the fourth wave is digitally driven and has become inclusive to include those of any sexual orientation ethnicity race and color. 

 

From this movements as well as the definitions and meaning of the word feminism intersectionality and intersectionality feminism we can see that these were the foundational pillars that led to women being given the rights and privileges that our young women and ladies across the world regardless of color age race sex and ethnicity are able to access afford and experience it is from this movement that the revolution of women and girls was benchmarked.

 

These Revolutionary Movements leave us with questions such as 

 

1)Have we done enough as Women to ensure the Future of today's girl child is protected?

 

2)Are women fairly represented in the modern world ?

 

3)Are women offered equal access to resources and opportunities?

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