å Sunday, September 3rd, 2017

Chapter 3 of Angela Davis’ Women,Race & Class gave great insight on the origin of the women’s rights movement, and shows us how intertwined it was with the abolitionist movement. Davis references Sojourner Truth and her poem, “Ain’t I a Woman”, to show that even within a marginalized group, there is a hierarchy that is put in place due to your gender, race and class.

The term “double oppression” was used in reference to the women who worked, and had to deal with the hardships of being a woman and a worker. Triple oppression is a more suitable term to describe Truth’s predicament. Truth being a black woman who was a former slave puts her in the marginalized sections of gender, race and class. Davis emphasized that these groups we are placed in impacts our perception of issues and the motives behind our fight against it. Black women were excluded from the discussion on women’s rights. They were not mentioned at the Seneca Falls meeting at all. Sojourner’s voice was needed in order to show how women who share her identities as poor and black experience oppression. In Truth’s poem she speaks on how women are physically stronger than they are credited for, and she goes against the notion that male supremacy was apart of the Christian faith. These arguments are due to her identity as a woman. She then goes on to condemn the white women who excluded the black woman’s narrative from this movement. She does this because of her more specific identity as a black woman. She reminds everyone that black women are women too, and deserve to be apart of the discussion and fight. Charlotte Woodward who was a working class white woman got involved in this movement because of her identity as a lower class white woman looking for better work conditions. Though Truth and Woodward are both women, they experienced womanhood differently. A principal who was an abolitionist and a woman didn’t want black girls attending her school. Though she shared the same sex as these girls, there was a difference between them. There was a classification within a classification that couldn’t be ignored. Davis’ reference to Truth highlights this.

Angela Davis discusses the issues behind the early women’s rights campaign and references many historical figures and events. Race played a major role during this time especially among the females who were fighting for equal rights. As the women’s movement became larger, there was often a resistance to include black women, among the increasing middle class, educated white leaders. These leaders considered themselves as abolitionist who fought to end slavery but at the same time were also excluding black women from being part of meetings. In many of these conventions they fail to mention the rights of black women being violated for instance in convention like the Seneca Falls Conventions where only one black man made an appearance and the presence of black women was nonexistent. The Seneca Falls Convention was the first women’s rights convention which focused on the rights of women yet failed to mention the rights of black women.  The Grimke sisters would often call out these female anti-slavery societies for failing to knowledge challenges black women also face. Angelina Grimke made it a point to have a presence of black women during the National Female Anti-Slavery Society.  Even though all females were fighting for equal rights as a whole, race and class played a role in separating everyone. Many middle class educated white women who considered themselves to be abolitionist were racists and prejudices toward women of difference race and class. The anti-slavery movement had many weakness and flaws. For instance in the case of  Fredrick Douglass’ daughter who was a victim of segregation by her principle who prohibited her from attending classes with the white girls. It’s hard to understand how someone who associated themselves with being an anti-slavery activist can segregate someone they’re trying to help.

Angela Davis’s chapter on class and race in the Early Women rights campaign does draw reference to several key historical figures that were in attendance to The Seneca Falls Convention in the early 19^th century. Davis relies on using the historical figures and setting to inform the audience about how the relationship of gender, race, and class. The Seneca falls convention is known to be one of the starting point that lead to the beginning of the women suffrage movement. A name that Davis tends to repeat is Elizabeth Cady Stanton, a future women suffragist who worked alongside Susan B. Anthony. Mrs. Stanton was not much of a practiced activist besides her and her husband’s involvement in the abolitionist movement. However, she was seen only as the wife of an abolitionist but was allowed the right to be there due to the status of her husband’s position as a lawyer and her position as his wife (1981:52). Mrs. Stanton had most likely used the methods that she saw in these conferences to help her during the Seneca Falls convention. Though Davis believes Mrs. Stanton was in some form of handicap due to her lack of perspective that was created by several years of struggle that had protected a women’s right to help in contributing to the anti-slavery movement (1981:52). A different key figure at the convention was Charlotte Woodward. Charlotte was a different class from Elizabeth, she was a working woman but only through her home since she was a glovemaker. The wages she had from making the gloves would back to the men in her family (1981:61). As mentioned by Davis, she alleged that the working women were thought to be more serious about women’s right then the other part of their lives (1981:61). Both their gender and race has helped these two women received chances to attend the convention. However, there is a woman who have attended the convention and went regardless if she was invited or not due to the color of her. That women’s name is Sojourner Truth. Sojourner was an ex slave but that didn’t mean that was any less of a woman. According to Davis, many white women would forget that black women were in the same situation as them, sojourner presence reminded those in the convention that black women  are still women the same as them(1981:69).

In chapter three of women, race and class by Angela Davis she talks about the events/people in history that took place in the early women’s rights campaign. In this chapter she mentions something that caught my attention which was that there was no black women that attended the Seneca Falls  Convention and the only person with color was a man. During the convention they did not even mention anything about black women, which can tell you that during that time race was still a conflict even between woman that were fighting for equal rights. Integration between women was still an issue at that time. The only colored man that attended that conference that supported woman’s rights had his very own daughter a victim of inequality between black and white women by a principle that was so called an abolitionist women. Just because the principle got one of the student’s parents to object to integrating the classroom, that alone was enough to exclude his daughter. That right there proved that the abolitionist movement still needed to improve in how they deal with racism.

A black woman that Davis mentioned in this chapter, Sojourner Truth, was an important voice in creating change for the equality for black women and white women as well. Davis emphasizes that Sojourner Truth was not afraid to be brave and speak up on how women aren’t as weak as society portrays them, which other woman were too timid to do so.  In Sojourner’s speech “And ain’t I a woman?” she mentions that when she was a slave she did the same amount of labor a man would do and how she performed even better than most of them. Now by Davis stating that Sojourner restates “And ain’t I a woman?”, is Sojourner stating that she is a woman and she was as capable of doing labor that was intended for men and she managed to do even better.  Not only was she fighting for the rights of blacks but also for the rights of women as a whole.

In Women, Race & Class, Davis expands on the white man’s dominance in all aspects of society during the slavery era. Men made every decision in the household. Women were mostly illiterate and hence incompetent in the male-governed society. Their roles primarily consisted of cooking and cleaning, childbearing and attending to their husbands’ every need.                                                                                                                      Davis highlights the significance of the women’s conference from which ironically women were excluded. Although slavery had not been abolished during the period in which the conference took place, former male slaves who had earned their freedom were also in attendance. The men did not care to hear the opinions of their spouses or the opinions of any women for that matter. Davis uses this conference to demonstrate the low state of intellect that women inhabited during that period; one so low that even a former slave, who was not allowed an education during his enslavement, was allowed attendance into women’s meeting that a woman was not.

The “freedom” that existed for women in the north was almost laughable. Women could not engage in men’s conversations and could not give advice to their husbands. Female factory workers were paid less than their male counterparts. They had little to no control over the wages they received and when and how that money would be paid to them. At times wages could be taken before they could even see them. The lack of education among women vastly decreased the amount of jobs available to them, they mostly worked industry jobs and were met with deep sexism when they tried to venture into other fields. Most women were forced to be homemakers which further solidified their position in the lowest economic strata in society.

Even though the white women in the north experienced sexism and in the south, black women experienced sexism and racism, both groups of women were slaves to their husbands and to the system that very determinately kept them tethered to their masters. Davis clearly shows that in a white male dominated society, race, color and gender would continue to manifest themselves and be used as a force to keep down those marked as “inferior”.

Although great strides have been made with the Feminist movement and with sexism along with other types of discrimination being illegal in most establishments, there are still great forms of inequality in the modern era. For one, we still live in a patriarchal society. Women who work just as hard as men still receive significantly less pay. Women who work hard to reach position of authority, are disrespected by their male subordinates and often we hear insults and slurs that used primarily to describe women, by men who do not respect them despite their authority. A woman’s sexuality, much like in the era Davis describes, is still used as a way to shame her or worse yet as a means to certify the manhood of any particular man. Madam Secretary Hillary Clinton’s failure to succeed President Barack Obama can be contrasted with the women’s conference and the attendance of the former male slave yet the exclusion of the women. Some countries still do not allow their female citizens access to quality education. Instead, they are trained to be wives and mothers. Many of these women become slaves to their husbands.

Women are far stronger than society makes them look. Davis uses Sojourner Truth’s story to express the interdependent of the two genders. Sojourner is quoted as saying, “‘I am faster than a man. I bred and raised 13 children, which a man cannot do.’”She did not appear weak or vulnerable despite her womanhood which society attempted to force her to believe was the source of such feelings. She did not need a man to provide for her and she did not need a man to rescue her. There were many things that women could do that a man cannot. Neither a person’s gender not their race could give him or her authority over another. Sojourner Truth’s spirit of strength, perseverance and determination to prove that womanhood did not make one weak nor did it signal subordination, is the strength that I believe Davis wants all women to embody

Hey everyone, my name is Shaikhah Alhomaizi. I’m an International transfer student from Kuwait. This is my first semester at Hunter and I’m a Community Health major.

In Chapter 3 of Women, Race, & Class, Davis discusses many historical figures and events that led to the rise of the Women’s Right’s movement and conventions. One of the conventions Davis focuses on is the Seneca Falls Convention of 1848. She explains the interrelationship of race, class, and gender in regards to the agenda of this convention.
Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott decided to hold the convention to challenge the oppression of women in society. While Stanton thought the introduction of woman suffrage would be a great platform to lead into the discussion of equality for women, Mott thought this idea to be a little too radical for their time. Therefore, the main focus of the convention was the institution of marriage and the many confines and fortification it put around women. The women who attended the convention rallied for challenging the political, social, domestic and religious climate that oppressed them. Davis argued that while this convention served as a recognition of the dilemma of middle class white women, it totally disregarded the crisis and perplexity of the situation of working class white women and black women, collectively.
Davis introduced Charlotte Woodward – the only woman who attended the convention that was able to exercise her right to vote- to show how class played a role in the convention. Unlike the majority of the women who attended, Woodward was a working class woman whose motives were very different from her counterparts. The Seneca Falls Declaration of Sentiments were a list of demands for equality based on the struggles of middle classes white women, signed by the attendees. Woodward and the other working class women however, wanted instructions of how they can further improve their lives as workers. This was not one of the points of main focus until the end of the convention. This furthers Davis’s argument that the groundbreaking movements Stanton and Mott’s forerunners made were being overlooked, as Stanton and Mott moved the women’s liberation movement in their own direction.
Race plays into the Seneca Falls Convention of 1848 because not one black woman was present. On top of that, the agenda didn’t even mention black women, which was surprising due to the prior contributions of black women to the cause. Two years after the Seneca Falls Convention, Sojourner Truth spoke at the National Convention on Women’s Rights. She was able to articulate an argument with incontestable logic, that annihilated the terrible misconception that female weakness was incompatible with the right to vote (Davis, 1981:66).
In this Chapter, Davis explains how the women’s rights movements had faults and weaknesses because the leaders, rather that focusing on how race and class affects the rights of all women, they tried to separate it into two different quantities. Davis explains that in an industrial capitalistic economy, social problems, such as the fight for women’s rights does affect economic interests. She says that it was a flaw on the part of the leaders of the women’s movement to think that slavery in the South, profiteering of workers in the North and social oppression of women were not methodically related (1981:71)

Felix Saldana
Dr. Bullock
WGS 10000 Section 09

Throughout chapter three, Angela Davis discusses how women’s suffrage, and equality in the workforce, had sort of latched onto the anti slavery agenda, allowing the voices of both black and white women to be heard. One example is Elizabeth Stanton, who came from a wealthy family and had advantages as young girl that most didn’t have. Strengthened by her father’s support, Elizabeth crossed the gender barriers at a young age. Learning how to ride horses, studying arithmetics, and Greek, she was the only female that graduated high school in her class. She even went on to study law with her father (1981:53). It seems that Davis wanted to point out how progressive Stanton was in her youth, only to end up like most of the other wealthy white women; a married, middle class, housewife and mother. Davis also points out that it was Stanton’s background that led up to her feelings of oppression and undervalue, as a women. In a letter to Lucretia Mott, Stanton discussed her home life and how disgruntled she felt. Though it sounded more to me, that she was complaining about her “white privilege”, and how not having the help of servants, led her to feel the same feelings of a black slave. Stanton used this moment as a platform to continue the efforts to gain equality for women and slaves by speaking at the Seneca Falls Convention, the nation’s first women’s rights convention. She was even able to convince Fredrick Douglas that women had a right to vote, to which he then became a male voice for all women. I believe that Davis effectively shows that even if helping white woman was Elizabeth Stanton’s initial unconscious agenda, she was able to channel her knowledge and fortitude from her youth and apply it to a greater cause and fight with the anti-slavery movement while attaching her own incentive, the equality of women rights.