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Assignment 01- Chapter 3

In Chapter 3 of Angela Davis’ Women,Race & Class, the Seneca Falls conference I found there to two different sides of the spectrum that were to be addressed. On one hand, at this convention there were working class white women expressing their unfavorable working conditions that were followed by  even more unfavorable wages for their hours of hard work and sweat. These women were part of  the white working middle class. So yes although these arguments are crucial to discuss for Women’s rights they also do not address the other side of the spectrum. As we saw in Chapter 2 of Davis’s work, We cannot fully address or move forward in any Women’s Rights movements if we do not abolish slavery as well. Although both black  men and women were subject to slavery  in terms of Women’s rights this was a battle to fight together  because even to address the abolishment of slavery it was first noted that the opinion of these women were scrutinized for the fact alone of having their sex be female.

I feel that by Davis addressing this issue in chapter 3 at the Seneca Falls conference on  how there was a lack of voice for the black women who were subjected to the inhumane treatments of slavery shines light on the fact of this being a race and class issue. White middle class women who would take part in the anti-slavery movement, were not the majority at the Seneca Falls conference where it would have truly counted to be a voice for all matters concerning Women’s rights. On the other hand black women slaves were the minority. Although women as a whole are an oppressed sex, being a black enslaved women is part of  a minority is experiencing triple of what her white counterpart is. This reminded me of Michael Kimmel’s ” The Gendered Society” where he partially attacks this same issue. In the story there are two women, one white and black. The argument is what one sees when they look in the mirror. The white women responds that she simply sees a woman while the other response is that she sees a black woman. I found it to be an extremely interesting conversation because I think it is crucial to understand the lenses with which one sees their self and why they see it that way.