Contextualizing Feminism — Gender, Ethnic and Class Divisions

Abstract

'Sisterhood is powerful.' 'Sisterhood' can also be misleading unless contextualized. Black, minority and migrant women have been on the whole invisible within the feminist movement in Britain and within the literature on women's or feminist studies. This paper attempts to explore the issue of the interrelationship of ethnic and gender divisions. ' Not only is such an attempt long overdue theoretically but it also raises political issues which must be central to feminist struggie. Our analysis serves to problematize the notion of'sisterhood' and the implicit feminist assumption that there exists a commonality of interests and/or goals amongst all women. Rather we argue that euery feminist struggle has a specific ethnic (as well as class) context. Although the notion of the 'ethnic' will be considered later in the paper we note here that for us it primarily relates to the exclusionary/inclusionary boundaries of collectivities formed round the notion of a common origin.2 The 'ethnic' context of feminist struggles has been systematically ignored (except in relation to various minorities, especially 'black') and we suggest this has helped to perpetuate both political and theoretical inadequacies within feminist and socialist analyses. The black feminist movement has grown partly as a response to the invisibility of black women and to the racism of the white feminist movement. Recently several books have appeared, mostly American which discuss blackwomen and feminism. Bell Hooks puts her case against white feminism clearly when she states: