Black Feminists Challenging Feminism and the Role of Intersectionality for

Feminism

Feminism over the past centuries has undergone multiple waves in attempts to get equality for

women. The first wave and official start of the feminist movement started in 1848 during the Seneca

Falls Convention, a rally where three hundred activists gathered to fight for equality for women. This

rally was organised by Elizabeth Cady Stanton who is considered one of the first leaders in the US

women’s suffrage movement. Two years later Sojourner Truth, a Black woman who was born into

slavery but managed to escape, attended the first national convention fighting for women’s rights

where her presence counted as a token of solidarity from Black women in the fight for equality

(Davis, 1981 chapter 3). One year later she delivered her famous speech ‘Ain’t I a Woman?’ at another

convention, where she was the only one to irrefutably argue against all the sexist arguments made by

men. Being the only Black woman there, amongst multiple white women, she proved herself to be

strong and convincingly plead for equal rights for all women. However, despite this big step in the

feminist movement made by a Black woman, mainstream feminism continued to disadvantage Black

women. (Boomer, 2022) The first wave of feminism was predominantly led by middle-class white

women who mainly cared about their own rights due to the big part segregation still played. During

the second wave, which began in the 1960s, the focus of women’s rights was put more on

reproductive rights. As the ’60s were a tumultuous period with several movements going on, feminist

movements became a bit more inclusive, yet still neglecting what we now know to be the

intersectionality of Black women, and the multi-layered oppression they therefore face. (Four Waves

of Feminism, 2022)

Despite the important role Black women played, their efforts are often not portrayed in the current

mainstream feminist framework. Therefore, Black feminists rightfully challenge feminism which will

be elaborated on further in this paper. Intersectionality, though already spoken about in earlier years,

only got its official name from Kimberlé Crenshaw who coined the term in 1989. The development of

1
this term has made a revolutionary step in the understanding of- and attempts to abolish the

oppression of Black women. Where feminism has often failed Black women in their attempts for

equality, the understanding of Black women’s oppression, as opposed to the one that white women

face, can help reach equality for all women and is thus an important part of feminism.

How Angela Y Davis Challenges Feminism

One of the biggest activists and professors who, amongst fighting against other injustices, challenges

feminism and stands up for minorities is Angela Y Davis. Born in 1944, Davis grew up in an at that

time still segregated Birmingham, Alabama, in a neighbourhood that was often attacked by the Ku

Klux Klan and therefore nicknamed ‘Dynamite Hill’. After starting her education in the United States

she moved to Europe to study at a German university where she obtained a Ph.D. in philosophy. Upon

returning to the United States she joined the communist party and became more involved with other

civil rights movements such as the Black Panther Party. Continuing with activist movements she

ended up getting arrested in 1970 for a murder committed with a gun in her name which caused her to

get charged with murder, kidnapping, and conspiracy, despite not being present at the crime scene and

legally owning the gun. Her being in jail made her see the faults in the criminal justice system on a

deeper level even though she had already been advocating for reform. (Boomer, 2022) Though her

biggest passion was prison reform, another big part of her activism was about women’s rights,

especially those of Black women. In her book, Women, Race & Class (1981), Davis argues that there

is a multitude of mistakes and failures in the feminist movement. Because of the failure of the

mainstream feminist movement, she also prefers to be called a Black revolutionary, as opposed to a

feminist. In the first chapter of her book, she starts out by explaining the differences between Black

and white women and their experiences in history, especially during the times when slavery was still

very present. Even though she recognises the efforts of white women in the early abolitionist

movements, she argues that white women often failed to understand the complex situation fully and

therefore the development of enslaved Black women. The difference in backgrounds sets them apart

and makes it hard for the groups to be seen as fully equal, despite deserving the same rights. In

2
chapter two Davis explains how white women during the 1830s started fighting for the right to

education and jobs that did not include housekeeping. During this fight, white women compared their

economic oppression to slavery, which despite the bond it creates between Black and white women, is

clearly problematic as the scale of the two kinds of oppression is incommensurable. Davis argues that

the recognition of Black women, with their interrelating character identities, is essential to achieve

equality. Though she does not name these interrelating identities, she is talking about the recognition

of the intersectionality of Black women. She criticizes that the standards of feminism are mostly

created by white women who already climbed higher up because of their privileges, and therefore

cannot truly say how to reach equality for the women who are in the lower classes. White women

have neglected and abandoned less privileged women in their mainstream feminism. Even though

Black women such as the aforementioned Sojourner Truth have made substantial steps in the feminist

movement, white women have continued to turn their backs on Black women if this was beneficial for

their own agenda. The racist arguments made by white women partially came from the idea that there

is a form of competition, Davis argues. Several movements had accepted the idea that competition

was needed to achieve either women’s rights or Black rights. For example, in order to gain more

support from racist white women, anti-racist movements were watered down, throwing Black women

who were supporting the movement under the bus, only for their own privileged benefit. This clearly

illustrates Davis’ critique of mainstream feminism, as its foundation neglects the rights of Black

women whenever that fits the agenda. Feminism has been based on the ideas of white women which

makes the demands that allow them to achieve equality based on their already privileged standards,

making it hard for people more steps below the ceiling to achieve equality as well.

How Kimberlé Crenshaw Challenges Feminism

Another Black feminist to challenge feminism is Kimberlé Crenshaw. She is a law specialist and

writer on a multitude of topics such as civil rights, critical race theory, and Black feminist legal theory.

Crenshaw is now a full-time professor of law at the University of California in Los Angeles.

(Crenshaw, K.W., n.d.) One of her most important works is the development of the term

3
‘intersectionality’. Though in earlier works philosophers and activists like Angela Davis have been

talking about the complex structure of discrimination Black women face, it was not until Crenshaw

wrote about it that the concept got a name; intersectionality. In Crenshaw’s paper ‘Demarginalizing

the Intersection of Race and Sex’ (1989) she coined the term ‘intersectionality’ explaining the

multi-layered oppression Black women face. She argues that the minority identities of Black women,

namely the one of being a woman as well as being Black, make their fight for equality different from

those of Black men and white women. The intersectionality of Black women causes them to be

neglected in feminist theory and fights for equality by white women. As feminist theories, especially

at that time, were mostly written by white women and the term intersectionality did not yet exist, there

was little awareness of the subordination that Black women face. Crenshaw criticises ‘mainstream’

feminism for overlooking the concept of race as that is what makes it difficult to achieve full equality

for all women. The definition of discrimination used in antidiscrimination law in itself is problematic

as it argues a group cannot be discriminated against if not every member of this group is affected by

it. Therefore, if only white women have achieved equality, this definition would support the claim that

there is no discrimination against women anymore, even if Black women still face discrimination

because they are a woman. This definition, along with the paradigm of sex discrimination is likely

based on white women’s experiences who, because of their privileged position compared to Black

women, have been able to influence the narrative of the feminist movement. The single-issue

framework, Crenshaw argues, is adopted in a big part of feminist theories even though it excludes and

marginalizes Black women. The same Black women who have also fought for and contributed to the

equality that now mostly has been given to white women. Take the aforementioned speech of

Sojourner Truth, a speech that white women initially wanted to prevent out of fear that it would take

away the attention of women’s rights to Black rights. This event shows how white women want to

protect their rights over those of Black women, despite their fight for the same thing; women’s rights.

Black women are overlooked, and their marginal position is reinforced whenever mainstream, white,

feminists speak for all women, as they neglect their multi-layered identity. Feminist theory more than

often overlooks the role of race when talking about female experiences, therefore neglecting Black

women in the attempts to achieve equality. Take the example of rape statutes (p.157) where the focus

4
has been on white male regulation of white women’s sexuality. This narrative, and the idea that Black

women were not chaste, made them less protected against rape, even though they are women as well,

and therefore prone to domination by men. White feminists ignoring their privileged position over

those of Black women enforces the white women focussed narrative that only deepens the mainstream

narrative. In order to achieve equality for all women, feminist theories have to include the racial

aspect that Black women encounter to illustrate the problems and needs of Black, or other non-white,

women. Better even would be if the narrative completely shifts from white women focussed to the

more disadvantaged groups, and the world was restructured from there, as those restructures would

benefit both the intersectional disadvantaged as well as the single-layered disadvantaged. If

discrimination against people who experience it in a multitude of ways cannot occur, such as for

Black women, it can also not happen to people who only face discrimination based on one specific

ground.

Intersectionality in Feminist Movements

Though the previous parts already mention some of the disadvantages Black women face due to their

multi-layered, thus intersectional, identities, it is important to know exactly why awareness about

intersectionality in feminism is important. The lack of awareness about intersectionality actively

harmed the Black female community as it delayed a lot of their steps toward equality throughout

history. Both Davis, albeit indirectly, and Crenshaw illustrate how because of the double-layered

identity of Black women, which consists of both being Black and being a woman, they have been

neglected or not taken seriously. They both mention that because Black women also carry their race

with them, they are looked at differently, or are not taken seriously, even though they fight for the

exact same rights. Without institutions and frameworks that include the problems of all members of a

minority group, in this case, women, a group carrying multiple identities will continue to be

marginalized until proper changes to this framework are made. The multitude of levels of social

injustice that has been enforced by the predominantly white feminist movement is caused by the lack

of understanding of intersectionality. The current framework is unable to see the deeper level of

discrimination that Black women face. Crenshaw illustrated this in the case of DeGraffenreid v

5
General Motors (p.141) where a company did not hire Black women, which DeGraffenreid took to

court. Though this discrimination was clear, the case she made for it was dismissed as she could not

put it on just sexism, as plenty of women, albeit white women, were hired. This shows how even if

sexism is still present, the current framework does not acknowledge it if it does not affect all women,

or to put it more harshly if it does not affect white women. In order to eliminate the sex-discrimination

Black women face, an intersectional framework needs to be created that includes the aspect of race in

the anti-sexism framework as well. Only then Black women are able to fight against sexism as hard as

white women have been able to do since the start of the feminist framework. The fact that the concept

and awareness about intersectionality are there allows for an opportunity to change the mainstream

feminist framework, all it needs to do now is actually change.

Conclusion

Black feminists in history have rightfully challenged feminism in a multitude of ways because of the

lack of representation of Black women, and the neglect by white women once it fitted their agenda

better. Angela Davis mainly criticises mainstream feminism on the way it throughout history has

abandoned Black women in the fight for equality whenever it fitted the agenda more to advantage

white women. Crenshaw criticises the framework more on how it overlooks the racial aspect that

disadvantages Black women, and how it should work to be inclusive to all women. This builds onto

the importance of awareness about intersectionality in the feminist movement, for equality for all

women can only be achieved once the mainstream white women’s narrative is changed into one that

includes multi-layered forms of discrimination. Black feminists have rightfully challenged feminism

in their failure to support all women, their efforts have been put in since the first wave of feminism

and this should be represented in the framework. In order to change this white women’s focussed

narrative Black feminists can rightfully continue to challenge feminism until the mainstream

framework changes and becomes inclusive to all women.

Bibliography

6
- Boomer, L. (2022, July 9). Life Story: Angela Davis. Women & the American Story.

https://wams.nyhistory.org/growth-and-turmoil/feminism-and-the-backlash/angela-davis/

- Crenshaw, Kimberle (1989) "Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex: A Black

Feminist Critique of Antidiscrimination Doctrine, Feminist Theory and Antiracist Politics,"

University of Chicago Legal Forum: Vol. 1989: Iss. 1, Article 8.

http://chicagounbound.uchicago.edu/uclf/vol1989/iss1/8

- Crenshaw, K.W. (n.d.). Columbia Law School.

https://www.law.columbia.edu/faculty/kimberle-w-crenshaw

- Davis, A. Y. (1981). Women, Race & Class. First Vintage Books Edition.

- ​Four Waves of Feminism. (2022, June 30). Pacific University.

https://www.pacificu.edu/magazine/four-waves-feminism