Feminism has been an important movement for me from pretty early on in my time at high school and I have considered myself to be a feminist for a while now. However, it wasn’t until recently that I acknowledged how me being white intersected with my experiences of misogyny.
Last month I read Reni Eddo-Lodge’s incredible book ‘Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race’. Chapter 5 was particularly challenging for me as a feminist who is also white. It helped me to acknowledge that I was seeing sexism and racism as separate issues. I’ve certainly been aware of both and have been eager to see a change in these areas but, truthfully I never fully considered how black and other women of colour experience misogyny differently to me. I’d really encourage other white women who call themselves feminists to recognise the importance of incorporating intersectionality into our advocating for women’s rights.
I’m sure most women have similar day-to-day experiences of sexism that we can all relate to. I certainly feel fearful walking alone at night; I have felt uncomfortable after men have cat-called me or touched me inappropriately as they walked past; and I have felt the pressure to adhere to society’s unrealistic beauty standards for women. At my retail job, I even had a male colleague genuinely imply that I should be on the counters at my supermarket due to the fact that there’s a kitchen there, which would be more suitable for me as a woman (I really thought that the kitchen comments were past us here in 2020 but alas!). The list could go on. Yet, the misogyny I experience is not made worse by the colour of my skin and that is a privilege that I have a duty to acknowledge.
It doesn’t take long to identify examples of how race and gender intersect to impact experiences of women of colour. Take, for example, the pay gap, which is an important focus of the feminist movement (as it should be!). However, it is often overlooked that black and other women of colour experience a greater pay gap between themselves than white men to white women do; with South Asian women seeing the largest pay gap between themselves and white men at 26% in the UK (according to the Fawcett Society in 2017).
Medical racism exists towards black women in particular, who are less likely to have their needs taken as seriously by medical professionals than white women, as evidenced in the maternal mortality rate for black women as it is 4 times higher than that of white women. Native American women are twice as likely to experience violence than any other demographic. Biases and unchecked racism often leads to black women unjustly being assumed to be aggressive or loud, whilst the same behaviour from white women is often praised.
Beauty standards have been whitewashed and women of colour are severely underrepresented in politics, TV, film, modelling and corporate positions. Everything, including the dominant narrative of the feminist movement, has been whitewashed.
(credit: @femislay on Instagram)
These are just some of the examples of how women of colour experience misogyny differently to white women. The list could go on and on. So what can we do about it?
As white women, we have the duty to educate ourselves on these things. Remember, it is a privilege to learn about racism, rather than having to experience it on a daily basis. Recognise that the experiences of white women are not universal for all women and don’t let our whitewashed narrative dominate the discussion of feminism. We have to check ourselves for our privileges and biases and check our white peers too. This is so SO important if feminism is truly going to achieve its goal of gender equality and not just gender equality for white women.
My main focus of this blog post has been about race. But it is also important to recognise how class, sexual orientation, disabilities, gender identity and religion also play into the different experiences of misogyny different women face. The female experience is multi-faceted, but let’s continue to empower and support our fellow ladies as we work towards dismantling gender inequality!
Today's feature writer is Emma! I thoroughly enjoyed editing this piece and it's great to see a proper example of taking on the responsibility to educate oneself instead of relying on minority women's voices to do so. I appreciate the recognition of the issue and I encourage all feminists from all backgrounds to continue educating yourselves so that you can educate the masses. We're far from achieving full equality but as we continue to close the pay gap, break glass ceilings and leave no more 'firsts' for the next generation of feminists, we will get there, united by our gender, not divided by our race.
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