Race, gender, sexuality. Social equality, women’s suffrage, equal wages. Reproductive rights, sexual harassment, domestic violence. Such words are among the first to come to mind at the very mention of feminism. These are the topics that most commonly inspire the colorfully decorated signs and posters that carry compelling opinions and empowering declarations of the fight for women’s rights and support for the feminist movement in marches and protests across the globe. These words are what have, to the public, defined what feminism represents, the problems the movement is fighting against, and most importantly, the groups of women the movement is fighting for. However, one significant aspect of the feminist movement that is so incredibly crucial to the movement and its progression, yet so often forgotten, did not make the above list. That is the issue of class. Despite being a form of oppression that countless women struggle with all over the world, class is — and has always been — far from being one of the key concerns that form the “face” of the feminist movement. Rarely addressed or prioritized, the role that the issue of class plays within the feminist movement instead remains suppressed, fading into the background within the feminist cause. The lack of discussion surrounding class and working women thus raises a range of questions: Why exactly have the voices of poor, working class, or uneducated women been so suppressed throughout history and continue to be pushed aside in this age of modern feminism? Why is it imperative for such women to be involved and welcomed into the feminist movement? What can working class women do to advance the feminist cause? And how can they expand the consciousness of other women in the movement and bring the feminist issues of class into light?
The absence of discourse relating to women’s class struggle is not a recent occurrence. Class has always caused division within the feminist movement, even before the issue of race began to emerge. Since the very beginning, the feminist movement has built a barrier that separated the poor, working class, uneducated, or otherwise economically disadvantaged women from those with class privilege. This is largely due to the fact that feminism has been primarily dictated by women who are well-educated and middle or upper class: when the contemporary feminist movement began, it was received with a large amount of media attention “solely because of the presence of privileged class women rebelling against their class and patriarchal hierarchy within that class.” (Hooks, 101) The domination of the movement by middle class women is particularly problematic, because many of the prevalent and intersectional issues that feminism should address (often interlocking with other issues like race and sexuality) do not correlate directly with the experiences of such economically advantaged women, but rather, of the women at the bottom of the system, whose voices are more often than not muffled by more privileged women that have the resources to engage themselves more actively in the feminist movement. As a result, the core issues that did receive attention from the public were not applicable or relevant to the working class of women, but rather, only to the small group of the elite. So, throughout the history of feminism, reformist white women have demonstrated that the needs and struggles of women who are not of their race or class are not relevant to their movement, that the movement was to serve their purposes of climbing towards social equality without changing the present social structure, so that women with economic power can receive a boost in status while leaving working class women unchanged in their position at the bottom. Because there has been a severe lack of representation from women of other socioeconomic backgrounds from the very start of the feminist movement, this has caused wealthier, educated feminist women to continue to ignore the many problems non academic or uneducated working class women face, therefore further pushing the class struggle within feminism aside. As Charlotte Bunch and Coletta Reid describe in their essay Revolution Begins at Home, “Often, middle and especially upper class women for whom things have come easily develop a privileged passivity. Someone with privilege can easily think that it’s not necessary to fight or discipline herself to get anything … because she has made it by following nice middle class rules of life.” (Bunch & Reid, 2)
What is most upsetting about the neglect of “lower” class women in the feminist cause is that their words and experiences have such tremendous potential to advance the movement, for their stories and struggles are what the majority of women come to face with in daily life. These are problems that, if confronted, can potentially transform the lives of masses of women, not just the handful of the educated and privileged. Not only will the inclusion and representation of working class and non academic women in the feminist movement finally bring awareness to significant concerns that are not faced only by middle or upper class women to both society and privileged feminists, but it would also allow for a progression of female consciousness within the movement itself, so that the movement can finally take a turn towards focusing on true liberation for all women. Thus, a world in which all females are able to unite to fight against sexism and the patriarchy cannot possibly become a reality until the issue of class is properly addressed.
Although it has always been difficult for a working class woman’s voice to be heard and attract the attention of the media or the public, the ones that have successfully done so have undoubtedly revealed the importance of the issue of classism among women, the profound impact sharing experiences can have, as well as insight into what it is like to struggle both in society and the white feminist cause. One such example is Sojourner Truth’s speech, “Ain’t I A Woman?,” which was presented at the Women’s Convention in Ohio in 1851 (Internet History Sourcebooks, 1997). Here, Truth addresses the issue of gender equality and the inferior treatment of women from her own perspective of a woman involved in labor heavy work. She demands the focus to be on her, on the evidence of her hard manual work, and on the strength and endurance of all women (and in particular, working women):
“Look at me! Look at my arm! I have ploughed and planted, and gathered into barns, and no man could head me! And ain’t I a woman? I could work as much and eat as much as a man – when I could get it — and bear the lash as well! And ain’t I a woman? I have borne thirteen children, and seen most all sold off to slavery, and when I cried out with my mother’s grief, none but Jesus heard me! And ain’t I a woman?”
She also brings to attention the nonsensical perception of rights for poor black women by questioning, “If my cup won’t hold but a pint, and yours holds a quart, wouldn’t you be mean not to let me have my little half measure full?” Not only does her speech break the stereotype of female fragility, but Truth also manages to call out privileged contemporary feminists for concentrating only on the lives of white women, who do not accurately portray the life experiences of a woman nor the class struggle endured by many. As a result, Truth demonstrates the extent of an impact that a woman without an economically or academically privileged background can make on the feminist movement and other working class women’s evaluations of their own power and capabilities, as well as the value of speaking out about issues of disadvantaged women.
Another reason why working class, uneducated women rarely felt welcomed or immersed in the feminist movement was due to the fact that the majority of feminist works have been written by academically accomplished women and educated feminist theorists whose writing often contained jargon or discussions of complex ideologies, therefore preventing their intended messages from reaching and connecting to large groups of non academic women. Along that note, the work of feminists that have had theories to share about classism in women but lacked advanced degrees tended to not be given as much credit, if any, for their arguments. This then suggests another way in which working class women can contribute meaningfully to the feminist cause and empower other women of similar class: through the means of writing. The power of writing for underprivileged women is a primary subject of focus in Gloria Anzaldúa’s “Speaking in Tongues,” a piece from This Bridge Called My Back, a book written by both Anzaldúa and Cherrie Moraga. Also named “A Letter to Third World Women Writers,” “Speaking in Tongues” discusses both the challenges faced by writers of color and lower class and the importance of writers that come from such backgrounds. She not only describes the way it feels to be a woman in a patriarchal world, but also the way in which she must live as a colored woman without the support of class privilege in a white feminist world, questioning, “Does not our class, our culture as well as the white man tell us writing is not for women such as us?” (Anzaldúa & Moraga, 184-185) Anzaldúa demonstrates the lack of influence third world women have in the writing world, as she argues that the only way for the words of these women to be considered valuable is if they all “go to university” and “become as man-woman or as middle-class as [they] can.” (Anzaldúa & Moraga, 185) For many writers that are not of the middle or upper class, writing that reveals their struggles, fears, or frustrations can seem dangerous or intimidating. However, as mentioned by Anzaldúa, complacency would be far more dangerous. For Anzaldúa, she chooses to write as a so-called third world woman to “record what others erase when [she speaks], to rewrite the stories others have miswritten about [her]” (Anzaldúa & Moraga, 187) and other women like her. In this way, “a woman who writes has power. And a woman with power is feared.” (Anzaldúa & Moraga, 190) Anzaldúa further encourages and highlights the significance of writing by third world women and for third world women, describing how she has “never seen so much power in the ability to move and transform others as from that of the writing of women of color.” (Anzaldúa & Moraga, 191) This is because although women share a number of the same struggles in a male dominated world, many of those issues diverge when class, especially in combination with race, is brought into consideration. Hence, the fight for women’s rights are not complete until non white or higher class women are heard and believed, whether that is through writing or through speech.
Today, feminism has still yet to fully accommodate its mission to be inclusive of all women. The past decades of white feminism has resulted in an apathy, a privileged passivity, an indifferent attitude towards the challenges experienced by working class women. As a result, when most people are asked to think of women who represent the feminist cause, the faces that are always mentioned are celebrities, accomplished academics, or other famous “high class” female figures who have become modern feminist icons within the public eye. Indeed, such women have surely contributed to the feminist cause. However, this is because these are the women who have the resources, the time, and the freedom to do so. The experiences of such class privileged women are merely one, very small side of a much larger picture; yet they have come to be considered as experiences shared by all women, including the underprivileged, which is certainly not the case. After hearing of the promises of feminisms for decades experiencing only its drawbacks instead, working class women have every reason to be angry and resentful. They have also have every right to share their frustrations about the limitations of the feminist movement in addition to their own perspectives of the feminist cause from their personal experiences. However, even with the potential future inclusion of working class women in the movement, another problem arises, for as long as a structured class system remains fixed in society, there will always be some kind of class division among women. The vision of female liberation is dependent on envisioning change that challenges class elitism, both within society and among women. And so, in order to make effective change privileged women must combine forces with women without said class privilege to form one collective united force, to organize and make demands, to take action upon the patriarchal structure and capitalist system within our current society. Though women are in desperate need of a powerful and radical feminist movement, such a movement will not be able to take the strides necessary to change the realities of our nation until the undermining of disadvantaged groups of women is stopped and all women are valued equally within the movement itself. Feminism is a movement that is meant to serve each and every woman, and each and every woman — regardless of her race, her class, or any other aspect of her identity — should be given the chance to tell her story and liberate herself.