Feminism, A Noun and A Verb

If we told stories generically, then how can we relate to one another? I enjoy finding rapport with the women around me. With feminism, a common ground takes time to find. More so, my feminism, your feminism, and ours blossom in many forms. We’re tilling the soil, but planting a wealth of various seeds.

(Source: Pinterest)

I am a black college woman who identifies as a part of the LGBTQ+ community. During my first year of college, I changed colleges and socioeconomic status. Whenever I enter inside spaces of women and people who experienced something similar, I feel a connection.

Yet, all these identities intersect. Under intersectional feminism, a term some feminists use, people need to understand how their identities weigh against others.

Kimberle Crenshaw, a UCLA law professor and race critical theorist, proposes how identity intersects. Although, intersectionality has existed long before a name was given to it, we will analyze its usage in Crenshaw’s 1989 seminal paper. As published in the 1991 Stanford Law Review, she expands on this in Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence against Women of Color. 

She highlights how African-American and immigrant women faced discrimination in the early 80s and 90s with preventative programs protecting battered women. Interestingly enough, Crenshaw addresses how non-specific programs would not benefit women of color who also fit into lower socioeconomic backgrounds.

So what does this mean for women such as myself who tout Intersectional Feminism?

(Source: Artist Molly Crabapple)

For one, women are speaking their own truths on programs, measures, and actions that directly help their communities. For example, women of the LGBTQ+ community recognize how feminist movements may need more inclusiveness for transgender folks. Second, women of color may recognize how equal pay affects them differently when supporting themselves or their families (regardless whose head of household). Third, women may assert that financial support programs for education and housing need more say from the communities they affect.

All Talk with All Action

Eleanor Robertson, a columnist for The Guardian argues that the term “intersectional feminism” doesn’t enforce enough action. We can refer back to our earlier examples. However, she suggests that the mainstream culture; specifically liberal feminism, may pigeon-hole dialogue on our society’s misogyny of women. She addresses Crenshaw’s role in term “Intersectionality” today. “…Hers is not the last word, and her work has receded almost entirely into the background.” Crenshaw agrees that the term intersectionality took form in more ways outside of her original paper.

Intersectional feminism provides a necessary groundwork for feminists to build on; however, this creates complications. Within the structures of Intersectional Feminism, intersectional feminists strive for a similar goal creating equality for everyone’s identity. Yet, more stories are needed in the conversation. At best – this is not a single conversation but an ongoing one.

What are your thoughts: Do we need intersectional feminism? How would this type of feminism benefit (or not benefit) you personally? Post your comments below.

A.G.

Let’s STEM-ulate to Have More Women Representation

(Source: TED)

I’m not a science major. I do have college friends, and therefore I’ve heard their critiques on this topic. More specifically, I have heard the difficulty women experience in the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) field.

Women representation matters everywhere but particularly in the STEM field. From new Lego sets including women astronauts to Star Wars characters, women are capable of assertive leadership not only in consumer and fictional worlds but our planet Earth.

Here are the facts:

“Engineers are the second largest STEM occupational group, but only about one out of every seven engineers is female.” (Source: Women in STEM: A Gender Gap to Innovation)

“…Only 26 percent (0.6 million) of women with STEM degrees work in STEM jobs.” Men are shown at 40 percent, grossing over 2.7 million. (Source: Women in STEM: A Gender Gap to Innovation)

So what is our society doing? Whose to blame? Should we assign blame based on these numbers?

Women do enroll in STEM institutions, predominantly ones focused on initiatives for women and girls. There are outreach programs that encourage active professionals and educators to mentor women interested or fulfilling STEM. However, an article from Salon.com states that there may be backlash in how our society frames the conversation about women in STEM.

In Programs meant to encourage women in STEM may be backfiring – because it’s not women who need to change, writer Amanda Marcotte states an interesting stance. She highlights how cultures within STEM programs mold women to “tough it out and overcome inequality through force of will” and bring out “fears that women are an unwanted minority in these fields.”

Within each sector that women work, the conversation of gender disparity especially equal pay come to light. It’s not necessarily that women are not interested in STEM, Marcotte highlights a study how some fields have a higher female to male ratios. Yet, there are suggestions that when women enter a field in an increased numbers the pay grade drops.

So what are people doing to combat this?

Women are:

• Enrolling in STEM institutions, with a focus on an initiative for women and girls.
• Active professionals and educators are prepping their students for expected gender criticism.

My college friends at Cedar Crest College went through an intensive course which exposed them to obstacles the may face in the STEM culture (deemed masculine). Their ‘Science, Ethics, and Society’ of course displayed some of the data I shared with you all earlier. However, we are not slumping into a defeated state.

A few women in the sciences – particularly and the arts suggest that strong mentorship would empower women in their endeavors. Examples include how colleges may incorporate middle school and high school girls in training and mentoring programs. On a personal note, my institution – Cedar Crest College – has generated a Hola, Science program.

As an initiative to uplift Latina girls in the sciences, Cedar Crest College has begun the Hola Science program. In its essence, the program caters to high school Latina girls. Hola Science’s first Instagram post reads, “Through our programs, presentations, and activities we hope to empower women interested in science, technology, engineering, and math and show them all the amazing possibilities they have not only in these fields but in the world!”