Women of Color and Marginalized People

Faces Often Overlooked in the Women’s Rights Movement

Sep 2, 2009

The Women's Rights Movement was instrumental in bringing rights to all women of America. What tends to be forgotten are the other women who fought in their own way.

The experiences of white women are in themselves unique only to them. Yes they have dealt with great atrocity, but it has only been because they are women. For the other women of the world, the women of color and other marginalized people, their hassles run deep. They are attacked on all sides; for their culture, gender, religion and race. Their perspectives have expanded our understanding, by showing that women and the communities they come from are important to understand and fight for.

African American Women’s Strength

The biggest reactors to suffragist plight during the early 1900’s other than white women were the African American women. Their perspective lies on several fronts. Not only do they get flak because they are women, but they also receive a raw deal because they are black. Politically, African American women have not only put in their fight for women, but also for African Americans. Their willingness to fight for the vote was to improve conditions within the African American community, and second to help the women’s movement. They had their champions in Ida B. Wells, Sojourner Truth, Mary Church Terrell, and Anna Julia Cooper. The African American women’s call for equality benefited the women’s movement, and it helped in guiding the future women of color in showing them the way to fight for their freedoms in a white society. By 1909, 20 states supported the actions of the National Association of Colored Women.

The Calm Force of the Jewish American Women’s Movement

For the Jewish women of the women’s suffragist movement, they organized together in lieu of the customary groups of white Christians. Their holidays were ignored when important meetings were scheduled. On behalf of the Jewish population, an organization called the National Council of Jewish Women, fought for amending restrictive immigration laws. The laws prevented persecuted Jews from fleeing Europe to emigrate to the United States. All during this time, Jewish women helped to explain their culture to the rest of the women in America. In their way, they showed that all women should be included in making the changes for women globally.

Strength is not Just in Numbers: Latina, Asian and Native American Women

Latinas, Asians, and Native American women always tend to be the silent fighters, or the outsiders of the community within their own networks. In some venues, these women are considered tokens, because their numbers are that small. Their experiences have added their teachings to national understandings, and each group has something important to fight for in the name of their culture as well as for the women’s movement. These women have all fought for equality in jobs, political powers, and education. These other women, have shared their culture through all mediums, music, art, writing, and dance.

Race is only the top layer of the ever-growing, evolving, continuing Women’s Rights Movement. Sexism on a basic level is still apparent when dealing with the thought of sexuality. Groups such as Radicalesbians promoted relations with other women. They, as well as other pro-gay organizations created a subculture that has evolved as a movement for women and sexual identity. For women of color who have joined the pro-gay movements, they have made a decision to fight for women, sexual identity, as well as their culture identity, thus being more politically public, and consciously aware of each other.

The copyright of the article Women of Color and Marginalized People in Women's History is owned by Maureen Zieber. Permission to republish Women of Color and Marginalized People in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.