å Tuesday, February 7th, 2017

Angela Davis explores the women’s rights movement in chapter 3 of Women, Race & Class, “Class and Race in the Early Women’s Rights Campaign”. I found the way Davis connected white women and women of color under the oppression of male supremacy while exposing the flaws in the cohesion of the women’s rights movement to be very insightful and offer a deeper perspective on the standard understanding of the first women’s rights movement. Davis begins discussing the flaws with the “radical men” at the 1840 World Anti-Slavery Convention in London as the initial spark that led to the famous convention at Seneca Falls. A convention that was supposed to represent freedom of oppression from the dominant male hegemony ironically excluded women from participation. Women began working towards equality long before the Anti-Slavery Convention and Seneca Falls. There was a significant class division amongst women – in the late 1700s/early 1800s, women were the majority workers in textile mills yet still legally the property of their husbands or fathers (the same way slaves were the legal property of their owners). These working women were not entitled to their wages, still had to defer rights to men and weren’t included in the social movement of elite women. The culmination of events brought attention to the fact women and African Americans were suppressed and suffered in similar ways at the hands of the white men controlling and limiting their rights. Women, slaves and working class individuals joining forces to fight oppression was a hugely powerful component to the success of the women’s right movement and progression towards equality. Although it was difficult for some elite women to relate to lower class individuals (and especially slaves) their joined suffering created power in numbers that allowed for a more active push towards equal rights, the right to vote, education, power over wages, worker’s rights and so much more.

I think this is something that we still see today, especially with the modern political climate. It’s almost as if some women don’t see how they are oppressed in society. It is difficult to connect to and empower other oppressed women if you are unable to see the oppression that you exist under. I think about women who support Trump and don’t understand how some of the things he has said or some of his appointees could potentially pose a threat to women’s rights and the rights of minorities (including LGBT individuals). It makes me think of the elite women who initially saw themselves as separate from working class women. I wonder if these women don’t want to relate to feminists the same way women of the gilded cage didn’t want to relate to textile workers. History has shown that there is power in numbers and when minorities and oppresses demographics join forces, change is more effective.

Due Monday, February 13th, by midnight. Word count: 300 words. Please make sure everything is in your own words. Absolutely no quotes should be used. If you paraphrase from the text (from Schiebinger or anywhere else), you must be sure to include the proper citation (either MLA or APA).

In her essay, “Skeletons in the Closet,” Londa Schiebinger asks why comparing the anatomy of white women and men became such a critical project for the medical community in Europe during in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries (1986:67). In your own words, explain Schiebinger’s response to this question.

The Seneca Falls Convention opened the door to many issues surrounding women rights. Davis shows how flawed the premise of the women’s rights movement. The middle class women who wanted so much of their freedom back, failed to look to the freedoms of their working sisters. Sojourner Truth was an incredible force to the movement. She fought for what it meant to be a women in every facet of the struggles met. The most insightful part of Davis tellings of Truth, are the way she broke down the basis of christianity as means to justify women mistreatment. In chapter two the Council of Congregationalist Ministries of Massachusetts, spoke of a women not being able to talk the place of a man as a public reformer. Doing this, would be considered a great sin. Truth cleverly brought up the basic truth of reproduction, in that Jesus did in fact come from a women. Even more brilliant was Truth’s reference to Eve. I myself felt empowered as a women, knowing that I have the means to turn the world upside down. Thats what Sojourner Truth did. She empowered women to not be afraid to speak up and fight.

Angela Davis talks a lot about the Convention at Seneca Falls in chapter three on “Class and Race in the Women’s Rights Campaigns.” Along with that, Angela Davis brings into account the details of the works and lives of other prominent figures during this time, and the different initiatives taken during the movement. We are taught from most of our previous history classes that the Seneca Falls convention was the first of it’s kind, and the start of the women’s suffrage movement. However, Angela Davis makes it clear in her writing that although the Seneca Falls convention was the first public meeting for the resolution, many women beforehand had raised their voices against sexism. The 1840 World Anti-Slavery Convention held in London was what inspired Lucretia Mott and Elizabeth Cady Stanton for the Seneca Falls convention, as the men made it very apparent to exclude the women by the majority vote (Davis, page 51). Lucretia Mott had the experience being a female abolitionist, while Elizabeth Cady Stanton had the experience of being a white middle-class woman. At the Seneca Falls Convention, the activists were able to bring forth the idea of the women’s right to vote, with help from Frederick Douglass, and draft the Seneca Falls Declaration, which officially started the movement towards gender equality. However, the declaration was not so inclusive towards the white working class women, as well as the women of color. From the late 1820s, working women staged turnouts and protests against the double oppression they faced as being female and industrial workers, long before the Seneca Falls convention in 1848 (Davis, page 59). As early as 1837, Angelina and Sarah Grimke criticized organizations and associations for not including or involving black women in their movements. More than ten years before the Seneca Falls convention, Maria Stewart, native-born black women, addressed the issue of women’s rights and education for black women in a newspaper (Davis, page 63). Most historical of all, Sojourner Truth attended conventions after the Seneca Falls one, delivering speeches on the solidarity of black women in this movement. She talked about the fact that black women also deserve to be free from racist oppression and sexist domination, and her speeches still continue to inspire and move the audience today (Davis, page 65). Throughout this chapter, I believe that Davis was trying to tell us that although the ideas of women’s rights and equality were present amongst all women before the convention in 1848, it helped bring those ideas public and initiated the movement.

In Class and Race in the Early Women’s Right Campaign, Angela Davis depicts the conflict of interests and struggles within the women’s right movement. Davis starts her argument by informing us about the demands and sentiments of the white upper-class women who declared at the Seneca Falls Convention in 1848. In that occasion,  privileged white women spoke about equal rights between the sexes, changes in the gender roles of women, and criticized the oppression of the marriage institution. These women opposed male domination in areas of education, professions, health  and demanded economic freedom.

However, David shows that these affluent class women did not include in their declaration the demands and interests of working class white women and women of color. Upper-class women wanted to share their social rank with men.Their main goal was to obtain political participation and the right to vote. But  women  who belonged to lower social strata wanted rights as well. Emancipation, recognition, basic rights, and access to education and regulations in their workplaces were some of their grievances. The first convention was not successful because women were not unified. But it was a positive outcome to uncover that social class and race were other structural issues that overlapped within the women’s right.

On the other hand, in future conventions advocates of the women’s movement such as Charlotte Woodward, would represent a larger number of working class-white women, who  were treated as domestic slaves in their private homes. They complained for their fathers and brothers and husbands who micromanaged their activities and deprived them from receiving the salaries they earned sewing. Other white-working class women would join the women’s movement to fight against exploitation as well. These women were in their majority immigrants and worked in the textile industry. Women would work double shifts in crowded factories,  under terrible conditions, for minimum wages as well.  These women were active in their participation and they organized in demonstations against the industrial capitalists in numerous occasions.

Another woman who had a great impact in the women’s right was Sojourner Truth, who spoke in the first National Convention on Women’s Right in Worcester Massachusetts 1850. This women of color was an ex-slave and advocate of the abolition movement. She fought for access to education for colored women, women’s suffrage and equal rights. In her speeches she demonstrated a great strength and commitment to resist those who opposed the changes proposed by the women’s movement.

Therefore, the outcomes of these conventions were to identify that the struggles in terms of class, race and gender in the north and the south had a common denominator. Political power, economic exploitation and oppression were directed towards working class, African Americans, and women. This awareness or class consciousness was the major gain of the  women’s right movement. But the fight for obtaining equal rights, abolition of slavery, access to education, and economic freedom would continue in the coming decades.

By including details from the lives of Charlotte Woodward and Sojourner Truth, I believe Angela Davis is trying to tell us that while the Seneca Falls convention was a good starting point, it did not completely address or resolve the issues that women of all race and class were experiencing. At the Seneca Falls convention, many working class women were still working under undesirable conditions and some, like Charlotte Woodward, wanted to get out of the house and have their labor recognized. She attended the convention for reasons different from most of the attendants: to improve her working status which was an issue many of her peers did not experience. I believe Davis included Woodward and her story because while the white women there were advocating for equality, white women working with worse working conditions were not focused on and black women were not even present or supported.

She then moves on to Sojourner Truth’s story and her famous “Ain’t I a Woman?,” speech delivered at a convention for women’s rights in Akron, Ohio. Determined to free herself and her peers from sexist and racist oppression, Truth confidently rebuts opposing arguments and leads the rest of the fainthearted women at the convention to a winning argument through the use of her own experiences which showed that while she was a woman, her experiences proved she was no weaker than a man. Although people began to oppose her, she continued to lead the argument for women’s rights against the varying viewpoints in the conventions.

All in all, I believe that Davis brought up the stories of these two women to show how middle class white women were forgetting about working class white women and black women at the Seneca Falls Convention. In order to push for equality for these two ‘classes’, their life experiences had to be brought to light in front of everyone.

From time, women were never known as delegates or people in position of power, more often as the wives of those who were in power.  Women never really had an identity of their own. Politically, socially, and economically, women were always inferior to men, especially when married.  Davis’ purpose of this chapter was trying to prove to us the power of women, no matter of race or economic status.  In this chapter we see two women, whom both attended the Seneca Convention, but for very different reasons.  Charlotte Woodward, a White Woman, motives for signing the Seneca Falls Declarations was because of the oppression she felt being inferior to men economically.  Although she was a working women from home, the men in her family felt entitled to her money because legally the men were in control of her money.  However, Sojourner Truth, an ex-slave, vocally expressed her aspirations to be free not only from her racist oppression, but from her sexist domination. While Woodward focuses on the economic inequality, Truth touches more on the social issue of women seen as the “weaker sex” by explaining her ability to overcome the horrible experiences she went through, and picking herself up through every situation. She tells everyone she was able to go through that because of the strength of being a woman.  Her words were so touching, it leaves everyone in shock and awe. From this we can see the difference in the oppression or black and white women (middle class).  This gave us a sense of the difference in their struggles of being a women. Overall, we get the sense that Davis’ purpose was to  expose the diversity of women empowerment. We can see women from different races, backgrounds, and economic status, coming together to overcome the one most significant issue they all have in common, gender inequality.

Angela Davis shares many insights about the early Women’s Rights Campaign in this chapter. She begins with the 1848 Convention at Seneca Falls because it was the first organized women’s rights convention to take place. Davis hones in on the convention’s importance and focus – the idea that marriage disables a woman’s independence (economically and mentally), and also notes the significance of the first controversial mention of women’s suffrage. However, Angela Davis goes on to talk about the problems with the Convention at Seneca Falls as well. The Convention brought up sentiments relating to only a small group of women. Not only did the Convention leave out working white women, it also left out black women — both enslaved and free.

Davis describes the work of other women within the movement to prove that the advocacy for women’s rights began much sooner than 1848 and included women from every class and race. She points out that single white women who worked in the textile mills suffered from sexism and oppression in their own ways. These women worked tireless hours in some of the most horrible working conditions and were not treated fairly. They fought for their rights with rallies and strikes years prior to the Seneca Falls Convention and yet were hardly mentioned.

Similar to working white women, black women began fighting for equal rights (especially education rights) long before the organized convention. Still, there was absolutely no mention of black women at the Convention at Seneca Falls, nor were any black women present. While Davis cannot understand this, since the very birth of the women’s rights movement came from abolitionism and anti-slavery sentiments, she admits this is not the first time black women were left out of the conversation. In fact, Davis sheds light on perhaps one of the biggest problems with the early women’s rights campaign – that the movement had “failed to promote a broad anti-racist consciousness”. Two years after the 1848 convention, Sojourner Truth prompted new ideas about equality, namely racism and sexism. She pleaded that black women deserved freedom from oppression just as much as white middle-class women.

Davis ends this chapter with the idea that the fight for equality was a triangular issue that should include women, blacks and labor in its agenda. Could there be equal women’s rights before complete abolitionism?

Davis begins Chapter Three by mentioning Lucretia Mott and how she was denied the right to participate in the World Anti-Slavery Convention of 1840 as anything more than a mere spectator. The anger that Mott felt was only another catalyst to inspire her to fight for women’s rights. In comparison, Davis talks about Elizabeth Cady Stanton next to display the dissimilarities between women in the United States during the women’s suffrage movement. Stanton was a housewife, having no political experience. However, Davis states that regardless of background, women from all different circumstances were able to promote change and growth within the nation.
Davis indicates that much of the reasoning for the women of the 19th century to participate in the Seneca Falls Convention was this ironic occurrence that was happening to many young women; which was ending up as a housewife even though her studies, inspirations, and attributes displayed otherwise. Davis is further reinforcing the harsh reality of the “cult of womanhood” and how accomplishments were seen as unimportant unless the woman was married and provided a family for a man. Being a mother places her in the household to take care of the family and therefore, she must be reliant on the husband for financial stability; further reducing her importance in the eyes of others.
Davis goes on to bring about the struggle of representation of certain groups within these conventions. Davis mentions Charlotte Woodward, a working woman, and questions if the resolution of the Seneca Falls Convention, asking for equality between men and woman financially, was made by the convention leaders or was it a succeeded effort by the woman working class. Similar to the World Anti-Slavery Convention of 1840, the National Female Anti-Slavery Society exhibited a lack of women, especially black women. The Grimke sisters blamed the society for not representing the black women’s community enough and for not bringing forth their needs.
A woman well-known for being a leader that fought for black rights in addition to women’s rights that Davis discusses in “Women, Race, and Class” is Sojourner Truth. She was a moving public speaker that gave hope to all women. She connected to white women, working and non-working, and spoke of similar struggles, regardless of race. With the years to come, many more women began participating in meetings and conventions. They believed that the rights of African Americans and the rights of women go hand in hand and one cannot triumph without the other.

Davis, A. Y. (1981). Women, race, & class. New York: Random House.