fFabiana has 12 post(s)

In Skeletons in the Closet, Londa Shienbinger reveals the history of women’s exclusion from equal rights, social and political participation, education, science and commerce in the XVIII and XIX centuries. Scientists such as Kant, Locke and Rousseau, as well as many doctors and prominent male figures of the epoch, influenced society with their concepts of “nature” and imposed the hierarchical order of white male, female, ethnic and racial disparities.

White male scientific thought dominated the knowledge of society, and definitions of superiority produced the platform to control the political and public spheres. Women were undermined as socially incapable to participate  in any other businesses than procreation and home matters. The argument that scientists and thinkers used to exclude women from equal development, self-realization and opportunity were based on the differences between the anatomy of the sexes. Apparently, the female skull was smaller than the male skull; Therefore female brains were smaller and less intelligent. And the  female pelvis was larger than the male pelvis. Therefore, women were better suited to procreate.

Scheinbinger states the reasons why the scientific community established sharp differences between the sexes.  Scientists studied the female and male bodies in the time period of the French Revolution when women started to organize to change their status and to access equal rights and freedom. There was a re-arrangement of classes in France, and the possibility of women changing their social status thretened the male supremacy. Ideas of female and male and gender roles would block the progress of women’s rights. Scientist scrutinized female and male’s anatomy to establish natural differences of bones, organs and muscles.Women would be compared with children to point out lack of strength and mental power to occupy public positions. And women would be also compared with primitive people, to show that both shared similitudes, and both were inferior to the “white male excellence.”

Moreover, the exclusion of women in the sciences and in the study of human anatomy allowed male doctors and artist to romanticize and shape the image of women and men as they wanted. This creation of “nature” was used as a political tool to control the dynamics of society, to decide who had the authority to occupy the most prestigiuos status. On the other hand, supporters of equal rights for women and people of color did question the notion of “nature” and pointed out that “nurture” was the key to promote social equality. Social reform and access to education were needed to change the statuses of women and people of color.

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.