Global Feminisms Project United States

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Global Feminisms ProjectUnited States

• Feminist Activism at the Intersections
• Elizabeth R. Cole, University of Michigan
• Global Feminisms Conference
• September14-15, 2006

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Acknowledgements

• Global Feminisms US Site Team and Nadine Naber,
  Andy Smith, Elizabeth Wingrove, Maria Cotera,
  Anna Kirkland, Emily Lawsin, Miriam Asnes,
  Jennifer Lyle, Jayati Lal, and many others
• Leslie Marsh and Helen Ho, technical interns
• Shana Schoem, research assistant

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Hegemonic US feminism

• The dominance of western, north or first
  world assumptions about what it means to be a
  feminist and what women need to be liberated.
• wave model
• considers sexism the ultimate oppression,
  de-emphasizes race and class
• rights based, rather than justice based vision
  of social change
• focus on the US

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Major themes

• We wanted to tell a different history of US
  feminism.
• We choose activists whose work on behalf of women
  intersects with other social movements.
• These interviews illustrate intersectionality in
  practice.

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Our strategy

• Chose activists who have had less public voice.
• Helps us learn about an important fault line
  within the womens movement in the US.
• Sheds light on the relationship between feminism
  and other social movements in the US.Ensured
  that we have a diverse sample of activists with
  respect to these other identities.
• Helps us theorize the meaning(s) of
  intersectionality based on the praxis of these
  activists work.

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Method

• Interviewees were 10 scholar-activists whose work
  addresses sites of intersection between feminism
  and other forms of oppression (e.g.
  race/ethnicity, sexual orientation, social class,
  disability, etc.).
• Often their scholarship took unconventional
  forms.
• Interviewees came to Ann Arbor
• Television studio with Audience participation
• Interviewer worked with site team and interviewee
  to develop questions.
• Tried to get coverage across generations, issues
  and modalities.
• Made introductory montages for each video

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Grace Lee Boggs

• Daughter of Chinese immigrants, Boggs was born in
  1915 in Providence, R.I.
• In 1953 she came to Detroit where she married
  labor activist James Boggs. Working together in
  grassroots groups they were partners for 40
  years until James death.
• Her 60 years of political involvement encompass
  the major U.S. social movements of the last
  century
• Cofounder of Detroit Summer

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Marian Kramer Maureen Taylor

• Longtime friends and welfare rights activists
• Baby boomer generation
• Based in Detroit area
• Maureen holds a graduate degree in social work.
• Marian is currently leading a struggle against
  the utility shut offs of water to thousands of
  Detroit residents who cannot pay for their wat

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Marian And therefore, you know, ah, thats why
we participate in all these struggles....you
know, the right to choice and stuff like that, we
make people understand, in order for the women
that we represent to even have choice, they got
to have some economic freedom too, you know. You
cant have a choice unless you have the basis
economically... Maureen To make a choice.
Um-hum. Marian ...under this country to be able
to have that choice. They dont even have health
care, less more than anything else. So, yes. We
are feminists. But at the same time, we will turn
around and kick some of those feminists butts
too, because they just as reactionary to what we
are about, because they dont even touch poor
people. Maureen Uh-uh. Marian Our thing is
that we want a world where we can thrive and not
barely survive.
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Cathy Cohen

• Grew up in Toledo, OH, attended UM for Ph.D. in
  political science.
• Now in her 40s.
• Director of the Center for the Study of Race,
  Politics Culture at the University of Chicago.
• Author of The Boundaries of Blackness AIDS and
  the Breakdown of Black Politics

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the moment of intersection is really the moment
of building a broader movement. If you can find
those places where people may not agree. but
where they in fact suffer from state regulation
or some system of oppression, where they share
that experience. those are also the spaces for
shared mobilization.
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Sista II Sista

• Community based organization from Brooklyn NY
• Collective of working-class young and adult Black
  women and Latinas.
• Dedicated to working with young women to develop
  personal, collective and spiritual power.
• Committed to fighting for justice and making
  alternatives to the systems we live in by
  creating social, cultural and political change.

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These examples challenge hegemonic US feminism

• WOC do feminist work, even outside feminist orgs.
• All emphasize intersections, with race, class,
  disability, etc.
• Kramer Taylor recast other choices as first
  requiring economic choice.
• All of these interviews talked about how they see
  their own work in transnational perspective.
• Generational perspective

• Wave model suggests women of color dont care
  about feminism
• Considers sexism the ultimate oppression,
  de-emphasizes race and class
• Rights based, rather than justice based vision of
  social change
• Focuses on the US

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Activists Interviewed

• Rabab Abdulhadi, Union of Palestinian Womens
  Associations in North America
• Adrienne Asch, bioethics, rights of the disabled
• Grace Lee Boggs, civil rights, urban youth,
  Detroit Summer
• Cathy Cohen, sexuality, HIV and black communities
• Holly Hughes, performance artist, sexuality,
  censorship
• Marian Kramer and Maureen Taylor, National
  Welfare Rights Organization
• Loira Limbal and Veronica Gimenez, Sista II
  Sista, young women of color
• Martha Ojeda, labor, Tri-National Coalition for
  Justice in the Maquiladoras
• Loretta Ross, reproductive justice, human rights
• Andrea Smith, Native women, INCITE, anti-violence