The capitalist class structure contributes to ideological differences among feminists. Different feminist experiences are also rooted in racial, cultural, regional, and historical variations. Economics has compressed them. Women should be united across cultural boundaries by the universality of female oppression. However, to date, diversity has translated into fragmentation. This is due to the race, class, and culture trisection which illuminates the ways in which feminism in the United States is different from feminism in Africa.
Feminism in the U.S. includes a number of movements and experiences because of the diverse nature of the population. So, addressing feminism in the U.S. includes a vast range of experiences, from the poorest Southern farmer to the affluent woman of New England, from the Native American woman in the West to the African-American woman in the cotton belt. Yet American feminism is generally recognized as the legacy of middle class white women in the late 1800s. The diversity of North America, which is often overshadowed by this movement, is reflected in the many ways that individual women challenge patriarchy. Still, the fundamental objectiveovercoming gender-based oppressionremains the same for every woman.
The multicultural and multiethnic character of the continent makes it impossible to define American feminism. The middle class feminist movement was born out of the anti-slavery campaign in the U. S. The problem was that it did not embrace women of color or white women of lower economic classes. Middle class feminists worked for the limited emancipation of well-to-do white women, seeking suffrage and recognition by society. On the other hand, black women first sought credit as women. They were challenging the institution of slavery and resisting white men's sexual assaults. They were already equal to their men socially within the slave community and in terms of the oppression both women and men suffered (Davis, Angela, Women, Race, and Class, The Women's Press, 1994, p. 23). This provides an early indication of differences among feminisms in the U.S. The issue, however, is not a matter of black and white. It is instead a class issue with racial overtones that account for the different circumstances that women of similar classes encounter.
Women are classed racially, socially, culturally, and politically, but economic classifications are at the crux of the prejudices within the women's movement. As in Africa, American women of certain races disproportionately constitute certain classes. Although many differentiations within the movement are class based, they become racial as race clouds matters that concern all women. It conveniences white women to claim that they should speak for black women because black women are oppressed and economically disadvantaged and have not yet become conscious of the centrality of sexism. However, only privileged white women claim this obligation; those of the lower classes do not. What is more peculiar is that privileged black women often "other" themselves from the causes of other black women because they consider themselves free of oppression. In the 1960s and 1970s, black women of all social classes recognized these divisions and redefined a black feminist identity, but since then these differences have resurfaced.
Black women in Africa, however, have not yet fully engaged themselves in an organized feminist movement. Feminism is deemed an imported concept detached from tradition and disruptive to African women despite the fact that African women have engaged in acts of resistance since pre-colonial days. Most recently, they mobilized in nationalist campaigns which excited a fervor for challenging the status quo. Yet after independence, the new states sidelined women's issues, believing that feminism turns African women into social deviates. Thus Ruth Meena states that "women's oppression has been located in the traditional African society, in the colonial system, in the neo-colonial nature of the African state, and in the patriarchal ideologies of post-colonial African states" (Mannathoko, Changu, "Feminist Theories and the Study of Gender Issues in Southern Africa," Gender in Southern Africa: Conceptual and Theoretical Issues, ed. Ruth Meena, 1992, p. 87). Many African women, she continues, "do not enjoy equal rights to access and control over resources, including land" (Meena, Ruth, "Gender Research/Studies in Southern Africa: An Overview," Gender in Southern Africa: Conceptual and Theoretical Issues, ed. Ruth Meena, 1992, p. 15). Because they are marginalized by the patriarchal state, feminism in Africa entails creating spaces for women to participate in the management of their societies. This includes empowering women through access to resources such as health, education, and housing.
Many women in the U.S. already enjoy the rights that African women are striving for today, but this does not mean that there is no connection between the two regions. First, economically underprivileged women in both contients share the same problems. Legally American women may have more options, but if they do not have the means their rights are inaccessible. Furthermore, there are immigrant women in the United States that have lived there illegally for years, but because they are considered burdens to the American system they are not allowed proper services when needed. Second, during the era of African liberation struggles, blacks in North America were sympathetic to the struggles and could identify with the efforts being made. Thus, black women were supporting black women because the black nationalist movement in America coincided with the political climate in Africa.
Feminism in Africa is not as stratified as feminism in the United States because cultural similarities among African women, in spite of their particular ethnic groupings, create a standard agenda, although specifics often differ. For example, until recently, African feminists were committed to the glorification of the mother figure as a woman's sole source of personal empowerment, unlike American feminists, who have decentralized the importance of motherhood because it is often a hindrance to mobility in the public work sphere. In 1930s Africa, Filamena Steady was one of the proponents of the mothercentric model. This view, which lasted fifty years, involved men recognizing women for the work they do at home and in the public sphere. More recently, feminist scholars have contended that African women do not need approval from men for what is rightfully theirs. In fact, they have pointed out that men have no place in the African woman's quest for liberty because they administrate her subjugation. The unfortunate token response from many African governments to this new voice among feminists is a program called "Women in Development." Underdevelopment of African states by Europe and America has left Africans dependent on loans and aid from the World Bank, which is reimbursed through Structural Adjustment Programs (SAPs). SAPs overburden African women, who must assume the sacrifices of cutting expenditures. Under the guise of self-help to improve women's living conditions, these programs relegate low-skilled and low-paying jobs to women, further restricting their labor force participation. Therefore, African feminists address gender discrimination in the labor force as a political imperative.
White feminists in Africa, who are descendants of exploitative European settlers, separate themselves from the large African feminist consciousness because of their privileged position in society. They do not bear the brunt of SAPs and social services are guaranteed to them. Their ideology is rooted in the liberalism of Western Europe, and this Eurocentrism makes global feminism inconceivable.
Conversely, women of color in the United States have separated themselves from the exclusionary white women's movement because it made women of color invisible. Consider, for example, reproductive rights. Black women advocate the option of abortion because the socio-economic conditions in which they live pose obstacles for raising children, whereas many white feminists campaign to exercise their choice over a sexual mishap. White feminists who call for female unity do not understand the depth of these differing motives. The patriarchal economic structure, which privileges white over non-white, and race politics perpetuate the divisions on the women's movement in North America.
The diversity of women's circumstances is real, but so are the commonalities of their oppression. The union of the various feminisms in North America and Africa would magnify the underlying issues of racism and classism within worldwide feminist discourse. At the same time, all self-proclaimed and unlawful authorities would be challenged and global sisterhood will be more attainable.