Gendered Oppression in African American History

Historically, Black Women’s issues have been displaced by those of both white women and of the African American community as a whole. From the moment Africans set foot on the shores of the “New World,” the brutality they experienced was not just racialized, but gendered. Both African men and women were stripped naked, shaved, chained, branded, and inspected then sold and forced to work in the fields, plowing and picking cotton until their backs ached and their fingers bled. They also saw their family members sold away. However, their experiences diverged when it came to gender.
African men and women experienced the brutality that accompanied the institution of slavery in different ways. European men as well as African overseers raped African

women. They were also stripped of their bodily autonomy and were not allowed to make childbirth decisions; forced to remove their own children from the breast, they had to replace them with white children. African women who worked in the house were often mistreated by their white mistresses, many of whom were forced to tacitly accept their husbands’ indiscretions with the enslaved women. These women bore the brunt of white female ire and contempt, while having to accept the lascivious advances of their husbands .African men were forced to stand powerlessly by while their mothers, sisters, wives, and daughters were raped and often impregnated by their masters
Generally, black women’s issues are lumped in with those of black men, and the issues that affect black men are the focus When black women’s issues are the focal point, the discourse is automatically labeled as feminism/womanist (This label is problematic because it relegates black women’s issues to the periphery of the discourse on race.

Black women’s issues are black issues, as well as issues of race in addition to gender.
The theory of intersectionality posits that black women stand at the intersection of race, gender, and class, which form a matrix of oppression. In other words, black women, along with black men, are systematically oppressed due to their race. Because race and class are inextricably linked, black women experience class discrimination along with black men. However, they are also oppressed because of their gender, and this oppression can come at the hands of both white men and black men in their

communities.
This matrix of oppression has manifested throughout history. For example, in 1870 black men were granted the right to vote before black and white women. Sojourner Truth, a free black woman, joined with Elizabeth Cady Stanton, a white suffragist, in lobbying for women’s right to vote. Black female leaders Ida B. Wells and Mary Church Terrell were also at the forefront of the suffrage movement. Frederick Douglass was one of the few vocal black male supporters of women’s suffrage. It is also noteworthy that Douglass eventually split with Stanton because he felt that black male suffrage was the more pressing issue. Douglass argued that black men needed the right to vote, particularly in order to educate the race While this was a noble proposition, Douglass failed to acknowledge that women, too, were able to educate the race. This is a good illustration of the ways in which black women are oppressed due to their race and gender. Douglass’ position here is problematic because it presupposes the superiority of black men within the community.
There is no historical evidence of black men’s superiority. For example, black women have always worked. Enslavement, war, lynching, and incarceration removed black men from their families and left black women to pick up the pieces. Black women’s strength and resilience might seem admirable, but the matrix of oppression has made actions such as working and supporting one’s family seem negative. For example, the Moynihan Report blamed black women for the state of the black family, labeling black women “matriarchs” who emasculate their men and prevent them from taking their rightful places at the head of the family. President Ronald Reagan created the now infamous image of the “Welfare Queen”, which painted struggling black single mothers as whores who drove Cadillacs while giving birth to more babies in order to collect more of taxpayers’ money. These pedestrian analyses of black women’s behavior underscore the need for black women’s studies, which would speak to the complexities and nuances of black women’s choices.
Sojourner Truth’s support for Black male suffrage represents the complexities of the matrix of race, class and gender oppression among Black women. Truth, born Isabella Baumfree, was one of the first prolific speakers with what are now considered black feminist ideals. Her work in the women’s suffrage movement was admirable, especially for the time period. What was also admirable was her split from the movement; Elizabeth Cady Stanton said she would not support suffrage unless it was coupled with white female suffrage .As a woman; Truth desperately wanted the right to vote. As a black woman, Truth recognized that black male suffrage would still be a victory for the black community, and was willing to support it with or without women’s suffrage.
Other black women with black feminist ideals emerged over time, some of whom remain nameless and faceless in history. Some of the more prolific voices include Anna Julia Cooper, Maria Stewart, Angela Davis, Alice Walker, bell hooks, and Patricia Hill Collins. It is important to note that the feminist movement enjoyed the benefits of an organized crusade. Middle class white women mobilized around the issues of rape, a woman’s right to choose, the wage gap, and the right to work outside of the home. Black women generally did not feel at home in the feminist movement because they had experienced sexism in different ways. For example, black women did not need to fight for the right to work outside the home because they had always worked outside the home.
These women were emboldened when Alice Walker coined the term “womanist”, which they felt spoke more to their particular interests and needs . According to Phillips, one of the main tenants of womanism is the commitment to speak “from and about one’s own experiential location and not to or about someone else’s .For black women, other women of color, and even poor white women, the discourse around the issues particular to middle class white women was simply not relevant.
Today, just as it was all throughout history, womanism black feminism and black women’s issues are relegated to special interest status. In academia, course offerings for black feminist womanist are generally offered under the umbrella of either Women’s Studies or African American Africana Studies. It is clear that this field of study cannot survive as an offshoot, and must have its own space within the academy as a separate discipline in order to survive.
It is clear from the literature that there are early figures who were vital to the development of an activist tradition within the both the African American community and among women.

Although the institutionalization of the fields of Black and Women’s Studies were still years away, the aforementioned black women, along with many others, were essential to the development of the epistemological and theoretical concepts that would later become the foundation. We can clearly see gaps in the literature in the area of Black Women’s Studies, as the writers discuss these women from the standpoint of either the Africana or Feminist Tradition. Some make mention of the intersection of racial and gendered oppression, but only in passing

Black Women’s Studies is not a twentieth century creation. On the contrary, black women have had a liberationist consciousness since the 1800s. At that time, black women began to develop “intellectual and activist traditions” which produced works that represent early black feminist ideals. It is important to acknowledge these early works, as they are antecedents to the field of Black Women’s Studies. In order to understand the trajectory of the field, we must start at the

beginning

Vivan Gordon, a black studies scholar who wrote extensively on feminism, argued that “black women cannot negate their Afrocentricity just as white women cannot negate their Eurocentrism” . In short, black women’s issues cannot be fully integrated into the discipline of Women’s Studies because that would require white women to acknowledge the role they play in the black women’s oppression. There are certainly individual white female scholars who have done so, like Gerda Lerner, for example but it will take a more collective effort to create a hospitable environment.
Until then, and most assuredly thereafter, black women should create their own spaces in which to develop ideas, theories, and research methods in the Black Feminist/Womanist tradition. The challenge lies in convincing scholars in Black Studies and Women’s Studies that Black Women’s Studies deserves to be an independent.
In summary, black women began to develop black feminist ideals and concepts as far back as the 19th century. Black female scholars and activists worked tirelessly in both leadership and support roles toward the liberation of the black community and black women. However, black women’s experiences and contributions have not been recognized. Black Studies focuses on the issues of the black community as a whole, as well as the issues particular to black men. Women’s Studies focuses on the experiences of middle class white women. Currently, black women’s issues are still relegated to the periphery, as there are only two academic institutions, Clark Atlanta University and Spelman College, that have a Black Women’s Studies program. Black Women’s Studies must be institutionalized as an independent discipline within the academy.