battle of the sexes

688 Words2 Pages

The retrenchment of African American women’s freedom was arguably one of the most polarizing events of the 1880s that caused moral and ethical dissent between black men and women. The lack of leadership roles given to women in various religious, and political groups, led to the creation of the Black Women's (convention) Club Movement. With men in control of the religious sphere, the convention allowed women to attempt to do a better job than the men. The intersectionality of gender and religion by means of analysis provides the patriarchal notions of masculinity a multi-faceted platform to analyze Marcus Garvey, Father Divine, and the role women played in each of their strategies. In the analysis of these two characters it becomes clear that they are not as different as they may initially seem, ultimately not undermining Deborah Grey’s notion that .
Garvey’s idealism was influenced by Booker T. Washington and heavily grounded in traditional patriarchal notions of society. The patriarchal notions of society are: social, economic, political, and religious aspects of life that were controlled by men, making women the submissive gender. Garvey masked the religious undertones of his movement with seemingly radical thoughts of redemption and conversion to become a political force in the black community. His main accomplishment, the UNIA, itself was grounded in these “black church” foundations. With the slogan “One God! One Aim! One Destiny!” the UNIA gave a sense of unity, and self-worth back to blacks, during a time when they felt they had none (Levine 110).
One reason for lack of women’s involvement was that Garvey viewed women as “mothers” who were responsible for birthing forth his new nation. Garvey’s gender specific goal to “sav...

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...is what sets him apart from Garvey.
Noting that the source of these movements are patriarchally controlled, it can be reasonably inferred that the intersections of gender and religion provided women with tough decisions for their future as a gender. Garvey’s straight forward masculine vision made no room to include women in the volume that they deserved; which is why women of the Black Women’s Club Movement were smart to realize that they could do something more than the duties the men relegated them to. Which is why when Father Divine denounced Marcus Garvey, race, gender, and age, he was able to give women a faux sense of independence and power, while actually keeping it for himself. With women divided, within their own race, it became difficult for them to achieve the necessary unity for them to become a force, leaving them disjointed and ultimately vulnerable.

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