Feminism and The Work Experience of
Low-Income WomenIn the U.S.
Marcia Bok and Jane Marcus-Delgado
Introduction
Feminism and the women’s movement have often been criticized for having a white, middle-class bias with the resulting neglect of poor women. The goal of inclusiveness for all different women within a feminist framework is an ongoing struggle, with the definition of feminism controversial andcontinually evolving. Some of the issues around feminism often distort, minimize or disparage women and feminist ideas. Clarifying these issues can help to maximize the importance of a low-income woman’s perspective on her work experiences.
This paper addresses three aspects of this situation: 1) identification of some of the current challenges in the relationship between low-income women and feminism; 2) historical, theoretical, and policy perspectives on feminism and low-income women; and 3) opportunities to engage and strengthen feminism and low-income women around commonalities and diversity, domestically and internationally, among working women.
In this paper. feminism is considered one dimension in the context of larger societal and global issues. This includes structural changes in the economy and issues of race/ethnicity, class, and other intersectional gender differences. The paper discusses what has been accomplished and why a feminist perspective is important for understanding the progress and obstacles in the work experiences of poor women, particularly those with children, in the United States. Feminism provides a unique lens through which low-income women’s work issues can be understood.A feminist movement provides the strength of collective engagement that individuals alone cannot provide.
Current Challenges
Of the many challenges that currently confront feminism and low-income women, three are addressed here: 1) identity politics; 2) “trickle-down” feminism; and 3) the current War on Women.
Identity Politics
Gender, like race, are concepts that never seem to be resolved and there is always ongoing debate about the meaning, implications, and consequences of race and gender issues. With race, similar to gender, special attention to the unique experiences of people of color provides a lens that highlights important characteristics and experiences.
Feminismacknowledges that women have unique experiences, based on their gender; and that women are often considered subordinate, inferior, or otherwise unequal to men. These experiences are likely to be lodged in the structure of the society. Gender differencesmay be overlooked, however, when men and women both suffer from economic downturns or when poverty is being discussed. Without a feminist lens and feminist activism we might be discussing individuals or groups who are poor, without consideration of structural characteristics and differences based on gender. Despite changing definitions and lack of agreement around the meanings of feminism, concern and sympathy for women’s issues has generated feminist ideology; and feminist activism has been a long-term response to concerns about women’s economic and social hardships and inequities. Thus, despite often deservedcriticism of feminism for neglecting the economic needs of poor women, highlighting the needs of some women provides gender awareness and may heighten awareness of differences among women and differences in societal gender norms.
In the case of poor women, we are faced with the special case of women who are considered different from “mainstream” women – with “mainstream” women defined as white and middle-class and receiving extensive media attention – but with the added dimensions that poor women are often considered invisible and race is often confounded with gender when poor women are discussed. This not only often reflects inaccuracies, stereotypes and prejudices that marginalize poor women, but also ignores the extensive diversity among all women, including women of low income. Thus, women in Appalachia, the Mississippi Delta, and in rural New Hampshire and urban Chicago live many different lives ( Duncan, 1999) as do young and old and ethnically, racially and sexually diverse individuals.The development of Black Womanism ( Walker, 1983, Mojica, 2011, Turman, 2012) highlights the reality that traditional feminism oftenignores or fails to accurately reflect the lives and experiences of black women; and special attention to the unique characteristics of black women is needed. Because gender identity and characteristics don’t fit neatly into predetermined categories, it might be expected that if mistaken generalizations are applied, inappropriate and ineffective outcomes will occur.
Why are the concepts of feminism or identity politics often criticized? Is it because feminism is considered self-serving and there are other issues in the world that are more important? Is it because feminism has so often been associated with women as sexual victims, as in rape, pornography and domestic violence? Is it because feminism is too radical - often considered anti-men, anti-feminine and dismissive of traditional family values? We believe it is true that low-income women in the workplace have not received sufficient attention; or the attention they have received is inaccurate. But that is all the more reason that feminism, more broadly defined, is needed. We support the need to highlight important gender differences and the concepts of feminism and identity politics because equality is a societal strength; and the differences among many different groups of women within a cultural, social, economic and global perspective is more needed than ever.
Trickle-Down Feminism
The notion of “trickle down feminism” is no more accurate than “trickle-down economics” in explaining the benefits that accrue to less educated and less affluent women from the achievements of the most powerful and wealthy among us.
When Marissa Mayer recently became CEO of Yahoo she joined the ranks of women who are 4 percent of Fortune 500 CEOs; she was also pregnant at the time. Mayer could have pointed the way for other women, but she didn’t. Bryce Covert (2012) of The Nation quotes Mayer as saying
I don’t think that I would consider myself a feminist. I think that
I certainly believe in equal rights. I believe that women are just
as capable, if not more so in a lot of different dimensions, but
I don’t, I think have, sort of, the militant drive and the sort of,
the chip on the shoulder that sometimes comes with that. And
I think it’s too bad, but I do think that feminism has become in
many ways a more negative word. You know, there are amazing
opportunities all over the world for women, and I think that there is
more good that comes out of positive energy around that than
comes out of negative energy.
More recently, Mayer has come out against flexibility in the workplace, requiring more in-office work for employees instead of more flexible work-at-home schedules. Covert doesn’t believe that Mayer cares about women’s equality. Because she has achieved so much she believes that there are boundless opportunities for all women, which they just have to take advantage of like she did.
Of course, the views of high achieving women vary. For example, when Anne-Marie Slaughter, a Princeton University professor, who is also a wife and mother, was nominated for s State Department position, she lamented her inability to“have it all” (2012). But she also added “I am a proud card carrying feminist. We’ve come a long way but that is precisely it – we have come so far we have to keep going”.
There is a long history in the U.S. where women have benefited from Affirmative Action policies;and programs such as Title IX have made an enormous difference in women’slives ( Buzuvis,2012). The presence of women has grown extensively in the areas of management, government, law and medicine and onthe university level. Whileall of this has mainly benefited middle-class women, it is still a strugglefor many women and we continue to lament the lack of educational opportunities for low-income women and the absence of many women in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) industries (IWPR, 2012).
The 2012 War on Women
The War on Women didn’t start in 2012 – it has been around for a long time, with backlash accompanying most advances for women. Although it wasintended to generate opposition to liberal political sentiments around the 2012 Presidential election, the 2012 War on Women actually mobilized extensive opposition to the conservative rhetoric. Women turned out in record numbers to re-elect President Obama and repudiate the most egregious attacks.
The church and faith-based community are not alone in these attacks, but their power and influence havemajor ramifications. When the Susan G.Komen Foundation stopped funding Planned Parenthood, it was noted that the Komen Foundation had made generous contributions to the Catholic hierarchy. Church officials in numerous states urged parishioners to stop supporting Komen because it funded Planned Parenthood (Baker, 2012). Defunding Planned Parenthood resulted in skyrocketing support for that organization and Komen experienced a major financial and marketing set-back. The publicity for Planned Parenthood not only sparked support for the organization but also clarified the limited amount of money Planned Parenthood actually spends on abortion services and the extensive support for women’s preventive health services provided by the organization. All of this has a marked effect on low-income women who depend heavily on Planned Parenthood for breast cancer screening and other preventative health services.
Although it is reproductive health that has received the most attention, reauthorization and increased coverage of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) languished but finally passed in the U.S. Congress; and women’s economic security has also come under fire. Attacks on public sector unions, such as teachers, and other workplaces where low-income women are overrepresented, such as in health care and hospitality industries are also targeted. Here unions, grassroots organizations and advocacy groups such as Jobs With Justice, Caring Across Generations and the National Domestic Workers Alliance have mobilized and met with important successes, for restaurant workers, health care and for domestic workers, for example, but it is an ongoing struggle ( Eidelson, 2013).Domestic workers continue to be excluded from the protections of the 1938 Fair Labor Standards Act ( Flanders, 2013) , but a Domestic Workers Bill of Rights has passed in several states. Less visible, but persistent, are racial stereotypes about low-income women which negatively impact their educational and work opportunities.
An Historical Perspective
Three waves of feminism have addressed women’s issues in different ways. In the first wave, it was at the Seneca Falls convention in 1848 where women declared their right to vote.But it wasn’t until 1920, when the 19th amendment to the U.S. constitution was ratified, that women were finally granted the right to vote; withblack men and women generally excluded from voting until the enactment of the Voting Rights Act in 1965. Even today, voting rights are being challenged.
The Progressive era, from about the 1890s through the 1920s, was an activist period in reaction to hardships and exploitation in the workplace in the face of growing industrial and demographic changes. Issues of gender property rights, voting rights and workers rights were addressed (Sage, 2010). Activist women were involved in a myriad of problems created by industrialization, urbanization,and immigration. The experiences of poor, urban immigrant women tendedto dominate the women’s agenda ( Kemp and Brandwein, 2010). For some, the emphasis was on assimilation of migrant women and protection of the maternal rights of women and safety for children; for others, social activism focused on voting rights, industrial and labor concerns and issues of war and peace around WWI. Women of color were largely separate and unequal.White, middle-class women, usually unmarried and without children, such as Jane Addams, were prominent as leaders in the Progressive era; and black women, such as Sojourner Truth and Ida B. Welles, who pursued an activist agenda, were generally separate from white women in their struggle for equal rights. In President Roosevelt’s New Deal era, white women such as Frances Perkins played an important role.
During the latter phases of the first wave of feminism, the New Deal of the 1930’s provided protections for some women, but other women continued to be largely unprotected, particularly minority women. Public assistance (i.e. welfare) for some poor women (mainly widows with children) and Old Age and Survivors Insurance (i.e. social security) which assisted the elderly, were major federal programs that changed the shape of poverty and women’s subsistence. During WWII, women worked outside of the home to fill workplace vacancies. But this was only a temporary change; after WWII women were once again expected to return home and resume their primary roles as wives and caregivers. The existing patriarchal system had not changed, and in fact, traditional family structure was strengthened. It was in this context that the second wave of feminism was launched.
Simone de Beauvoir, in The Second Sex, published in 1949, described the world as defined by maleness, with women the “other” (and lesser) and outside the norm. This approach, which emphasized the need for equality between men and women, initiated second wave feminism. Beginning around the late 1950s and 1960’s, the second wave of feminismmainly embracedequality of men and women as a primary goal; and there was a binary approach to gender differences. Often excluded from the civil rights and anti-war movements, women established their own voice. The publication of Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique in 1963 was a lightning rod for many women to legitimize a desire to fulfill activities, particularly work activities, outside the home. But the book was criticized for having a middle-class, white perspective (Coontz,2011) since poor women had always worked outside the home. In 1966, the National Organization of Women (NOW) was founded. NOW focused on seven key areas: employment opportunities, legal and political rights, education, women in poverty, the family, the image of women, and women in religion (Kemp and Brandwein, 2010). The introduction of oral contraception in 1960 and the enactment of Roe v. Wade in 1973, which legalized abortion, were landmark events. African-American women continued to organize separately, often with strong influence from the civil rights movement.
The progress of preceding decades notwithstanding, the 1980s were a critical juncture for U.S. feminism. The decade marked a turning point in which second wave feminism came under attack both from the emerging conservative poitical climate, as well as from the movement itself.
On the national level, rejection of the Equal Rights Amendment in 1982 was a setback for women; and with the election of Ronald Reagan as President in 1980 and the growth of neoliberalism, the conservative tone in the U.S. also grew. Under Reagan, family life education rejected birth control through contraception and abstinence only was supported by funding from the federal government. Faludi (1991) documents the strong backlash against women that existed in the decade of the 1980s. Deindustrialization and the growth of the service sector in employment had a major impact on women’s work outside the home. This has persisted and become entrenched, with a more precarious and insecure workplace for low-income women (Legal Momentum, 2012).
While the national political and economic climate became increasingly hostile to working women, currents were emerging from within feminism that challenged its structure, leadership and focus. Importantly, prominent feminists of color began to articulate the incongruence between second wave feminism and the needs and demands of non-white, working class women. In 1983, Alice Walker famously coined the term”womanism” to signify this split. Her sentiments were echoed the following year by bell hooks (1984) who wrote:
Most people in the U.S. think of feminism, or the more commonly used term “women’s lib” as a movement that aims to make women the social equals of men. …. Since men are not equals in white supremacist, capitalist, patriarchal class structure, which men do women want to be equal to? …… Women in lower-class and poor groups, particularly those who are non-white, would not have defined women’s liberation as women gaining social equality with men since they are continually reminded in their everyday lives that all women do not share a common social status. Concurrently, they know that many males in their social groups are exploited and oppressed……. (p.239)
At the same time, recognition of second wave feminism’s weaknesses in serving non-white and working class women began to gain traction across a broad swath of the movement, spawning the birth of the third wave. In addition to the “womanist” perspective, grassroots organizations such as the Brooklyn-based National Congress of Neighborhood Women (NCNW) began to make their voices heard. Although NCNW had been founded a decade earlier, by the mid-1980s it took two important steps: one on the domestic front and another internationally. At home, the New York group expanded its grassroots training and educational programs into Appalachia, the Pacific Northwest, Puerto Rico, and the Dakota nation. Unlike its more traditional forebears, it focused specifically on economic empowerment in urban and rural areas, working with women with diverse backgrounds and experiences. Internationally, NCNW gained consultative status at the United Nations in the 1980s, helping to spearhead the U.N.-sponsored International Women’s Conference held in Nairobi in 1985. It was at that meeting, recognizing the absence of grassroots women at that and other agenda-setting meetings, that GROOTS (Grassroots Organizations Operating Together in Sisterhood) was founded. (See