Feminist equity philosophy is a woman rights activist moral perspective that desires to connect with and ultimately transform traditional international ethical viewpoints. Feminist justice morals, like most collections of feminist ethics, examine how gender is left out of common ethical concerns. Although mainstream ethics is said to be male-oriented, feminist justice ethics varies notably from other feminist ethics. A fundamental aspect of feminist justice ethics is a versatile collection of ethics. This essay focuses on critically analyzing the justice concept from a feminist perspective.
African American females are typically perceived as more comparable to African American males than Caucasian women and are less likely to be connected with the conception of a typical woman. As a result, many antiracist and feminist organizations cannot campaign for African American women’s rights. Even though they simultaneously endure a distinctive combination of both categories of prejudice, these women are frequently neglected in discussions about sexism and racism. According to Keckley, “I shall have to endure a round of newspaper abuse from the Republicans because I dared venture to relieve a few of my wants” (333). Since women and girls with African ancestry in the United States have been traditionally dehumanized and left lacking judicial intervention, they are more vulnerable to harassment and are less likely to report it.
The challenge that African American women face is that they are constantly erased. The beginnings of the anti-rape movement in the United States, for example, may be traced back well over 150 years, despite being primarily credited to feminist campaigners in the 1970s. During the Memphis Riot in the 1860s, a couple of African-American women gave evidence before Congress alleging getting gang-raped by Caucasian males (Berry & Gross 156). Despite overwhelming proof, the offenders were not prosecuted. African-American women like Ida B. Wells and Fannie Barrier Williams formed and engaged in efforts to end sexual assault toward women and girls of color after this groundbreaking moment in anti-rape advocacy.
To survive violence, transgender African American females and non-binary persons are wrongly imprisoned. There was an attack on CeCe McDonald and her colleagues by some Caucasian men and women who threw racist and transphobic slurs at them one night in 2011. An altercation occurred, and McDonald accidentally wounded one of her assailants in the torso in self-defense. Even though many people attacked her, McDonald was the only one detained that night. She eventually agreed to a plea bargain and was sentenced to forty-one months in a Minnesota male prison (Sales et al. 1672). McDonald was liberated nineteen months following her incarceration after a nationwide defense movement. CeCe’s experience exemplifies how misogynoir and transphobia coexist in today’s culture.
Women of color face a salary disparity depending on gender and ethnicity, reflecting the intersectional actuality of their lives. African American women and Caucasian males, who are considered the top earners, have the most significant wage disparities. Furthermore, compared to Caucasian females and African American men, women of color face salary discrepancies. It necessitates a better awareness of the various factors contributing to the income disparity between men and women of African heritage, some of which persistently undervalue their experiences and efforts, restricting their future chances (Berry & Gross 197). It is critical to recognize that race-gender salary inequality is more complicated than just combining the personal statistics related to each disparity. Instead, it displays a one-of-a-kind impact that emerges from how gender and ethnicity are viewed in close conjunction.
Domestic abuse statistics in the United States are alarming. Domestic violence affects one out of every three women and one out of every ten males at a certain moment in their lives. Intimate partner violence affects ten million Americans each year, according to estimates. However, the statistics for women of color are much more alarming. According to Keckley, “On Friday following the Saturday on which I was so savagely beaten, Mr. Bingham again directed me to come to his study” (36). Domestic abuse affects well over 40% of African American women at some point in their existence (Sales et al. 1455). According to U.S. Department of Justice information, women of color are particularly vulnerable since, well before the COVID-19 pandemic, they were 2.5 times more susceptible than Caucasian women to encounter domestic abuse.
Black women played an essential role in the campaign for universal suffrage in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. They participated in legislative meetings and founded political parties. Women of color met at their community places of worship for electoral conferences, where they devised strategies for acquiring the right to cast a ballot. Many people did not listen to them despite their efforts. African American men and Caucasian women were typically at the helm of civil rights campaigns, setting the agenda. Women of color were frequently excluded from gatherings and activities. For example, the National American Woman Suffrage Association refused to allow women of African heritage to attend its meetings (Berry & Gross 94). There was the frequent separation of black women from Caucasian women in suffrage demonstrations.
Police killings of African American men have attracted domestic and international awareness in recent years. The murders of women of color killed by police, on the other hand, are shrouded in mystery. Today’s mainstream media emphasis focuses on police deaths of African-Americans, primarily as a response to Black Lives Matter activism. Although the instance of Ma’Khia Bryant, whose death drew widespread national attention, is an exception, not the usual. In reality, Bryant’s death drew so much public attention since it occurred during a media cycle strongly centered on police misconduct (Hall 271). The subject of police shootings of Black men receives the most publicity. Black women’s fatalities at the hands of law enforcement do not garner the same level of coverage as Black men’s deaths. The ‘Say Her Name’ project aims to bring these women’s tales to the foreground of public debate.
There is little denying that devaluation and sexualization have reduced women worldwide to sexual creatures, particularly true in the mainstream media. This is a tragic fact that affects people of many cultures. In the entertainment scene, Black women frequently portray stereotypes like the sex worker and the jezebel title character, which portray African American females as promiscuous man-eaters. It is not by chance that the representations of women of color in the mass media are sexual objects. Hollywood pushes hard to keep degrading preconceptions about people of color alive, and Black women are frequently the victims of this (Sales et al. 1566). In the present generation, the media is a dominant channel to the universe, not just the country, and has a remarkable effect on shaping the general public to reason in a particular manner. Often, the media displays women of color as sexually willing personalities, often welcoming sexual objectification.
The health system in America is plagued with inequalities that have an unreasonable outcome on African Americans and other marginalized groups. These unjust factors contribute significantly to several gaps in the system, like poor health impacts, uneven access to services, and lack of medical insurance coverage among particular individuals. African American women suffer the most from these medical care challenges because they are prone to medical conditions such as breast cancer, HIV/AIDS, abuse, and violence (Berry & Gross 165). The majority of African Americans are poor compared to other demographic populations on average; therefore, Medicaid and other public health insurance programs are crucial in their existence. Such programs ensure that poor households receive healthier medical services at affordable rates.
In the professional sector of today’s society, mentors, networks, and connections play an essential role in advancement. Women of color are more ambitious and more likely to want growth than their Caucasian female counterparts in their organizations. According to Storni, “She has entered the farmyard for no reason” (1), which symbolizes how hardworking the woman is as she strives to achieve maximum production. However, African American females are less likely to find mentors who would help their journey up the corporate path. This is a result of Caucasian executives who, for no apparent reason, are discomforted and unfamiliar with women of color (Sales et al. 1378). Therefore, the executives hardly have African Americans in their professional or personal circles, and they find it uncomfortable to interact with them as peers. African American women are left to strive harder to access and professionally advance, with pay disparities and underrepresentation to show for it.
In conclusion, gender and race continue to matter in intersecting and complicated ways for women in society. African American women have consistently served at the forefront of the struggle for equality and justice. Despite the challenges and troubles black women face, they remain persistent and hopeful that the next generation will have it better. While various organizations and programs have undoubtedly established essential social progressions to aid women in their fight for equality, society runs the risk of obstructing additional gains if people fail to acknowledge the information learned. Individuals worldwide should join women in their struggle for equality because it benefits the entire human race.
Works Cited
Berry, Daina, Ramey, & Gross, Kali, Nicole. A Black Women’s History of the United States. Beacon Press, 2020.
Hall, Ashley. “Towards Love as Life Praxis: A Black Queer and Feminist Pedagogical Orientation.” Taylor and Francis online, vol 35, no. 3, 2021, pp. 262-275, Web.
Keckley, Elizabeth. Behind the Scenes, or, Thirty Years of a Slave, and Four Years in the White House. University of North Carolina, 1999.
Sales, Shannon, Burke, Monica, & Cannonier, Colin. “African American Women Leadership Across Contexts: Examining the Internal Traits and External Factors on Women Leaders’ Perceptions of Empowerment.” Journal of Management History, vol. 26, no. 3, 2019, pp. 1348-1751, Web.
Storni, Alfonsina. La loba (The She-wolf). Web.