Feminism: The Journey of The Black Woman To Equality

By: Azekwoh Anthony

History is full of them, people who challenged the system, people who changed the system. These people didn’t see the world as it was, they saw it as it could be and that allowed them to go on to achieve truly extraordinary things. Millicent Fawcett was one of these people, she is regarded as one of the pioneers of modern feminism. She started a group that would later change history by succeeding to change the law and give women their suffrage (their right to legally vote).

During this time, if you weren’t a white male and you were black, you were incredibly unfortunate and if you just so happened to be black and a woman, the whole world seemed to be against you. That’s why it was so important that this first step was taken to allow women have their vote. It opened a door for not just gender equality but equality in general. At this point, many countries were already following suit, when feminism started it became something akin to a glacier, slow moving but unstoppable.

‘’What is Feminism?” is a question asked by many but answered correctly by few. The problem is that most people have begun to distort the meaning of this movement into something entirely different, they’ve begun to associate feminism with female superiority and not what it actually stands for: gender equality. It’s very sad that even some feminists aren’t entirely sure of what feminism is. Don’t you think it’s odd that less than a hundred years ago in some countries, women were not allowed to vote? And it would take about 60 more years before black women were allowed to vote.

They were not allowed to perform some of their basic rights, even though they had to work and pay taxes too, just like men. Feminism defined correctly is a movement or range of movements that aims to define, establish, and achieve equal political, economic, cultural, personal, and social rights for women. Simple, yes? It’s really not that hard to understand. The world had pushed women down for so long that it was only a matter of time before women and men who saw this as unjust, pushed back. But for some reason unbeknownst to me, some people are still not receptive to this movement and they’ve made some arguments against feminism.

“So Anthony, why is it called Feminism and not meninism or equalitarianism if it’s actually about equality.” Okay, first of all, if you’re main issue with a movement that’s striving to make the world a better place for your future daughter to live in is the name, then you need to really investigate your priorities. Now, it’s called feminism because for most of human history women -especially black women- have gotten the short end of the stick, they have all of the potential but almost none of the opportunities that us men have. Life as a black woman in a ‘white world’ is not an easy one.

Just imagine, having to deal with not only the sexism but the racism too. For the course of centuries, black women have been put down, demoralised and made to think that they are less, not for their qualities or qualifications but the two factors they had no control or choice over: being black and being a woman. But here’s the thing about trying to push a strong force down, sooner or later that force will push back. 21st century and black women are part of the one’s running the show, whether you want to believe it or not.

There are now leading black women in music, acting, modelling, you name it. Feminism is a movement that wants to elevate them, to allow them have the same opportunities, is that so bad? It’s striving to bring equality by saying ‘okay, you’re a woman, different from a man, but not lesser, you can do whatever you want to do in this world, your gender and your race should not limit your prospects.’

“But hey Anthony, why would you be a feminist, it’s about women oppressing men.” Arguments like this and others similar to this stem from the absolute and utter misconception of feminism. See, women and men are physically and psychologically different. It’s a very obvious fact that our bodies are made for diverse yet specific tasks.

The problem comes from the fact that we’ve become to think of men and women as opposites, but it shouldn’t be so. Men and women complement each other, like your two hands for instance, they’re different and the same in many ways (like the position of your thumbs) but both working together can help the whole. It’s the same with men and women, feminism isn’t saying ‘let’s kick the men out’ but rather ‘let the women and the men get the same thing’.

Other arguments range from ‘if she’s a feminist, why doesn’t she just change her own tyre’ to ‘I’m not a feminist because I like men.’ If your arguments are these or similar, I’m sorry to say this but you are hopelessly and utterly ill-advised and need to educate yourself more on what you think you’re talking about.

In conclusion, feminism isn’t war against men or anything like that, it’s just equality. Needless to say, feminism isn’t wanted, but it’s needed. As long as women like Taylor are discriminated against, feminism is needed. As long as women are not given the same opportunities as men, feminism is needed. History is full of them, people who challenged the system, people who changed the system and hopefully, our future is too.