Race Gender and Work

Race Gender and Work was a pleasant article that seemed to be a highlight of the teaching all year in Feminist Theory and my Spelman career. The roles of women in the United States alone have been different. White middle class women were expected to work at home while black women were expected to do domestic work for middle class white women. What was intriguing to me about this article was the fact that separation between races is not natural. Perhaps the categorical nature of our society has caused me to believe that race is a natural division. Everything from poetry to history is separated by race. Is this away to keep people (women included) inherently divided?

Some would argue that the goals in Jennifer Baumgardner’s and Amy Richards’ Third Wave Manifesta from Manifesta mirror that of an Utopian society. I would argue that it is one of an egalitarian society. After reading Race, Gender and Work, Gender, race-ethnicity and class are not natural or biological categories (12). Society has led me to believe that how the world works and how it is divided in natural. However, there is nothing natural about it. That is how ingrained the oppression in our world is in our sub-conscious. How do we fix the problems addressed in this reading? I believe it is as simple as acting out the points in the manifesta.

Out of all the major points, the first point is the one that stuck with me. This part discussed making unacknowledged feminists, proud feminists. In this class we have spoken about friends, family, and ourselves on having ideals of feminism but not being feminists. Why is that? Is it because we truly feel that feminism is not for us or is it because of some fear that we will take on the stereotypical negative persona of a feminist? I feel if we call it what it is instead of going around the issue that real significant change can be made.