Western Feminism in a Global Perspective

American women have struggled historically against certain paradigms of inferiority that all women experience. The female identity is different according to each culture and their customs, but many cultures are based on a patriarchal past where men wield more power than women. Women worldwide experience subjugation in the form of jobs, education, sexuality and reproductive choice. American women have strived to overcome these stereotypes and have gained a position of near equality in many societal constructs. In the United States today, men and women enjoy almost equal social standing. Women can and do vote, own businesses, hold political office and have a full spectrum of rights. They have reproductive and social rights to divorce, abortion and birth control. They can wear whatever they choose. Laws are in place protecting them from sexual assault and physical abuse. There are, however, media constructions of gender that portray clear stereotypes of men and women. Women are portrayed in the media as sexual objects: thin, large breasted, demure and flawless. Even though they hold powerful jobs and play valuable roles in a variety of social constructs, the paradigm of the American housewife prevails.

History & Overview of Issues

The United States has historically been a patriarchal society in which women’s rights were extremely limited. Given that the United States is also a country founded on freedom and equality, women have had the opportunity to rise beyond their limited rights to demand and establish change for themselves. Perhaps the earliest feminist was Susan B. Anthony who established the Women’s Suffrage Association in 1869. Although women were not granted the right to vote nationally until 1919, Anthony played a critical role in attaining this right for American women. Today, the right for women to vote is well established in America, however, not all women across the world have this right.

Margaret Sanger led the battle for reproductive rights, founding the American Birth Control League which would become Planned Parenthood in 1921. Sanger was a nurse working in New York City’s east side who witnessed many women either unable to care for their children or dying from failed abortions. She discovered that the poorest women who were most in need of a means to limit their reproduction were the least likely to have information about their options. She made it her life goal to provide contraception to all women and challenged the Comstock Law of 1873 banning the spread of information about contraception in the United States. Her work eventually resulted in the ability for physicians to prescribe contraceptives over the counter to women (Lind, 41). In many developing countries, contraception and reproductive choice are still not available to women. The poorest of women with the fewest resources who would benefit the most from contraceptives are those who are least likely to gain access to them.

It was not common for women to work outside of the home and most were subjugated to being housewives while their husbands earned all of the money. In 1963 Betty Freidan published a book entitled “The Feminine Mystique” in which she describes the plight of the American housewife and the unfairness of imposing a single role on women. In June of that year Congress passed the Equal Pay Act which forced employers to pay equal wages to both men and women for the same work. Concurrent to this breakthrough, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act banned employment discrimination based on race or sex. American women today fill almost all of the positions enjoyed by men in the workplace, however, the American housewife paradigm still exists and there is still a slight disparity between the wages women and men earn for the same positions. “Although gains have been made, pay differentials between men and women for equal work remain, women represent less than 20 percent of all federally elected senators and representatives, women are devalued as professional athletes, and women are still for the most part locked out of the highest levels of most professional endeavors, including corporate CEOs, engineers, surgeons, and architects” (Lind, xv).

Other monumental gains for women in the twentieth century include Title IX which banned sexual discrimination in schools. Following this amendment in 1973, the enrollment of women in professional schools increased. The right to attend schools and gain equal educations as their male counterparts was a huge step for women in this country. It allowed them to gain the skills necessary to enter the workplace on an equal playing field. Another crucial step forward was Roe v. Wade in 1973 which allowed women the right to have a safe and legal abortion. Prior to this decision, abortions were illegal in many states and women were forced to seek alternative methods if they did not want the baby. “Abortions have been regulated and administered sporadically throughout history and cross-culturally. Pregnancies have been and continue to be terminated through various techniques including the use of abortifacient [sic] herbs, turpentine, forced falls or impalements, sharp tools and the application of abdominal pressure, in addition to the common modern medical procedures” (Lind, 2). Legalizing abortion made it possible for women to make choices about their own bodies without endangering themselves.

American feminism has evolved over time based on the accrued rights established by feminists over time strictly within the boundaries of the United States. As an established democracy, the United States is liberal in its views of equality and as such women’s rights fit into this mantra of freedom for all. This kind of feminism is, perhaps, limiting because it does not extend globally to all women who do not enjoy the same rights as American women. Establishing international discourse will become increasingly important as globalization tightens the connections between countries and cultures. A concept called Third Wave Feminism has emerged which emulates feminism of women in developing countries who do not necessarily share the same identity and cultural goals as Western feminism outlines. “Questioning essentialist, monolithic western feminism, which ignores the heterogeneity of women in the third world, they have made clear how important it is to pay attention to difference. Their politics of difference contrasts the singular gender focus of western feminism with the need to integrate race, class, and imperialism into the debate on gender subordination among third world women” (Yu).

In addition to strengthening the discourse between women internationally, the impact of homogeneous Western media images of women as thin and white must be examined. Standardized images of Western female beauty are harmful to the identities of all women. In the United States both women within the dominant white society and the ethnic minorities who are less represented are impacted by the unrealistic and sexualized images prominently displayed all around them. These images are also projected internationally and may impact women beyond the borders of the United States. This impact must be understood and any negative results should be addressed.

Identification and Analysis

When a child is born, the determination of their sex is quickly determined by their physical genitalia. Sex is a biological determination of which anatomical piece of the reproductive puzzle a given individual is. As they grow, based on that determination of sex, the child will take on a societal identity which will govern what they wear, how they act, how they speak and how they feel about themselves in the context of their society. This identity is their gender, usually female or male, but also including transgender. Gender is more complex than sex because it has extreme societal implications which are engrained in us on a daily basis. The basic biological roles of sex do not extend to include the complex system of gender and identity. Since gender is learned, one can assume that the cultural constructs of each society propel certain understandings of gender roles. The United States provides a distinct cultural framework for feminism as well as the pervasive and ongoing struggles associated with being female that may or may not translate internationally. All countries have vastly differing histories, myths, socioeconomic frameworks and evolving social expectations that impact what it means to be male or female in each society and thus these issues may translate differently.

Western feminism is exclusive and may not even include all women who live in the United States. Some critics have pointed to this social construct as a way of distancing the relationships between women of different backgrounds even further because generally, white middle class women are the first to benefit from social change and advanced privilege. Advancement for some does not necessarily equate to advancement for all. “The increased labor force participation of white middle-class women has been accompanied, indeed made possible, by the increased availability outside the home of services formerly provided inside the home -- cleaning, food, health, and personal services. These jobs are disproportionately filled by women of color -- African American, Latina, Asian American” (Barkley). This disparity of experience leads to a flawed discourse in women’s studies because there is an inherent racism in the way American culture operates. Barkley continues, “We are likely to acknowledge that white middle-class women have had a different experience from African American, Latina, Asian American, and Native American women; but the fact that these histories exist simultaneously, in dialogue with each other, is seldom apparent in the studies we do. The overwhelming tendency now is to acknowledge and then ignore differences among women…The effect of this is that acknowledging difference becomes a way of reinforcing the notion that the experiences of white middle-class women are the norm; all others become deviant -- different from. ” This dialogue is disturbing because it emphasizes the disparity between women created by advancement for only the elite, even within the United States. Being white, thin, and affluent is becoming the only acceptable reality for women who want privilege in the world.