I have always been skeptical about the Women’s rights movement because I knew that as a black woman, the movement did not necessarily fight for me. Women’s rights typically meant white women’s rights back then because all women were not the same, race made a difference. Fighting for the Vote video touches on this a little by discussing slavery and civil rights. Women in the video expressed that they were extremely motivated to gain voting rights after free black men were giving voting rights. Not because men were given voting rights but especially because black men were because white women felt superior to them. This part of the video made me question the entire movement. It’s great that women were able to come together and fight for their right to vote but its also kind of a slap in the face to black women. These women did not always put race aside when they were fighting but many of them still felt superior to black people. The racist white woman narrative is rarely told but should be. In school, I was taught that the Women’s rights movement was for all women but would rather have learned the truth about the situation.
Women in Leadership
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This video also changed my thinking about the women’s suffrage movement. While their cause was obviously good (getting the right to vote for women) I didn’t realize that they were focusing on getting the vote because black men had it, so they felt that they should too because they believed they were superior. I also think it should be taught in school that black women did not get the right to vote until much later.
My opinion also changed when the video talked about how Susan B. Anthony and her colleagues began to form alliances for power and influence for the movement. But these alliances brought in racist women and parties into the movement unchecked. In order to gain momentum, the women’s rights movement was willing to outcast black women and that in itself is hard to swallow.
To be honest, I never knew about the racial motives behind the women’s rights movement, so this information was personally really eye-opening for me. I don’t think any less of the outcome, just the motive behind it. I also think that the actual truth should be presented more often, especially once history is being taught in secondary education or higher.
I also was only initially taught about the women’s movement as a movement for all women. Learning more about it I realized it was less about women of color–hence the need for activists like Audre Lorde who was specifically focused on black women.