Blog # 10

1. How did African American women approach the issues of reform and suffrage?
Black women did not full participation on the suffrage since they were still seen as a lower class women and of course they wanted to get involved in the movement since it was for women in general not only for whites. So they realized that the only way to get involved was forming their own organizations and clubs. So they could help each other and also be participants of the suffrage movement. Black women were still discriminated even though they had the freedom from the slavery but it was difficult for them to get involved in political and social activism.

What were the main differences between the emerging feminist movement and the suffrage movement?
The suffrage movement was basically a movement to gain political and social power. Women believed they had the rights to choose their own party and of course to vote as men did. So they formed organizations and women worked together to protest and make the congress to consider their petition. In the other hand the feminist movement was about women in power of their own lives. They wanted to have sexual freedom, individuality and birth control. Women wanted to get rid of true womanhood since they were becoming more independent of men. The women who participated in this movement were educated middle class women and artists. These women had a different lifestyle; some of them had their own apartment, other women were living in “free unions” and also there were lesbian women living with their couples. Not all the women who supported the suffrage movement were participants of the feminist movement.
1. What were the various definitions of feminism according “Talks of Feminism. . .”?
In Cooper Union six men and six women had a meeting with the purpose to answer the question: What is feminism? In the debate Rose Young said that for her feminism was “some fight, some fate, and some fun.” Edwin Bjorkman said “that woman shall have the same right as man to be different.” George Middletown said “feminism means trouble: trouble means agitations; agitation means movement; movement means life; life means adjustment – so does feminism.” People had different definitions of feminism but all of them lead to the same concept “freedom for women.”
2. What role does women’s economic independence play in feminist thought?
Women no longer had to be subordinated to men so they manage their own businesses. They were the owners of their lives and their money. They could decide to do anything they wanted with their finances. Since feminist women were the middle-class college graduates and professionals and artist they were totally independent. They had the power to start a new movement.
What is your own definition of feminism?
Feminism to me is giving the women the opportunity to take their own decision and let nobody decide what is right or wrong for their lives. Women as human being have the same capabilities to create a new world and have the power they deserve in society. Women are intelligent and smart enough to control their own lives. So feminism was a good cause that many women in the past fought for which they thought it was fair.