Why the World Needs Intersectional Feminism
written by Yousra Hassan
Like many ideologies and movements, gender equality is flawed. However, since it has introduced and implemented a much-needed change for women across the world, some would argue otherwise. Yet, there’s a long way to go due to the lack of various efforts. The lack of intersectionality and positive activism is what drives some men to avoid talking about their struggles, the pressures of masculinity, and aggressively attack feminism. Moreover, it can drive women to practice negative activism, hence hindering the process towards gender equality. Intersectional feminism is the path that should be taken to end any prejudice towards gender equality because it advocates that all women and men of different race, class, ability, and ethnicity going through any kind of oppression should be included in the conversation and fought for. Intersectional feminism encourages people to reform their feminism, motivates them to listen more and pass the mic to the less heard.
Conventional wisdom has it that women should fight for their rights because it is their role. However, it is not possible to achieve gender equality without men joining the cause. Of the many obstacles facing gender equality, gender roles are one of the biggest. Many people still believe that men belong in the workforce and women belong at home with their kids. Aside from keeping women confined to the house, husbands and fathers often prevent the female gender from contributing to society and can occasionally resort to violence. According to UN Women, “Harmful practices, such as child marriage and female genital mutilation, continue to rob women and girls of equal opportunities.” Some cultures and societies (including the women) consider these practices to be completely acceptable. They are often even encouraged. Take the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) as an example, women in MENA are more educated than ever before, yet, their participation in the workforce is 25 percent — about half of the world average, according to a new report by the World Bank. “Often what stands between women and jobs are legal and social barriers,” said Manuela Ferro, Director for Poverty Reduction and Economic Management in the MENA region. Men need to actively join women in bringing deep legislative changes in more conservative societies. As for the less conservative societies, men need to join women in bringing more family-friendly workplace rules not only for the good of the economy but also for a happy marriage. Fortunately, this is gradually happening in many countries. According to the Pew Research Center, in the USA, “a growing number of employers have adopted family-friendly policies such as paid leave.” More men are also becoming aware of their roles as fathers and learning how they can contribute to their families, “today many young men are asking questions about how they can manage a work-life balance. More systematic research on Generation Y confirms that many more men than in the past are asking questions about how they are going to integrate active parenthood with their professional lives.” (Slaughter, 2012). Putting this into perspective, gender roles, whether extreme or not, are a source of prejudice towards gender equality in many societies. To demolish that roadblock, men from all over the world need to reform their beliefs, enter the intersectional feminist conversation, and support their wives/partners’ work and education. Both parents should spend time at home with the kids. Kids need their super man and their wonder woman at home, not just one.
Another obstacle is the ignorance of the privileged. Sheryl Sandberg, the Chief Operating Officer of Facebook and founder of Leanin.org urges women to participate more (and stay) in the workforce, to be more vocal, and of course to lean in. In her Ted Talk “Why We Have Too Few Women Leaders”, she says, “Women systematically underestimate their own abilities…women do not negotiate for themselves in the workforce.” That is an undeniable fact but unfortunately it is a narrow one. Sandberg fails to mention that her messages are perhaps applicable to her demographic: rich, educated, privileged, white women. Women who already have an opportunity to negotiate and benefit from the imperialist patriarchal system. She also fails to mention that the system works against many women including women of color, middle-class women, and women in underdeveloped countries. In her essay “Dig Deep: Beyond Lean In”, bell hooks argues that “Sandberg effectively uses her race and class power and privilege to promote a narrow definition of feminism that obscures and undermines visionary feminist concerns.” Although I agree with bell hooks, I’d like to think that Sandberg’s intentions may be otherwise since she inspired many young women to negotiate and stand up for themselves. These points given, not being intersectional provided people (especially sexists) a chance to think it’s women’s fault that they don’t fight for their rights. To counter that, intersectionality should be advocated by influential women such as Sandberg to promote the issues the system has. In doing so there’s awareness of the many different experiences all women are going through and what they should do to tackle them not how they should adapt to an unjust system that only favors the wealthy and the privileged. In her article “‘Intersectional feminism’. What the hell is it?” Ava Vidal insists that “Until the mainstream feminist movement starts listening to the various groups of women within it, then it will continue to stagnate and not be able to move forward.” Thus, adding more prejudice to gender equality without realizing it.
There is still a widespread belief that women are vulnerable and dependent on their male counterparts. To eradicate this belief, organizations and families should focus on educating the youth. According to the UN, “A focus on young people is crucial for advancing gender equality, for preventing and eradicating violence against women.” Additionally, legislative changes should occur, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, UN Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director says, “without gender equality and a full role for women in society, in the economy, in governance, we will not be able to achieve the world we hoped for.” but the youth certainly can. The fact that gender equality is a stand-alone sustainable development goal in the UN says a lot about what is yet to be achieved and how critical it is to achieve it. UN figures show that, “47 per cent of world business leaders say they are in favor of gender quotas on corporate boards, women remain underrepresented in leadership and management-level positions in the public and private sectors.” However, with the presence of many strong women, like Malala Yousafzai (youngest UN messenger of peace) and Yassmin Abdel-Magied (named in the Top 100 Most Influential Engineers in Australia), who broke stereotypes at a young age, we should be hopeful that the pillars of advocacy and sustainable gender equality have been set.
Bringing everyone to the table, “leaning in”, breaking stereotypes and standing up for yourself and others are all part of being an intersectional feminist. Society cannot function properly nor justly unless every part of it is integrated and taken care of. We must not forget nor prejudice those who are less privileged than us while simultaneously advocating against those who prejudice us. We should empower one another, men, women, black, white, queer, non-binary, etc. Practicing peaceful positive activism and intersectional feminism are the cornerstones of overcoming prejudice against women and achieving gender equality whether on a governance level or a social level. We should all intersect to bring a new system, a system that benefits all, not one or two.
Yousra Hassan is a Masters graduate in Chemical & Environmental Engineering. Yousra has been a feminist from a very young age, tackling gender stereotypes left and right. She aims to create an environment that ensures all genders are treated equally no matter what.
The views and opinions expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of PHIR-Nott.
