Concept Assignment #1 by Brooke Dickinson

1991 - Anita Hill testifies against Clarence Thomas

bdickinson5 — 2023-10-27 01:09:49 UTC

Anita Hill testifies against Supreme Court justice nominee Clarence Thomas in front of the United States Congress, alleging sexual harassment from her former co-worker. She experiences, publicly broadcasted to the entire nation, immense gaslighting tactics, disbelief, victim-blaming, and more, in an attempt to illegitimatize her legal basis as the plaintiff. The all-white Congress rules against Hill, and Clarence Thomas is successfully appointed to the United States Supreme Court.

Anita Hill's trial presented to the nation the hoops in which white people would jump through in order to slander the name of a Black woman. The world saw just how loudly Black women had been begging to be taken seriously by the law, how tirelessly they had worked to prove their oppression, and how quickly white men were able to dismiss entire lived experiences of Black women for the sake of upholding patriarchal systems of oppression.

https://www-taylorfrancis-com.libproxy.smith.edu/pdfviewer/ chapter 8

2019 - The first season of Lifetime's Surviving R. Kelly airs

bdickinson5 — 2023-10-27 01:13:13 UTC

While the series expanded to eventually include three seasons, the first of these seasons, released in 2019, depicted some of the many victims of convicted sex offender and Hollywood musical artist, Robert Kelly. Before the release of the documentary series, these victims, who were almost exclusively women of color, lacked legal justice (despite a history of multiple cases brought against Kelly) as well as respect and recognition from the public eye, as many still consumed R. Kelly's media despite numerous allegations and alleged victims.

In the rise of the #MeToo movement, most victims represented in the media were white upper-class women, with the movement as a whole failing to represent the many impoverish and/or BIPOC victims of sexual abuse. Surviving R. Kelly gives these victims a platform which the #MeToo movement neglected to provide, demonstrating just how long black women had been silenced for.

1973 - Supreme Court landmark Roe v. Wade affirms constitutional right to get an abortion through the 24th week of pregnancy

bdickinson5 — 2023-10-27 01:17:23 UTC

Despite its eventual overturning in 2022's Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, the 1973 case of Roe v. Wade marked the legal precedent protecting women's healthcare in the United States.

The legalization of abortion up until the end of the second trimester allowed for widespread access to abortion and related women's healthcare which had historically particularly neglected to cater to impoverished women of color.

However, many pro-abortion activists sought to silence the voices of victims of forced sterilization, believing that they would deter the trajectory of the movement and prevent America from reaching legal abortion access. Thus, the face of the pro-abortion movement became that of white privilege; the ability to ignore the mistreatment of thousands of impoverished women of color in favor for their own agenda.

https://www-taylorfrancis-com.libproxy.smith.edu/pdfviewer/ chapter 5

1977 - Combahee River Collective Statement is initially published

bdickinson5 — 2023-10-27 01:21:14 UTC

The Combahee River Collective, a group formed in 1975 as a divergence from the National Black Feminist Organization, released a statement on behalf of the collective which many have used as a foundational document or manifesto for intersectional feminism and black feminism. Members such as Audre Lorde, Barbara Smith, Cheryl Clarke, and many more, argued the significance of intersectionality and the recognition of racism, homophobia, classism, and more, in addition to the conversation of sexism.

https://www-taylorfrancis-com.libproxy.smith.edu/pdfviewer/ chapter 5

1963 - Betty Friedan publishes The Feminine Mystique; leads to Friedan's status as a "second wave" feminist leader and the formation of NOW

bdickinson5 — 2023-10-27 01:24:25 UTC

Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique served as a liberating text for many women, particularly in the working class, who eventually joined the feminist movement. Friedan articulates the feminine experience in a way that radicalizes many American women, causing it to be viewed by many as a foundational document of feminism in the late 20th century.

Friedan then went on to help found the National Organization for Women (NOW) in 1966, cementing her status as a feminist leader.

However, Friedan's writings and efforts were almost exclusively centered around white, heterosexual, upper-class women, excluding all other women from the publicized face of feminism. She supported lesbian separatism, leading the National Organization for Women with a platform of anti-intersectionality.

https://www-taylorfrancis-com.libproxy.smith.edu/pdfviewer/ chapter 3 and 7

1851 - Sojourner Truth first delivers her "Ain't I a Woman?" speech

bdickinson5 — 2023-10-27 01:27:26 UTC

Sojourner Truth's iconic "Ain't I a Woman" speech is now known as "one of the most famous texts in history of American feminism," defining her status as a pioneering activist for black women's rights. She argued that the societal perception of women was grounded in racist and classist ideals, one of the earliest pioneers for black women's rights.

https://www-taylorfrancis-com.libproxy.smith.edu/pdfviewer/ chapter 1

1896 - Ida B. Wells, Harriet Tubman, Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, and Mary Church Terrell form the National Association of Colored Women's Clubs

bdickinson5 — 2023-10-27 01:29:10 UTC

Living a long life of activism, Ida B. Wells refused to give up her "ladies' seat" on a train in 1884, became a part owner of the Free Press magazine in 1892, toured London to speak publicly about anti-lynching in 1894, published A Red Record in 1895, and many more.

The National Association of Colored Women's Clubs, formed in part by her and numerous other black female activists, sought to provide black women with a community-based organization diverting from the National Federation of Afro-American Women.

https://www-taylorfrancis-com.libproxy.smith.edu/pdfviewer/ chapter 1

1920 - The Nineteenth Amendment grants women the right to vote

bdickinson5 — 2023-10-27 01:30:57 UTC

The 19th Amendment clearly marks a historic feat for women, and denying the significance of the 19th Amendment is to deny the entire trajectory of feminism as it is known now. However, equally significant is the white supremacist ideals perpetuated by the women's suffrage movement which further prevented women of color from actually being able to fulfill their constitutional right to vote.

Historic tensions between the abolitionist movement and women's suffrage movement (whose leaders, such as Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, began openly racist following the ratification of the 14th Amendment) begin to dissipate following the ratification of the 19th Amendment. However, the damage was already done; white suffragists argued that white women were inherently more intelligent than black men, among other white supremacist ideals openly proposed by suffragists (Anthony argued that "...if you will not give the whole loaf of suffrage to the entire people, give it to the most intelligent first"). Despite eventual reconciliations, white suffragists created a racist, ethnocentric, and classist platform which feminism continued to stand upon for centuries to come.

https://www-taylorfrancis-com.libproxy.smith.edu/pdfviewer/ chapter 1

1950 - Pauli Murray publishes "States' Laws on Race and Color," which is used as the legal foundation in landmark Brown v. Board of Education

bdickinson5 — 2023-10-27 01:34:49 UTC

Pauli Murray, distinguished lawyer born in 1910 who grew to become an icon for black and/or queer women as well as gender non-conforming individuals. She created the legal concept of the 5th and 14th amendment protecting any and all civil rights cases, a legal strategy which was utilized in Brown v. Board of Education by Thurgood Marshall as well as Roe v. Wade. Murray's legal contributions are often overlooked, along with her personal life with her lifelong partner, Irene Barlow, and her evidence of gender non-conformity or modern perceptions of transgender identities.

https://www-taylorfrancis-com.libproxy.smith.edu/pdfviewer/ chapter 4

1972 - Title IX of the Higher Education Act is passed

bdickinson5 — 2023-10-27 01:42:46 UTC

Title IX prohibits sex-based discrimination in any educational program or institution receiving federal assistance, allowing protections regarding admissions quotas, testing equity, job hiring, promotions, sports equity, sexual harassment, and more. However, Title IX as a basic legal guard is not enough to protect the everyday afflictions of Black women, particularly in regards to women's sports; many Black female athletes lack the legal foundations to protect the simultaneously racist and sexist experiences which are unique to Black women.

https://www-taylorfrancis-com.libproxy.smith.edu/pdfviewer/ chapter 5

1960 - The FDA approves the first oral birth control pill in the US, Enovid, with help from efforts by Planned Parenthood and its founder, Margaret Sanger

bdickinson5 — 2023-10-27 01:47:32 UTC

Margaret Sanger, founder of Planned Parenthood and advocate for reproductive justice, initially commissioned "the pill" which has now evolved to encompass a wide variety of oral contraceptives taken by over 150 million people worldwide. This is an extremely noteworthy win in the name of feminism, allowing for easier access to contraceptives which especially affected impoverished women of color.

However, Sanger's advocacy for abortion and contraceptive access supported a stance of negative eugenics which prevented impoverished women of color from receiving justice for forced sterilization. Many pro-abortion organizations believed the conversation surrounding forced sterilization would diminish the integrity of the fight for abortion and contraceptives, silencing the voices of women of color for the sake of their own convenience.

https://web.archive.org/web/20191205111738/https://www.thenation.com/article/awakenings-margaret-sanger/

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/pill-eugenics-and-birth-control/
https://www.un.org/development/desa/pd/sites/www.un.org.development.desa.pd/files/files/documents/2020/Jan/un_2019_contraceptiveusebymethod_databooklet.pdf

https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/fda-approves-the-pill

1942 - National War Labor Board mandates that women in defense plants must receive the same pay as men for doing the same jobs.

bdickinson5 — 2023-10-27 03:24:15 UTC

In the rise of "Rosie the Riveter," women began working outside of their homes en masse, including BIPOC women. While primarily all of these women experienced unjust wages, poor working conditions, sexual harassment, and more sex-based work discrimination, black women were especially given the brunt of this discrimination.

In the 1940s, following the National War Labor Board mandate of 1942, wages for black women nearly doubled, and the wage-gap between white and black women narrowed by 15 percentage points.

https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w10621/w10621.pdf

https://www-taylorfrancis-com.libproxy.smith.edu/pdfviewer/ chapter 2

1964 - Title VII of the Civil Rights Act prohibits workplace discrimination on the basis of gender, race, religion, and natural origin.

bdickinson5 — 2023-10-27 03:30:41 UTC

As aformentioned in regards to the National War Labor Board mandate, Black women still lacked legal workplace protections. Cases of unequal pay, harsh working conditions, mistreatment, sexual harassment, and more for Black female employees were not concretely encoded into law. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, in addition to the other elements of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, provides a legal basis to which Black women can report workplace discrimination. However, because this oppression and mistreatment is so institutionalized, there is no one act or mandate that can erase biases and prejudice -- instead, it is an uphill battle which we as a society continue to climb and must continue to address.

https://www-taylorfrancis-com.libproxy.smith.edu/pdfviewer/ chapter 5

1993 - Ruth Bader Ginsburg becomes the second female justice in the US Supreme Court

bdickinson5 — 2023-10-27 03:35:57 UTC

Ruth Bader Ginsburg (RBG) advocated, in her early legal career, largely for reproductive justice, utilizing Pauli Murray's strategy of testing the 14th and 5th amendment's protections before the US Supreme Court. RBG was one of the only legal scholars to recognize Murray's work; Thurgood Marshall, for example, utilized the strategies of Murray in the landmark Brown v. Board of Education, but did not reference her and did not even inform her or her role in the case until after the decision was announced.

RBG spent her long legal career fighting against sex discrimination, breaking patriarchal traditions in the court and openly dissenting often.

https://www.oyez.org/justices/ruth_bader_ginsburg

https://www-taylorfrancis-com.libproxy.smith.edu/pdfviewer/ chapter 4

1927 - US Supreme Court's Buck v. Bell rules that forced sterilizations are constitutional

bdickinson5 — 2023-10-27 03:40:02 UTC

While the plaintiff, the Buck family, was white and concerned the legality of sterilizing people with mental disabilities, this ruling extended to deeply affected the already present sterilization of poor women of color.

This particularly culminated in the 1960s and 1970s, where various states began large scale health and anti-poverty programs which disproportionately targeted BIPOC. Numerous cases (one of the most common being the Relf sisters in 1973) emerged which highlighted the commonality of forced sterilization, including tubal litigation, untested IUDs, non-FDA-approved injections, and more. Government-funded family planning clinics often preyed on poor, illiterate and/or poorly educated, and working-class families in order to either perform medical procedures without parents present, or with seldom communication and coerced parental consent. Forced sterilization was used as a calculated tool of eugenics which attempted to "control" the populations of BIPOC communities, particularly those in poverty.

https://www-taylorfrancis-com.libproxy.smith.edu/pdfviewer/ chapter 4

1973 - Formation of the National Black Feminist Organization (NBFO)

bdickinson5 — 2023-10-27 03:51:12 UTC

Formed as a divergence from the white-dominated National Organization of Women and other popular feminist organizations, NBFO was founded by Florynce Kennedy, Michele Wallace, Faith Ringgold, Doris Wright, and more. Some of these members were initially associated with the feminist movement, some with civil rights and Black Power, and some didn't feel accepted by either movement, presenting the need for an affinity space which embraced the unique afflictions of Black women in particular.

https://www-taylorfrancis-com.libproxy.smith.edu/pdfviewer/ chapter 5

2017 - Beginning of charges against Harvey Weinstein and the media's emergence of the #MeToo movement

bdickinson5 — 2023-10-27 22:37:30 UTC

#MeToo, a term coined by activist and abuse survivor Tarana Burke in 2006, began drastically increasingly in popularity following the emergence of sexual abuse charges against Hollywood producer, Harvey Weinstein. This began a new "age" or "wave" of feminism often labeled simply by the term "#MeToo," symbolizing a period of social media activism and the embracing of women's stories from across the globe. Tarana Burke provided a basis which this period of feminism heavily relies upon, beginning to embrace intersectionality in an age of modern technology.

However, the faces of the #MeToo movement are still often white women -- Taylor Swift, Megan Rapinoe, Alyssa Milano, and more. Burke's often overlooked contributions are symbolic of deep history of suppression and silencing which black women activists have long been accustomed to.

https://metoomvmt.org

https://www.elle.com/culture/a41539940/hollywood-five-years-after-harvey-weinstein-metoo/