The Feminist Combining Process
created by:
Sangeeta Ahmed, Ashley Howard and Hiywete Solomon
History of Feminist Combining
At the start of the Women’s Movement, members were not invested in the multiple identities that characterized the nascent Women’s Movement. As early as the Seneca Falls Conference in 1848 there was some recognition of different agendas brought by various members of the movement. This is evident in the famous “Ain’t I a Woman” speech by former slave turned abolitionist Sojourner Truth. We recognize the historical significance of this episode as one of the earliest instances of Combining where issues affecting women of color and women of the working class were voiced within a movement dominated by upper class, educated, white women.
The second wave of the Feminist Movement of the late 1960s and early 1970s, was similarly dominated by the concerns of educated, upper-middle class, white, heterosexual women. As a result, women facing multiple oppressions felt their issues were not being addressed and split off to form their own groups. These splinter groups organized around shared identities based on race, class, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and political ideology.
Examples:
This splintering essentially translated to a fragmentation within the movement that damaged its momentum and highlighted the importance of the Combining process.
As students of a more advanced stage of feminism, we may question the failure of the Feminist Movement to overcome the overwhelming notion of identity politics characterizing each struggle. We must be cognizant of the fact that the earliest leaders within the movement were educated, middle class, white women unaware and did not relate to many “fringe” issues. Historically, we should acknowledge the importance of the initial solidarity established within the movement on the uniting factor of a “grand sisterhood.” The early leaders of the movement feared that a dispersed focus on various other causes could only dilute and compromise the fortitude of the Feminist Movement.