Women of color

SIGNIFICANCE: As a reaction to the second wave of the American women’s movement, which was initially led by middle-class White women, many women of color sought to emphasize the diversity of race in feminism, as well as of class, gender, and sexuality.

“Women of color” as a name for a representative coalition has only been in use since the late 1960s. From that time, women of color groups, such as the Combahee River Collective and the Women of Color Association, have challenged race and class blindness in the women’s movement and sexist practices in male-centered antiracist groups. The descriptive term “woman of color,” however, has been in use at least since the nineteenth century. The Oxford English Dictionary records the use of “women of color” in Sir Charles Lyell’s Second Visit to the United States of North America (1849). The more inclusive term “people of color” has been used at least since the eighteenth century, initially in reference to people of African descent.

In the United States, women of color typically include four racial/ethnic groups—African Americans, Asian Americans, Indigenous people, and Latinas—defined by discriminatory racial laws in which the racial universe is demarcated by the five “color” categories of black, yellow, red, brown, and white. Although “women of color” can be used as a purely descriptive term, this label, in the context of feminism, is typically applied to women of color coalitions. As an organized group, women of color are products of the Civil Rights and women’s movements, highlighting the complexity of the intersecting issues of both race/ethnicity and gender.

Oppression and Identity

Although constituting a diverse group, women of color are united by two major issues: a history of oppression and exclusion and a shared desire to combat racist and sexist domination. Members of each of these racially defined minorities have faced a history of gendered racism of oppression: Native Americans were massacred and their children stolen and sent to boarding schools, African Americans were enslaved, Mexican Americans suffered under colonialization, and Asian Americans were systematically excluded by immigration laws. Nevertheless, as scholars have noted, these racial and color categories are ambiguous and problematic. What about individuals who are multiracial? What about those nationalities or ethnic and cultural groups—such as Arabs and South Asians—that do not fit neatly into any of these categories? Despite the ambiguity of their name and the diversity of their numbers, women of color activists perceive themselves as a coalition committed to challenging oppressive dominant ideologies. For them, the term carries social and political significance.

Although many groups arising from the modern Civil Rights movement—such as the Black Power movement, La Raza, the American Indian Movement (AIM), and the Asian American Political Alliance—have emphasized cultural nationalism, even separatism, women of color have found unity in the very issue of diversity. Initially, women of color activists such as the Combahee River Collective (composed of Black feminists) and Asian Women United worked to help fight against social discrimination within the specific context of their own racial and ethnic groups, but these organizations also recognized their ties with other women of color.

Influence and Commitments

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, women of color groups formed as a reaction against the second wave of the women’s movement, which had been led by such White women as Betty Friedan and Gloria Steinem and which had emphasized the needs of the middle-class (generally White) homemaker. As the women’s movement sought to challenge the White man as a universal norm, the women of color groups sought to dislodge any myth that the White, middle-class woman represented all women. Recognizing the multiple inequities in their society, women of color challenged White feminists to rethink the relationship among race, gender, class, and sexuality. For them, gender is one factor in a complex system of socially structured oppression. Aware of the discrimination faced by men of color, women of color try to avoid privileging gender over race. At the same time, however, recognizing that as a group they often find themselves at the bottom of the socioeconomic ladder, women of color also vigorously attack the gender inequities found in patriarchal societies.

Early on, women of color activists, often working in both women’s and nationalist liberation movements, acknowledged their multiple commitments and the ways in which these commitments affected their identity. Women such as Audre Lorde, Bell Hooks, Gloria Anzaldúa, and Cherríe Moraga believed that discussions of their identity should not exclude their diverse experiences. Acknowledging their hybrid existence, some women of color constructed theories that accounted for the multiplicity of their identity. Anzaldúa’s Borderlands: The New Mestiza-La Frontera (1987) offers a key reading of this theory of multiplicity, which the author calls a borderland or mestiza consciousness. Her new mestiza finds that she straddles two or more cultures. Rather than demanding that women of color choose one identity, Anzaldúa understands that she can affirm her multiple “differences.” For Anzaldúa, the borderland/frontera provides a space that accommodates multiple discourses of race/ethnicity, class, gender, and sexuality.

While women of color may find this multiplicity liberating, it can also cause fragmentation. In fact, their very strength— their diversity—can be the point that divides women of color. In order to further specific political goals, these individuals may need to form other coalitional groups, highlighting different aspects of their multiple identities.

As women of color gain a greater voice, an increasing number are engaging in coalition projects. In 1980, a group predominantly composed of African American women and led by such activists as Barbara Smith organized the Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press, a publishing company for women of color. In 1981, Anzaldúa and Moraga edited This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color, a groundbreaking anthology that signaled a shift in feminist studies. During the 1980s and 1990s, growing interest in women of color was demonstrated by the creation of the Women of Color Association, the organization of an annual Women of Color Conference, and the publication of works by and about women of color.

As women of color in the United States create bridges between women from different ethnic and racial groups, they are also encouraging ties with Third World women. In the 1970s and 1980s, the United Nations World Conferences on Women brought together women from both Third World and First World countries. Encouraging women to consider the impact of a global feminism, the conferences further solidified the commitment of American women of color groups to become instruments for global social change for all oppressed peoples.

Women of color have also begun to focus their attention on empowering younger generations and girls of color. Several organizations have cropped up with the goal of empowering young women of color by providing resources and support.

Bibliography

Anzaldúa, Gloria. Borderlands La Frontera: The New Mestiza. San Francisco: Spinsters, 1987.

Essed, Philomena. Diversity: Gender, Color and Culture. Amherst: U of Massachusetts P, 1996.

Hernández, Daisy, and Bushra Rehman. Colonize This!: Young Women of Color on Today's Feminism. New York: Seal, 2002.

Moraga, Cherríe, and Gloria Anzaldúa. This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color. 2nd ed. New York: Kitchen Table, 1983.

Rehman, Bushra, and Daisy Hernandez, editors. Colonize This! Young Women of Color on Today’s Feminism. Basic Books, 2019.

Siid, Aziah. “5 Organizations Empowering Black Girls as Leaders.” Word in Black, 16 Feb. 2024, wordinblack.com/2024/02/5-organizations-empowering-black-girls-as-leaders/. Accessed 2 Dec. 2024.

Zinn, Maxine Baca, and Bonnie Thornton Dill. Women of Color in US Society. Philadelphia: Temple UP, 1994.