The Invisibility of African American women during the Second Wave of Feminism

The Second Wave of Feminism was influenced by the book The Feminine Mystic written by Betty Friedman which was challenging the belief that women were born to stay in the house, do the chores, get married and take care of their children. The book was making a criticism on ladies traditional roles that their place was in the kitchen, cooking and taking good care of their families. The Feminine Mystic was an inspiration and motivation to many white women of the middle class who wanted a better future and did not want to remain to be housewives. All they wanted was to be professional ladies with good careers(Anand,2018). Since the white women had begun resenting the idea of staying back at home they created a movement known as the National Organization for Women (NOW) whose goal was to enhance equality for women to ensure they get the same rights as the men and also to participate in everything in the country.

The black feminists were invisible and were facing discrimination from the white women. African America women felt that the civil rights movements were only focusing on the issues that were affecting the white women. The demonstrations were not showing concern on the problems of racial, class and gender oppression. The Civil rights Movements and also NOW did not create anti-racist campaigns. All these issues of discrimination led to the development of Black Feminism, which led to an increase of African American groups. It was describing the African American woman interpretation of feminism (Leonfils, 2017). The civil right s movements where always excluding the women of color from leadership roles this was a form of racism. The white women were being unfair towards the black feminists and also the poor.

Women from the low social class were also facing discrimination since the movements were addressing problems affecting white women from the middle class. Black lesbian feminists who were very influential people in the movements also got unfair treatment because of their race and even sexual orientation. Racism was the main issue in everything since all they could see was a woman of color who was a lesbian. The feminists wanted equal rights as the others and also fair treatments. Racism is one thing that people should fight since it’s an inappropriate thing. Although slavery is over, many people are still discriminating the women of color. Being prejudice towards people because of their race is unethical. Later the black feminists founded a movement that was focusing on them.

Lack of employment of the African American women was increasing their poverty levels. The rise in discrimination was affecting them since they were not getting the same opportunities as the white women(Smith,2018). The poor African American women were invisible during these movements. In many cases, people with low incomes have no voice, and people do not listen to them. "A Brief Summary Of The Second Wave Of Feminism. " Feminism wave In India. https://feminisminindia. com/2018/04/25/summary-second-wave-of-feminism/. Beauvoir, Simone de, Constance Borde, and Sheila Malovany-Chevallier. htm. Fields, Barbara J. "Barbara Jeanne Fields: Slavery, Race, And Ideology In The United States Of America. New Left Review I/181, May-June 1990. Newleftreview. "Literary Activism And the Black Feminist Woman Writer: A Study Of Alice Walker And Carolina Maria De Jesus.