White Feminism During the Women’s Suffrage Movement and Now
Author’s note: I’m a white person writing about the harm of white feminism, a narrative that should certainly not center white women. This post includes information I learned, authors I have been educated by, and actions I have taken in my own search from the perspective of someone trying to be less of a white feminist. I urge you to seek out more information from women of color, a few of which are linked in this post.
I am a white person who grew up in Oregon. I learned the mainstream, colonized, patriarchal, white supremacist history that most of us white folks did growing up. So, I naively imagined the women’s suffrage movement with images of women bonding together, angrily marching in tandem, supporting one another in the attempt to ascend the ladder that we were all banned from climbing. It’s possible that there are many of you out there who had a similar image in your heads. Gee, were we wrong.
Then...
I have recently learned that the happy propaganda cartoon that my brain created, or rather, that a white supremacist society carefully crafted, is far from reality. White women ascended our steps at the expense of others and left an incredibly racist, white supremacist legacy of the feminist movement in the US, as well as other predominately white countries such as the UK.
Racism and white feminism impacted the Suffrage movement in a variety of ways. Many white suffragists actively fought to exclude people of color of all genders from gaining voting rights. This is exemplified in a myriad of ways — some recommended links are at the end of the article if you aren’t sure where to start down the rabbit hole. Black women were forced to the back of the line in most suffrage marches (if included at all). Incensed by the passage of the 15th amendment (giving Black men the right to vote), white women continued forming their own segregated suffrage bubble. Anna Howard Shaw summed up this sentiment: "You have put the ballot in the hands of your Black men, thus making them political superiors of white women. Never before in the history of the world have men made former slaves the political masters of their former mistresses!”
Not only were many pro-suffrage white women showing their oppressive wishes, but others fought against women’s rights because they did not want to give power to people of color — yes, white women elected to forego their own rights rather than see Black folks gain any. Below, a 1915 piece of Georgian anti-suffrage propaganda from a lecture clearly urges a vote against women’s right to vote because, among other things, “White Supremacy must be maintained.”
I recently moved to Washington, DC, after a lifetime in Oregon and had the privilege of attending a free lecture at the National Archives, African American Women in the Suffrage Movement and the Battle for the Vote. It discusses white feminism, but also the amazing accomplishments of Black women during this movement (highly recommend watching the panel). One of the impacts of white feminism is that these voices are often suppressed throughout history and their achievements buried beneath those of white women. While it is not the main focus of this article, I encourage you to become familiar with the work of women of color in the suffrage movement, and acknowledge their place in history in the conversations we will be seeing next year as the Nineteenth Amendment centennial rolls around:
Madam CJ Walker, anti-lynching activist who through her hair care entrepreneurship provided a means of economic independence to other Black women, and supported them as leaders and advocates in their communities.
Ida B. Wells, co-founder of the NAACP with Mary Burnett Talbert, who used her journalism to bring to light conditions of Black folks in the South, and who led many movements and protests.
Mary Church Terrell, co-founder and first president of the National Association of Colored Women, and one of the first African American women to get a college degree.
Sojourner Truth, early advocate of abolition and women’s rights and considered a founder of the concept of intersectionality in her ‘Ain’t I A Woman’ speech.
The hundreds of other Black women, had they press coverage or not, who organized in their local communities and churches in the face of persecution and exclusion.
Adelina (Nina) Otero-Warren, whose organizing is considered crucial for the ratification of the 19th Amendment in New Mexico (including her activism in Spanish, the language of over 50% of New Mexico’s women at the time).
Dr. Mabel Ping-Hua Lee, academic and feminist who advocated for girl’s education and women’s civic involvement yet possibly never once voted due to her status as a Chinese immigrant.
Marie Louise Bottineau Baldwin, who fought for the rights of Native Americans and women in a time when Indigenous culture was being forcibly erased.
...and Now
It has been 100 years since the afore-pictured anti-suffrage card was produced. While many rights have been gained, our voting system is still rife with disenfranchisement and suppression of people of color in various forms. White women still (be it consciously or subconsciously) uphold white supremacy through voting and through political power, as was evidenced in part by the statistic that 53% of white women voted for Donald Trump. This is not to say the remaining 47% are blameless, however. We choose how we flex our privilege by opting out of uncomfortable conversations with other white women, electing to only attend protests centered around the white experience, and remaining blind to our cultural appropriation — all things I have been deeply guilty of myself.
White feminism centers the experiences of white, cis, straight, thin, non-disabled, neurotypical, middle/upper class, privileged-in-every-way-but-being-a-woman women — though you don’t have to be a white cis woman to be a white feminist. When the topic of other forms of oppression, particularly race, come up, white feminism silences them saying “we’re not talking about ____, we’re talking about gender,” which automatically disregards the intersecting experiences of women and gender non-conforming folks who fall outside of that bubble. White feminism celebrates the upcoming 100 year anniversary of the right to vote but neglects the fact that women of color had to wait longer for this privilege—45 more years for Black women through the Voting Rights Act of 1965. White feminism gets angry and defensive at the concepts of white privilege or cultural appropriation without taking the time to understand the perspectives of those we have hurt. White feminism prioritizes marches, workplace policies, or political discussions that center white women and make other identities second-tier (or lower). “What woman here is so enamoured of her own oppression that she cannot see her heelprint upon another woman’s face?” (Audre Lorde, “Uses of Anger: Women Responding to Racism,” 1981)
As anti-racist activist Layla Saad says, white silence is violence. I now realize how deeply I was huddled against the shipwrecked door of ignorance to prevent myself from acknowledging the sea of -isms (especially racism) in which I not only floated, but helped reinforce. Refusing to acknowledge how white women have actively and passively supported racism and other forms of oppression only continues to inflict harm. Intent ≠ impact. I believe that most of us don’t consciously want or intend to be complicit in the oppression of others. However, by claiming that we are “not racist” and closing ourselves off to this concept, we absolve ourselves of responsibility, continue perpetuating this culture, and impact things for the worse.
I really like the “moving sidewalk” analogy of oppression. Some people are running on the moving sidewalk in the airport: actively racist, really getting somewhere fast. However, most of us are standing there claiming that since we’re not walking, we’re not moving — but as a white person in the US, even if we close our eyes and stand really still, we’re still reinforcing a lot of negative beliefs and actions. We’re still moving even if we aren’t putting energy into it. We can’t help but move because that’s how the structure was designed over centuries of colonization and white supremacy. In order to truly stay at one specific spot or to start to move backwards, we have to put quite a bit of energy into walking or even running the other way.
Oppression may look different than 100 or 200 years ago — unfortunately hate and oppression have mutated like viruses in order to evolve alongside legal protections and social progress. It is now less obvious than that Georgia Association’s pamphlet pictured above, but it is still alive and well.
Like a virus, white supremacy may not have rational thought capabilities, but its sole purpose is to continue its own existence through whatever means necessary, which often includes creative ways of doing so, insidiously. This can be through things like conflict avoidance, women’s “agreeable” gender socialization, distraction via superficial causes, complacency and comfort with the privilege we have, not feeling like white people have a place in racial justice advocacy — and these are just a few of the things that have kept me personally in the haze of white supremacy and white feminism.
As people with power, especially white women who hold other intersecting privileges, we must understand our history and work to change the future; we must seek out the work and experiences of the people our demographic has oppressed, challenge ourselves, and overcome our own white fragility so that we may work towards equity and justice for all.
It’s really hard remembering and acknowledging all of the harmful things I’ve done, or the harm I’ve perpetuated simply by ignoring things. It creates discomfort that my brain is yelling at me to avoid, but that is one of white supremacy’s tactics for furthering itself. So, other white folks, I urge you to understand and examine your own discomfort as you acknowledge how you may be participating in white feminism and what you can do to counteract it. Here are a few things that have helped me (and there are so many other ways to confront your own white feminism):
First and foremost, examine white supremacy in yourself to understand how you personally are reinforcing this culture. I highly recommend Layla Saad’s Me and White Supremacy workbook for this reflective work — it was initially an Instagram challenge, then PDF workbook, but will be coming out as a published book in January!
Share this work with others, but don’t just rely on social media — these conversations need to be had directly and in person. Yes, even the conversations that suck to have.
Find local groups, or make one of your own, for action and mutual accountability.
Speak up when you see white feminism and white centering in conversations (like next August 18 during the centennial of the 19th Amendment). Understand these harmful narratives when you see them, who is in control of those stories, and how they profit from them.
Read articles by and listen to women of color about their experiences, including diversifying your social media streams.
Look things up on the internet that you don’t understand before asking someone else to explain it to you.
Pay for, acknowledge, and share the work of others who are educating you on these topics.
Investigate how colonization, white supremacy, and cultural appropriation show up in your everyday life, such as holidays, Halloween costumes, Dia de Los Muertos makeup, yoga practice, workplace policies, and whose voice you most often hear.
It’s hard, and we’ll all screw up sometimes, but the important thing is to start now, and not wait until we’re going to be “perfect” at it. I encourage you to learn more, open your hearts, and begin going backwards on that moving sidewalk today.
“In a racist society, it is not enough to be non-racist. We must be anti-racist.” -Angela Davis
Additional Reading
The internet is full of great information about intersectionality and women of color fighting for feminism that truly advocates for equity and justice. Here are just a few additional places that helped me learn from feminists fighting for racial equity (and this doesn’t even touch on the plethora of books available by feminist authors of color):
Evette Dion, Women’s Suffrage Leaders Left Out Black Women
Rachel Cargle, White Feminism is White Supremacy in Heels
Dr. Kimberlé Crenshaw, The Urgency of Intersectionality
Layla Saad, Good Ancestor Podcast (episode 1 focusing on white feminism, featuring Rachel Cargle!) and upcoming Me and White Supremacy book (I believe you can get the previously-published workbook PDF for free if you pre-order the book)
Audre Lorde, “Age, Race, Class, and Sex: Women Redefining Difference” and “The Uses of Anger: Women Responding to Racism”
Dr. Robin DiAngelo, White Fragility (it’s a book, but the linked article is a good overview of the topic) (note, this is the one white person on the list)
Doing a search for any combination of words suggesting racism in the women’s suffrage movement.
Brenna (they/them or she/her) has spent their career in human resources, organizational equity and inclusion, and administration. This experience includes time at Portland State University, Mercy Corps, USAID, the Center for International Environmental Law, and volunteering for various organizations advocating for LGBTQI+, gender, and social justice. They also hold a Masters in Public Administration in HR Management from Portland State University.
[Note: This article was updated on 3/14/2023 to update a broken link to the book “Me and White Supremacy.”]