I am white, I am a woman, I am a feminist, but I am not a white feminist nor do I only advocate for women.
White feminism is described as feminism that focuses on well-off white women and ignored the oppression of women of color and others lacking privilege.
I am a feminist, which means I want equality, for women AND men. I want equal pay for equal work, I want equal opportunity in the workforce, I want women to play a big as a role in the military as men, I want to see men get paternity leave, I want equal concern for rape and sexual assault. For those questioning if anything I said is true, let me give you a little information as to why I want all of this.
Gender Wage Gap: A women will make roughly 78 cents to a man's dollar earned while doing the same job with the same credentials. That is a white woman, women of color will make less. Latina women in the same occupation as a white man will make roughly 54 cents to the man's dollar. An African American women will make 64 cents to the man's dollar. So not only do women deal with being paid less, there is a definite racial discriminatory factor when looking deeper into the wage gap.
When looking at employment, a woman also will not have the same chances of being promoted as high as a man. This is known as the glass ceiling. a glass ceiling is referred to as "an unofficially acknowledged barrier to advancement in a profession, especially affecting women and members of minorities ". With that being noted, it isn't surprising that women are not the holders of many high paying jobs but rather hold the majority of lower paying jobs.
A new mother will be allocated 12 weeks of paid maternity leave when she gives birth. That is 12 weeks that she and the baby have to form a bond. currently, 4 states in the US offer paid maternity leave. 4. In total, only 10-15% of companies in the US offer paid paternity leave, most of which are white-collar jobs. Sadly, many men will not take this leave due to the fear they will seem less committed to their job and may risk being demoted. We have become a nation in which our men feel they must worry about their jobs more than they should their newborn child.
The military has been accepting of women in the forces for quite a while, but mainly as nurses and domestic workers. Men should not be solely responsible for protecting our country. There are currently 214,098 women in the military. It may sound like a lot, but there is not one branch that holds more than 19.5% of women, which is relatively low.
I hate to have to even write this. Women and men can both and sadly are both raped. On average, every 1 out of 6 women has been a victim of sexual assault and men the statistic is every 1 out of 10. We tend to focus so much on stopping the culture of women that we forget that men have it happen too. As a feminist, I want to see a culture come forward to addresses the problem, both for women and men, and offers help to both sides.
As a feminist, I am often told I want equality when it is beneficial to me. However, this si simply untrue. I am a feminist who wants true equality to offer to men and women.
I am a feminist but not only for white women.
