To What Extent Does

Feminism Benefit
White Women?
By Sharon Anatole
What is Feminism and what do
you associate with it ?
Outline of my Dissertation
• The main focus of my dissertation was to see how inclusive feminism was throughout
history to women outside the periphery of white middle class women.

• I researched the three main waves of feminism; first wave, second wave and third
wave/post feminism. I looked into their pioneers and their stances on other branches of
oppression such as racism and classism.

• I chose to focus largely on first and second wave feminism, as these two waves were the
most prominent in the political sphere, whereas a third/post feminism is not as notable
as the previous two.
Reasons for my EPQ
• I chose to focus my EPQ on the inclusivity of feminism because I used to identify as a
feminist, however I felt the movement was exclusive and did not cater to the issues that
women of colour faced.

• Many women of colour are expected to conform to Eurocentric beauty standards, which
contradicts a common objective in the movement to implicate realistic beauty standards
in the related industries, but women of colour are still scrutinised on their
appearances because they do not conform the westernised societal norms of beauty

• This particular issue has driven me away from current feminism but has catalysed my
curiosity in whether the women's movement caters their interests to women like me.
Research
• I chose to gather most of my sources from secondary research such as journal
articles and eBooks written by academics as it provided an (often) unbiased basis
for my arguments and general points.
• From my sources I collected information about all three waves of feminism that
proved the inclusivity or lack thereof within feminism.
• There were many statements and incidents disputing the feminists community
sense 'all-embracing' stance, such as racist remarks made by prolific feminists or a
lack of women of colour in supposed feminist organisations.
Research and Discussion
• For many of my journal articles and eBooks I utilised websites such as Google Scholar and JSTOR that provided important
quotations, citations, historical context and arguments for all sections of my dissertation

• For first wave feminism I found: though the movement was birthed from anti-slavery and abolitionism movements, many of the
pioneers of feminism were inherently racist.

• For second wave feminism: feminism was becoming more inclusive, organisations such as NOW were founded (partially) by
women of colour, but issues white middle class women did not experience ( i.e. systematic racism ) were still being ignored.

• For third wave feminism: the shift was taken towards women of colour but white women were still the biggest demographic within
the movement, and though the theory of intersectionality was introduced it was often ignored.
Conclusion of my findings

• After extensive research I concluded that throughout the history of

feminism, it has proven to be beneficial and inclusive of mainly white
women, and often disregards and minimises the importance of issues
minority women, in particular black women face.

• Therefore, feminism benefits white women to a greater extent in

comparison to their women of colour counterparts.
Strengths of my dissertation
• Personally, I felt my main discussion and research review were the strength of my EPQ.

• My discussion was concise and provided concrete evidence throughout for the inclusivity
of each wave of feminism. I tried to include counterarguments as well to provide and
overall balanced dissertation.

• My research review was very detailed as it provided the pros and cons for each source. I
also included the academic background of each source and their authors/ editors and
how that may have altered the credibility of my research.
Weaknesses of my dissertation
• I found referencing and citations to be a tedious and difficult task. I could not
remember the page numbers of my sources and would often have to re-read
excessively long articles to find often enough a one sentence quote. I also found
the formatting of the footnotes to be difficult to constantly do.

• Writing my introduction was also difficult to do. My original introduction was

6000 words long and was mainly about the history of feminism. I had to keep
rephrasing and taking out reams of work to get a concise, short but detailed
introduction.
What have I learnt
• I have expanded my means of researching and where I can find credible sources of information, as
websites such as JSTOR and Google Scholar were introduced to me whilst I was completing my
EPQ. I am now able to use journal articles and eBooks edited or written by credible academics
that specialise in a particular field relevant to my dissertation.

• I have also improved my time management skills, as I set myself milestones and deadlines to
complete sections that are unfinished, for example, my first milestone was to complete my
research by 8th November 2018, and I managed to do so. My time management improvements
are transferrable to other essays and tasks I may have to complete in the future.
Bibliography
• Collective, C. R. (1986). The Combahee River Collective Statement: Black Feminist Organizing in unshed the Seventies and Eighties. pp.1
• Breines, W. (2002). What's Love Got To Do With It? White Women, Black Women, and Feminism in the Movement Years. Journal of Feminism,
1096. pp.1096
• Hewitt, N. (2005). Second Wave Feminism. A Companion to American Women's History, pp.414.
• Kinser, A. (2004). Negotiating Spaces for/Through Third Wave Feminism. NWSA Journal , Volume 16(3), pp.129.
• Lavender, C. (2009). Ideology; Sexual Difference, First Wave Feminism and the Emergence of the New Woman. Retrieved from
https://csivc.csi.cuny.edu/history/files/lavender/389/02-First%20Wave%20Feminism%20Discovered.pdf
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