How did race influence the positions of first-wave feminists Essay - 1

How did race influence the positions of first-wave feminists - Essay interpreterThe agenda of feminist activists included such aspirations as equality with men in the fields of education, captain careers, and culture married womens economic and legal dependence sexual and moral double standards womens lack of control over their bodies the drudgery of housework low wages and not least, womens animadversion from politics (LeGates, p.203). It is quite obvious that disparities between racial and ethnic communities do not feature in this list. This suggests that while racial minorities continuously strived for emancipation during this period, their struggles were recorded independent of the womens movement.This apparent inconsistency is reflected in the fact that the leading activists of the first-wave feminist movement were largely white women of middle- dissever socio-economic background. A closer test of the movement betrays a double standard on part of the reformers, who, it seeme d, were content to accept the restraints of race and class as natural and inevitable.(LeGates, p.197) The issue of race was more pronounced in North the States compared to Europe. At the time of first-wave feminism, North America was largely inhabited by Caucasians who emigrated from Western European nations in the preceding two centuries. The leaders of feminist movement saw new immigrants from diverse ethnic and racial backgrounds as a threat to their own position of relative privilege. They were only too willing to transact the racial prejudices and discriminatory practices of their male compatriots. As LeGates points out, They used statistics to prove the numerical superiority of native-born Anglo-European women in the population, contending that the enfranchisement of all women would offset the foreign vote. (LeGates, 257)The epitome of such attitudes is captured in the following judgement expressed by Canadian feminist Margaret McAlpine, who advised the prime minister in 191 1 that Canadian