Intersectional feminist fight for political freedom

 

Intersectionality has been termed as individuals who may be more disadvantaged in more ways than one, through experiencing the overlapping nature of discrimination based on race, gender, class and sexuality (Strolovitch, 2007). Focusing on intersectional feminists through the specific lens of BAME (Black Asian Minority Ethnic) groups and their struggle to political activism.

This can be seen through racial issues such as Police brutality towards the black groups which incited the Black lives matter movement or gender inequalities creating feminist movement for equal rights of the genders and recent movements such as the me too. Intersectional feminists cannot be reduced to one fundamental type and within this complex and multi-dimensional forms of contemporary inequalities and oppression minority groups face across the globe, shows how important political activism is and should never be excluded or marginalised (Creshaw,1991).

Historically women have always had to fight for their political inclusion and voice, seems this is still the case. Women in politics is very crucial in dismantling the system that discriminates against them. When women had almost no rights, the feminist movement became very prominent. Women such as Daudson, Fawcett, Pankhurst and many more other women made a significant contribution for the empowerment of women through the suffragette movement. Contemporary issues such as the gender pay gap, men pay risen by 10.4% to 14.48 per hour, women increased more by 12% still stands lower at 13.16 an hour (office for national statistics, 2017). Which further underlines discrepancy between the genders as seeing women less invaluable in the workplace (McGuiness and Pyper, 2018).

The current news about George Floyd, another of many black men who lost their lives heartlessly for no reason at the hands of police brutality and many other instances where black citizens were treated unfairly. I think of how many have been arrested, or put in jail, or killed. Why is this a problem? Because Black people disproportionately suffer from police use of force in the uk, are overrepresented in the prison population and are more likely to be sent to prison than white offenders. Racial inequalities and oppression are very apparent and has little to no political representation hence leading to very little engagement. Although recent events have sparked the black lives matter movement to a greater level, change happens through the policies that control the system, so political activism in this sense is great but perhaps maybe need to look at voting for people who can bring about real change in policies perhaps?

In the U.K., focusing on females as minority group that interconnects with race, we can see through voting history, in 1918 all men could vote whilst only some women could, instances like these creating obstacles for women having the same levels of engagement as men, hence the rise of feminism in political activity for basic rights such as the right to vote.

Fig 1 (Ipsos Mori, 2019)

 

In figure one, we can see voter turnout by ethnic group over time, it shows that overall, white citizens are more likely to vote then Ethnic minority citizens. In the 2019 general election gender vote turn-out, the male voter turnout was 63%, whilst the female voter turnout was just 59% (Ipsos Mori, 2019), although it’s just a 4% disparity between the gender voter turnouts, we must understand why it may be that women are less likely to be politically involved in terms of voting participation of political engagement. As well as the level of engagement between the white citizens and the ethnic minority citizens who are the least likely to be engaged.

Inequalities in minority groups could suggest Political apathy, a sense of disinterest and disillusion towards the political climate. These minority groups are disengaged due to having anything appealing about politics, they aren’t given policies to vote for nor are they represented or actively made a part of the process.

Fig 2 (House of Commons Library, 2018)

Figure 2, shows 32% of women elected in the house of commons, note this is the highest it has ever been. Women make up 50.6% of the uk population (The world bank, 2018). House of commons is absolutely dominated by men, currently only 5 members of the cabinet being women (House of commons library, 2019). Since the representation of peoples act of 1918, we’ve only had 2 prime ministers and 400 female MPs, when you compare this to the 4500 male MPs elected since then, surely, we must be wondering why? (Cunningham, 2018).

Women are clearly underrepresented and not discussed enough in politics. Why isn’t there enough female roles in politics? Lack of representation of women in politics leaves women disengaged due to having anything too appealing about politics for us women, they aren’t giving policies to vote for. We need way more representation for us and fight to advocate for the policies that help the female minority groups.

Studies show that women involvement in politics can encourage those who have felt marginalised to become more engaged, especially in countries such as these where women are often under-appreciated and detested (Nadeem and Shahed, 2017). This can be done by introducing the quota system to recruit women, especially women of colour in political positions to ensure there is representation of them in the political field (Htun, 2004).

Intersectional feminists are so important and essential in politics, as we do not have enough, the system controlled by politics is controlled by white middle class men, how can women’s rights be considered, if there aren’t enough women involved fighting for it, how can race issues be solved through policies if there aren’t enough ethnic minorities in the system that governs what happens to us in this unfair system. This is a NEED for engagement through awareness, in schools, general conversations, at work. through voting, etc. Gender and race stereotypes need to be broken down. Education to educate stereotypes.

Are we the generation for real change?

 

Bibliography:

 

Crenshaw, K. (1991) Mapping the margins: Intersectionality, identity politics, and violence against women of color. Stanford Law Review. 43(6) Pp. 1241-1300.

 

Cunningham, E., 2018. London Live: 100 years of women in politics. [Online]
Available at: https://www.londonlive.co.uk/news/2018-11-21/100-years-of-women-in-politics
[Accessed 02/06/2020].

 

House of commons library (2018) Women in Parliament and Government briefing paper Number SNO1250 12 February 2018. London: House of Commons.

 

House of Commons Library (2019), Women in Parliament and Government available at https://researchbriefings.parliament.uk/ResearchBriefing/Summary/SN01250 [Accessed 02/06/2020].

 

Htun, M. (2004) Is Gender like Ethnicity? The Political Representation of Identity Groups. Perspectives on Politics. 2(3). Pp. 439-458. Available at: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3688807 (Date accessed: 02/06/2020).

 

Ipsos MORI, (2019) How Britain Voted In The 2019 Election, Available at: https://www.ipsos.com/ipsos-mori/en-uk/how-britain-voted-2019-election, (Accessed: 02/06/2020)

 

McGuiness, F and Pyper, D (2018) The Gender Pay Gap. Available at: researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/SN07068/SN07068.pdf. (Accessed: 02/06/2020)

 

Nadeem, M, & Shahed, S. (2017) Factors Influencing the Attitudes of Urban Educated Women towards Politics. Journal of Art and Social Sciences

 

Office for National Statistics (2017) Understanding the gender pay gap in the UK available at https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/earningsandworkinghours/articles/understandingthegenderpaygapintheuk/2018-01-17 (Accessed: 02/06/2020)

 

Strolovitch, D.Z. (2007) Affirmative Advocacy: Race, Class, and Gender in Interest Group Politics. University of Chicago Press: Chicago. Available at: ProQuest Ebook Central. (Accessed: 02/06/2020).

 

The World Bank, 2018. The World Bank: Women in The World. [Online]
Available at: https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/sg.gen.parl.zs
[Accessed 02/06/2020].