Mainstream feminism, white supremacy, and anti-racist feminisms

The history of the women’s movement is one of great gains, as well as missed opportunities, due to the domination of the movement by those women with the most privilege. This report discusses the challenge faced by the mainstream women’s movement to overcome racism and prejudice while trying to remain relevant to many different women. I discuss white supremacy within the mainstream women’s movement as well as scholarship on anti-racist feminism, with a focus on women of Color feminisms and critical whiteness studies. Following Kimberlé Crenshaw and Chandra Mohanty, I argue that the issues of the most marginalized women should be central to the women’s movement’s projects of feminist liberation. While the constraints to women’s liberation will continue to pose challenges through the commodification and domestication of radical politics by liberalism and the neoliberal academy, feminism continues to hold possibilities for women fighting to overcome oppression.