The women’s movement equated liberation with capitalist economic success

Evidence

Initially, class privilege was not discussed by white women in the women’s movement. They wanted to project an image of themselves as victims and that could not be done by drawing attention to their class. In fact, the contemporary women’s movement was extremely class bound. As a group, white participants did not denounce capitalism. They chose to define liberation using the terms of white capitalist patriarchy, equating liberation with gaining economic status and money power. Like all good capitalists, they proclaimed work as the key to liberation. — bell hooks, Ain’t I a Woman_ Black Women and…, 428

Categorization

• XREF: This foreshadows later Black feminist critique that mainstream feminism internalized capitalist values rather than challenging them. — connects to: White women appropriated feminism to gain entry into American capitalism. — bell hooks, Ain’t I a Woman_ Black Women and…, 442; Some feminists appropriated the movement to serve individual careers rather than collective change — bell hooks, Ain’t I a Woman_ Black Women and…, 551; Non-oppressed women sustain a reformist, racist, classist feminism without urgency — bell hooks, Ain’t I a Woman_ Black Women and…, 556 (+4 more)

Related

• Feminist ideals were resignified to serve neoliberal market individualism (similarity 0.92)
• The mainstream women’s movement was deliberately structured around white middle-class interests. (similarity 0.87)
• White women appropriated feminism to gain entry into American capitalism. (similarity 0.86)
• Both white and black patriarchies framed feminism as opposition to black liberation. (similarity 0.86)
• Some feminists appropriated the movement to serve individual careers rather than collective change (similarity 0.86)
• A racist and classist feminism merely perpetuates women’s bondage to patriarchy. (similarity 0.86)
• White men set the terms of women’s liberation and exploit inter-group competition (similarity 0.86)
• Black women rejected the movement’s execution, not feminism’s ideology. (similarity 0.86)
• Capitalist economic change, not feminism, drove women into the workforce (similarity 0.85)
• Non-oppressed women sustain a reformist, racist, classist feminism without urgency (similarity 0.85)
• Women’s liberation depends on liberating all oppressed strata simultaneously (similarity 0.85)
• Black women needed a separate feminist intellectual tradition (similarity 0.84)
• White feminists appropriated feminism while hooks reclaims it for all people (similarity 0.84)
• 60s black liberation codified sexist role separation within the movement (similarity 0.84)
• White middle-class women are less oppressed than poor or black women (similarity 0.83)

Broader Connections

• Some feminists appropriated the movement to serve individual careers rather than collective change #exemplifies (0.70) — bell hooks, Ain’t I a Woman_ Black Women and…, 551
• White women appropriated feminism to gain entry into American capitalism. #exemplifies (0.60) — bell hooks, Ain’t I a Woman_ Black Women and…, 442
• Non-oppressed women sustain a reformist, racist, classist feminism without urgency #complicates (0.50) — bell hooks, Ain’t I a Woman_ Black Women and…, 556
• White men set the terms of women’s liberation and exploit inter-group competition #complicates (0.45) — bell hooks, Ain’t I a Woman_ Black Women and…, 454