1. Background

2. Key criticisms and demands

3. Authors of the manifesto
     Angela Davis    Barbara Ransby    Cinzia Arruzza    Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor    Linda Martin Alcoff    Nancy Fraser    Rasmea Yousef Odeh    Tithi Bhattacharya  

4. Related Movements
     Intersectional Feminist Thought    Black Feminism    Socialist Feminism    Ni Una Menos  

5. References

Feminism of the 99% (F99) is a contemporary, grassroots, radical feminist movement, which recognises intersectionality and advocates activism for and by all women - including those who have been overlooked by other feminist movements.^[1] It was proposed by a collective of prominent American feminists in an appeal published in Viewpoint Magazine in February 2017, and built upon the mobilisation of women seen in the 2017 Women’s March in January. The appeal simultaneously called for an International Women’s Strike on 8 March 2017. It is a successor to the accumulated intellectual legacy of feminist movements such as radical feminism, Marxist feminism, Black feminism and transnational/decolonial feminism, and asserts that gender oppression is not caused by a single factor, sexism. They insist that it is rather a multifaceted product of the intersections of sexism, racism, colonialism and capitalism.

Background

The demand for a Feminism of the 99% was published in Viewpoint Magazine on the 3@th of February 2017. It was made in response to the mass mobilisation of women seen in the 2017 Women’s March – a worldwide protest on 21 January 2017, protesting the inauguration of Donald Trump as President of the United States and advocating for women’s rights, human rights and policy reform. The authors cite the Argentinian movement Ni Una Menos as their inspiration, as it too is a fourth-wave grassroots movement which aims to address intersectional issues.  Aiming to build on the momentum of the Women’s March, the authors call attention to what they see as the failures of contemporary feminist movements such as lean-in feminism, which they argue have failed the “overwhelming majority” of women who “do not have access to individual self-promotion and advancement and whose conditions of life can be improved only through policies that defend social reproduction, secure reproductive justice, and guarantee labor rights”. They further argue that the conditions of life of women have deteriorated over the last 30 years due to corporate globalisation and capitalist systems, especially those of colour, of working class, of migrant backgrounds or who are unemployed.

Key criticisms and demands

F99 criticises other contemporary feminist movements, such as lean-in feminism and corporate feminism, for only serving the privileged top 1% of women. It holds the logic that women are able to succeed in their career as long as they work to serve the benefit of the patriarchy, and that this relies on these women having access to resources and opportunities that most women are unable to access. The authors of the appeal recognise the need for a feminist movement which serves the needs of the many, and calls attention to the women who are overlooked by neoliberal feminism. However, they call for the movement to look beyond just issues of gender, criticising a number of key issues and movements including: racialized gender violence, the failings of neoliberalism, attacks on labour rights and the undervaluing of labour; reproductive injustices; homophobia; transphobia; and xenophobia. The aim of the movement is to contribute to what its creators see as a “a new international feminist movement with an expanded agenda–at once anti-racist, anti-imperialist, anti-heterosexist, and anti-neoliberal”.^[1]

Authors of the manifesto

Angela Davis

Angela Davis is described to be an advocate for the oppressed, she is the author of many books, her most renowned being “Women, Race and Class”. She is identified as an activist, scholar and writer.^[1] Born in 1944, in Birmingham Alabama, Davis completed her masters and joined the U.S. Communist Party, during which time she was jailed on charges relating to a prison outbreak. She was a co-chair for the Women’s March in 2017 and is an activist for civil rights and for the state of prisons in the U.S.A. She has openly opposed the Million Man March and has often spoken against the death penalty.

Barbara Ransby

Barbara Ransby graduated from Columbia University with a bachelor's degree in history in 1984. She earned her master's and Ph.D. at the University of Michigan. She is a long-time political activist and is a professor at the University of Illinois. After writing a biography of civil rights activist Ella Baker, she became the founder of Ella’s Daughters, a group of women who network in Ella Baker’s tradition. Ransby was also a co-convenor for The Black Radical Congress in 1998. In 2016, Barbara Ransby was elected the president of National Women’s Studies Association.

Cinzia Arruzza

[https://www.newschool.edu/nssr/faculty/cinzia-arruzza/ Cinzia Arruzza] is a Philosophy associate professor at the New York School for Social Research, she also identifies as a feminist and social activist. She is an advocate for feminism of the 99%, where she believes that the movement is a “coordinated actions that respond to the needs of each region, and that in turn allow simultaneous presence in different parts of the world, or from the same city…”.

Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor

Linda Martin Alcoff

Nancy Fraser

Rasmea Yousef Odeh

Tithi Bhattacharya

Tithi Bhattacharya is a prominent Marxist feminist and a professor of South Asian history at Purdue University. She is an advocate for Palestinian rights and the Boycott, divestment and sanctions. Bhattacharya is an extensive writer on gender in which she has authored the book The Sentinels of Culture. She has also written on the politics of Islamophobia and the women in Islam.

Related Movements

Feminism of the 99% has ideological groundings consistent with different but distinct feminist groups. Best understood as a rejection of a perceived failure of mainstream liberal feminism, Feminism of the 99% seeks to combine the positions of anti-racism, anti-sexism, and anti-neoliberalism.^[10] In doing so Feminism of the 99% is linked very closely to existing feminist movements globally.

Intersectional Feminist Thought

Black Feminism

Socialist Feminism

Angela Davis, as one of the keystone ideological sources of feminism for the 99%’s ideological perspective holds liberal feminism in contempt for its failure to address the concerns of women perceived to be betrayed by their class position: “If standards for feminism are created for those who have already ascended the economic hierarchies of feminism, how is this relevant to women at the bottom?”.^[17] In other words: Davis criticises liberal feminists for acting primarily in the interests of women privileged from race-based and class-based disadvantage.

In stark contrast to Liberal Feminism, feminism for the 99% holds that effective and meaningful change comes from a non-reformist perspective: that revolutionary change necessitates a more utopian vision.^[13] Feminism for the 99% holds that incremental adjustment of an existing unjust and oppressive hierarchy will never precipitate a just society. To this end, a change from the ground up is required.^[10]

Ni Una Menos

The Feminism of the 99% manifesto specifically cites Ni Una Menos as a source of inspiration for the movement.^[10] Specifically, the use of a mass strike of all women as the main form of political activism. On 8 March 2017 (International Women’s Day), activists across the feminist continuum organised the International Women’s Strike (known in the US as  the Day Without Women),^[18] and the 2017 Women’s March. The 2017 Women’s Day March was the largest single day protest in US history.^[19]

References

• Ted Oldfield
• Ted Olson (baseball)
• Ted Omondi
• Tedora Postic
• Tedorigawa Dam
• Ted Osbourne
• Ted Ossowski
• Ted O'Sullivan
• Ted O'Sullivan (hurler)
• Ted Owens
• Ted Owens (disambiguation)
• Te Doy Mis Ojos
• Ted Page
• Ted Paramore
• Ted Paraskevakos
• Ted Parris
• Ted Patton
• Ted Pawelek
• Ted pecchio
• Ted Pecchio
• Ted Peers
• Ted Peters (Australian politician)
• Ted Peterson
• Ted Peters (politician)
• Ted Petoskey