CROSSING THE GREAT DIVIDES

Abstract

The mutual interaction and interdependence of race, class, and gender create profound political dilemmas for feminist activists. How can we create coherent, inclusive political movements when the very oppressions we seek to dismantle also divide us internally? This article seeks answers to this question by exploring the history of the Southeast Women's Employment Coalition (SWEC), which throughout the 1980s sought to unify working-class women in the South across the divide of race. The article concludes that gender is insufficient to effect political unity among racially diverse women, but that a “politics of solidarity,” based on an appreciation of the intersections of race, gender, and class, is possible.

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