WE’VE ONLY JUST BEGUN: A BLACK FEMINIST ANALYSIS OF ELEANOR SMEAL’S NATIONAL PRESS CLUB ADDRESS Tara L. Tate, B.F.A. Thesis Prepared for the Degree of MASTER OF SCIENCE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH TEXAS August 2000 APPROVED: Mark DeLoach, Major Professor John Gossett, Committee Member and Department Chair Michael Bruner, Committee Member C. Neal Tate, Dean of the Robert B. Toulouse School of Graduate Studies Tate, Tara L., We’ve Only Just Begun: A Black Feminist Analysis of Eleanor Smeal’s National Press Club Address. Master of Science (Communication Studies), August 2000, 132 pp., references, 184 titles. The voices of black women have traditionally been excluded from rhetorical scholarship, both as a subject of study and as a methodological approach. Despite the little attention black feminist thought has received, black women have long been articulating the unique intersection of oppressions they face and have been developing critical epistemologies. This study analyzes the National Press Club address given by NOW President Eleanor Smeal utilizing a black feminist methodological approach. The study constructs a black feminist theory for the communication discipline and applies it to a discursive artifact from the women’s liberation movement. The implications of the study include the introduction of a new methodological approach to the communication discipline that can expand the liberatory reach of its scholarship. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The task of completing this thesis would not have occurred without the encouragement and guidance of several individuals. First, I must recognize Mark DeLoach, who has demonstrated patience, guidance, and understanding in directing my thesis and as a major professor. Dr. DeLoach has given me the flexibility to pursue research interests that have excited and empowered me. Additionally, John Gossett and Michael Bruner have also demonstrated extreme support during my two years. Dr. Gossett has consistently shown commitment to my academic success and Dr. Bruner opened my eyes to educational possibilities that I did not believe existed for me. It is important for me to include the individuals involved with the black feminism seminar that I completed at Texas Women’s University this semester. Dr. Vivian May and Dr. Beth Ferri, along with the visiting scholars and the students in the class, have made me recognize that activism is not distinct from academia. These individuals made me make the leap from knowing about feminism to living it. Through each participant in the class, I was able to see the change that I want to be. Finally, this project would not have been completed without the love and guidance from my family. I have always known the importance of pursuing intellectual goals from the lessons that my family has taught me. My mother and sister have continued to give me unconditional love, support, and friendship. To my father – I can only hope people can see glimpses of your passion for knowledge in this work and in me. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Chapter 1. INTRODUCTION ……………………………………………………..1 Review of Literature Statement of the Problem Scope Significance Methods Plan of Reporting 2. LITERATURE REVIEW OF SOCIAL MOVEMENTS……………...24 3. BLACK FEMINIST THEORY………………………………………..47 4. ANALYSIS OF ELEANOR SMEAL’S ADDRESS…………………..72 Background of Eleanor Smeal’s Address Analysis of the Speaker Analysis of the 1985 National Press Club Address 5. CONCLUSIONS……………………………………………………….99 BIBLIOGRAPHY…………………………………………………………113 iii CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION Very few groups in America have had their identity so socialized out of existence as have black women (hooks, Ain’t 7). Sexism and racism have served as oppressive forces and barriers in the lives of these marginalized women, ultimately affecting every aspect of their lives. The institutionalization of both sexism and racism has formed a foundation in the American social structure that can be traced to the first days of the republic. Sexism was an integral mainstay of the political and social order that white colonizers brought with them from their European homelands (hooks, Ain’t 15). Racism has also played an instrumental role in the formation of Western culture, dating back to the slave trade in early colonial societies. Racism and white supremacy, grounded in the notion of privilege, is an illness in which society is far from finding a cure for (Grillo and Wilman 397). Many believe that the devaluation of black womanhood ended with the dismantling of the institution of slavery. However, bell hooks advances the belief that dehumanization and oppression of black women, although altered from the days of slavery, still continues today, primarily out of fear of black women gaining self- confidence and self-respect (Ain’t 59). Individuals at the center of this intersection of race and gender have long faced a unique and magnified oppression. The debate about whether race, sex, or the intersection of the two is the major source of oppression has divided black and white women in 1 current and past gender liberation struggles. This debate has also often divided black women and black men in their fight for racial equality (Joseph and Lewis 20). Since the formation of the feminist movement in the United States, black women have been questioning the notion of a unitary “women’s experience” (Harris 586). The purpose of this study is to introduce black feminist perspectives as a method of rhetorical inquiry of women’s liberation movement discourse. The fight for freedom by women of color has been lengthy and arduous. In 1893, speaking before the World Congress of Representative Women, Anna Cooper spoke of the status of black women in this society: The higher fruits of civilization cannot be extemporized, neither can they be developed normally in the brief space of thirty years. It requires the long and painful growth of generations…The white woman could at least plead for her own emancipation; the black woman doubly enslaved, could but suffer and struggle and be silent. (hooks, Ain’t 2) Cooper’s address unveiled a voicing of a black female’s experience from which other black women often articulated, such as Sojourner Truth and Amanda Berry Smith. These women often emphasized the barriers for their simultaneous participation in the black male suffrage movement and the women’s suffrage movement. As the fight for suffrage and the women’s movement began to materialize, the concept of womanhood only encompassed middle-class white women. Poor women, immigrant women, and women of color could not live up to the carved-out roles. Economic pressures and hardships, as 2 well as enslavement, often forced these women outside of the home, and they were routinely stereotyped as unfeminine (Campbell 103). The women’s movement also began to isolate itself from alliances with the black community when it was apparent that black men would get the vote before women would. Although black women and men had struggled equally for freedom during slavery, black male political leaders upheld patriarchal values. As black men gained more and more freedoms in the years following the Reconstruction era, black women were encouraged to maintain a more subservient standing (hooks, Ain’t 4). Black women were placed in a double bind: to support black male suffrage was to support a patriarchal order that would only further serve to silence their voice, but to support the women’s suffrage movement would show an alliance with activists who publicly displayed their racism. This double bind did not end with the early suffrage movements. The movements of the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s for civil rights were inherently connected and became another battleground for the advancement of rights for oppressed groups. The Civil Rights Movement brought social change for the lives of all Americans. The early women’s movement drew inspiration from the action taken by the Civil Rights Movement. The National Organization of Women was formed in 1966 and became the symbolic, defining organization of the recent women’s movement (Joseph and Lewis 58). Black women devoted time and resources to both movements. However, for a variety of reasons, the women’s movement evolved into a collective that was largely white and unable to deal with race issues (Hull, Scott and Smith xx). Splinter organizations from 3 the mainstream women’s movement started forming under the leadership of minority women. The stated purposes of these organizations were to address the unique oppression that women of color faced and to provide an answer to the pitfalls that minority women encountered in the mainstream women’s movement. The National Black Feminist Organization, formed in 1972, was one of the first organized black feminist groups in the country (Joseph and Lewis 33). Through the application of social movement theory and black feminist theory, this study analyzes the rhetoric of a former president of a women’s activist organization. Through the lens of black feminism as a criticism of the women’s movement, the rhetoric will be studied critically to determine if it contains themes that are often raised as criticism of the women’s movement. Former National Organization of Women president Eleanor Smeal’s 1985 address before the National Press Conference will be the primary artifact of analysis. Review of Literature Studies by and about women are increasing their prominence in the communication discipline (Rakow 209; Spitzack and Carter 401). Women are increasing their numbers in collegiate communication departments. More courses on gender and feminism are being added to curricula offerings. Articles written by women in the field are becoming more numerous. Journals have been created that are devoted entirely to the study of women in the communication discipline (Foss and Foss, “The Status” 195). However, this pattern of a sheer increase in numbers does not accurately depict the history of women in communication, especially within the study of rhetoric. These 4 trends are also not indicators that an understanding of the paradigms from which women’s communication comes has been achieved.