Several questions continue to linger about the position of either gender in the society. These are questions that seek to understand whether there is a specific place in the society set aside for men and women or if there is any difference between the position of men and women in the society. These questions are the main backdrops in gender mainstreaming, a concept that seeks to streamline the needs of the genders to partly answer these questions. The various representations of men and women are seen in various forms including literature. Various authors have expressed their views on feminism in their works by employing various literary techniques and devices including characterization. Feminist justice is concerned with the transformation of traditional and universal approaches to ethical considerations. From a feminist angle, justice is exclusively set aside for men. The paper aims at expounding on how race, class, and gender influence the occurrence of injustice in women from a feminist perspective.
In Elizabeth Keckley’s “Behind the Scenes” the aspect of feminist justice is seen in the way the system treats the main character. This is an aspect that is also replicated in the life of the women referred to in Dubois’ article “The Damnation of Women.” The concept of feminist justice in both stories is complicated by the racial margins that the main characters cross. In “Behind the Scene,” Keckley takes the reader through her life as a black slave in the antebellum United States. In this rather autobiographical publication, she asserts that she had to endure harsh treatment from her masters including sexual assault from the whites. Besides, she had to move from her initial owner to work as a dressmaker to support her husband. Jones (8) defined institutionalized racism as racism that is practiced within social groups and is often based on certain norms and practices that support racist thinking and perpetrate active racism. While institutionalized racism may be practiced both intrinsically and extrinsically, it is quite obvious that she experienced the extrinsic active racial discrimination. To complicate her predicament was the fact that she was a woman. Dubois asserts that white supremacy complicates matters for the black women as it makes it difficult for them to satisfy their heteronormative gender roles (Dubois 89). This argument implies that the black women not only have to cross the expectations of gender draw the margins of the racial classification but also the lines. Keckley debunks the myth of a ‘happy slave’ by suggesting that the greatest perpetrators of slave suffering were the masters (Keckley 29). This is a fact that underscores the general aspect of universal injustice to both the male-female slaves.
It is apparent that the aspect of injustice in Keckley’s life is also seen in the lack of reward for her loyalty to Mary Todd Lincoln. She helps the former first lady to raise money after the death of the president and publishes the accounts of her life in Behind the Scenes, or Thirty Years a Slave, and Four Years in the White House.” This book contains a biographical account of her life as a close confidant of the first lady and other wives of influential people. The society treats her with quite some disdain, and she experiences the highest form of injustice in her life. Dubois, on the other hand, juxtaposes the injustice in Keckley’s book by presenting the general perception of the white woman in the society. In his essay, he describes the white woman in the neighborhood, Ide Fuller as an outcast (Dubois 87) who represented filth and wrong. The position of the woman in the society described by Dubois is that she represents the attitudes and perceptions of the race that she represents. Dubois posits the rhetorical question ‘whose filth and wrong?’ to refer to the unfair generalization of the race as seen in the character and the traits of the woman. The society, therefore, creates the racial stereotypes through the ethical expectations of the woman and not of the man. This fact underscores the basic premise of the feminist injustice that implies that in most cases, ethics is male-oriented.
Keckley and Dubois draw the parallel between institutionalized racism and the aspect of injustice that comes with it. However, Dubois creates a more general perception of the aspect of injustice meted to women regardless of their races. Dubois, in his essay, suggests that the society seems to have placed too many expectations on the modern women. He argues that the modern woman has to sacrifice her intelligence to perform her duties in regards to her gender. In the essay, he transfuses the problems of all the women – the ones he grew up around such as his cousin Inez, Emma, his mother, and Ide Fuller. His relatives being black implied that the injustice they met was in regards to their womanhood being that they lived in a largely black neighborhood (Dubois 87). Fuller, on the other hand, faced the racial injustice. Nevertheless, the universal fact that they were women implied that the expectations of the society implied that they all had to cross the margin created by gender and the sacrifices they had to make. They all faced what the author calls ‘the damnation of the woman.’ This damnation is in regards to the fact that the women have to choose between their intelligence and the demands of their jobs and the ability to bear children. In spite of their position in life or their race, the society still expects them to keep up with the ‘idiotic’ conventions. The modern society advances the injustice to women as it expects some form of ‘superhuman’ individual who can balance the needs of civilization. According to Dubois, the modern society does not demonstrate ‘the glory and beauty of creating life and the need and duty of power and intelligence’ (Dubois 88). Mill, one of the pioneer defenders of women’s liberation, argued that the subjection of the women in society was justified by the perception that they were physically weaker than men (Mill, 40). Mill further states that for the women to fully enjoy the same opportunities as men, the restrictions on them must be removed. However, Mill does not seem to consider past forms of discriminations such as slavery and racism. BiljanaKasic, however, argues on the aspect of truth versus justice bearing in mind feministic principles as a potential means of reaching judicial equality (Kasic)
Keckley exemplifies the expectations underlined by Dubois in his essay. As Dubois states, the African woman had to bear the burden of slavery and had to live with the expectations of being a slave (Dubois 90) while at the same time fulfilling her duties of a mother. She was expected to be independent as a woman especially after purchasing her freedom with the help of friends, while still sustaining a family life that expected her to be supportive of her husband who lied to her about her freedom and taking care of children. It is quite apparent that in the book Garland does not seem to bear the brunt of his lie and neither does he seem to play an active role in the family despite being a slave and a husband. This underscores the expectations that the society placed on the woman while ignoring the irresponsibility of the men. Perhaps the only margin that the black man had to cross to perform their heteronormative duties was that of the race while the women had to cross an extra margin of the inferiority of the gender.
In a nutshell, feminine justice implies that in most cases ethic is male-oriented. As such, it seeks to break the traditional concepts and conventions that place more expectation on the woman while ignoring the men. Race makes it an even complicated aspect for the black woman who has to cross the racial and gender margins to perform her duties. In “Behind the Scenes” Elizabeth Keckley highlights the injustice she had to face as a black slave in the hands of her white masters and how she battles the expectations of the society until her death in the Home for Destitute Women and Children in 1907. Dubois underscores the universal injustice experienced women of all races. However, he posits that the black woman also has to bear the weight of institutionalized racism as she battles the injustice in the society.
Works Cited
Du Bois, William. Darkwater: Voices from within the veil. 2007. Print.
Jones, Camara Phyllis. "Confronting institutionalized racism." Phylon (1960-) (2002): 7-22.
Kašić, Biljana. "Rethinking feminist perspective or how to radicalise responsibility." The Second Critical Studies Conference „Spheres of Justice". 2007.
Keckley, Elizabeth. Behind the scenes; thirty years a slave and four years in the White House. New York: Arno Press, 1968.
Mill, John Stuart. The Basic Writings of John Stuart Mill. New York: Modern Library, 2002.
