Hannah Dawson - Why the history of feminism has blind spots

One thing that I found while researching the history of feminism was that the history of feminism was again and again a history of having to point out things that should be obvious.

About Hannah Dawson

"I teach the History of Ideas at King's College London.

I work on early modern philosophy, especially moral and political thought, and also the history of feminism."

A history of pointing out the obvious

One thing that I found while researching the history of feminism was that the history of feminism was again and again a history of having to point out things that should be obvious. It’s a history of trying to make visible certain things that are completely obvious and apparent to some, and yet apparently invisible to others. That is true both of women pointing out their own situation to men, but also of some women having to point that out to other women.

To begin with the most obvious and fundamental way in which the history of feminism is the history of blind spots, we might think about the famous suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst. She thought that her fundamental task was simply to show men that she and her sex were human beings. If they saw her humanity, it would be obvious that she ought to be allowed the vote. It’s that baffling, bewildering incapacity to see that struck me again and again.

Key Points

• The history of feminism is the history of women pointing out obvious truths to men, but also feminists pointing out obvious truths to each other.
• Feminists have used Marxism to show that women’s work should be considered labour and remunerated as such.
• In many ways, middle-class white feminism not only failed to include women of colour, working-class women and gay women, but also exploited these women.