Amnesty International, Womanhood, and the Many Aspects of Injustice
Amnesty International recently reported that American Indian women are at a higher risk for rape and sexual assault than other women in the United States. At least one in three American Indian women will be raped or sexually assaulted in their lifetime. Many of the rape perpetrators are non-Indians, which causes confusion about where the rape should be reported, since tribal courts cannot try non-Indians. This means that rape and sexual assault survivors often go hours or days before receiving medical care and rape kits, and sometimes not at all. Not only is their health compromised, but so is their chance at justice. State and federal courts are hesitant to try the cases because they involve Native Americans.
This news is an example of the need for “intersectional analyses” by feminists. Kimberle Crenshaw coined this term as a criticism of the type of feminism that does not also take into account the factors of race and class alongside of gender. Crenshaw’s argument was particularly in regards to the experience of black women, who are doubly marginalized—first, for being a racial minority, and second, for being women within a minority. Her point was that black women experience being a woman differently than white women experience being a woman, differently than Asian women, and differently than Native American women. Feminist theory should reflect these differences.
Thus, it is impossible to posit a notion of essential “womanhood” when women experience their gender in different ways all over the world. What Crenshaw suggests is taking other factors into account when addressing the issue of gender. All of the aspects of a person’s existence intersect to create each person’s reality.
Perhaps this might help our understanding of the gravity of the recent news from Amnesty International. American Indians have been marginalized for hundreds of years, and as these reports alert us, American Indian women are abused as females within a minority. In order to grasp the meaning of the experience of tens of thousands of rape survivors, we must acknowledge that various factors go into this specific instance of injustice.
Just as there is not an essential “womanhood”, there is not one experience of inequality. Oppression manifests itself it many ways. Addressing the matter will be complex, but I hope we would agree, necessary. Biblical equality needs to address all levels of injustice and discrimination based on gender.
