Feminism In The Chicana

Chicana Feminism: The Defined Line between Gender and Ethnicity

Women’s civil and political rights in the second half of the twentieth century ascended with a renewed mindset of women from regions in the Americas. Chicana/o feminism arose during the second-wave of feminism, but differed from other ideologies in that they aspired to resolve internal and external conflicts that penetrated the Chicana/o community. Starting in the late 1960s, Chicana feminism developed into an idea of equality between genders and ethnic groups with a strong refusal of the traditional patriarchal roles; this caused commotion between women and men during the Chicana/o movement.

The transition of the Chicana mindset allowed for uprisings of activists to occur,

Those Chicanas who depended on their husbands underwent abuse, both mental and physical. Although women in their communities felt the need for change, some were too afraid to speak out due to the fact no one might agree with their way of thinking. Print media in the form of newspapers, pamphlets, and magazines came into the picture to help connect communities of women who all wanted to get rid of the “machista” culture. Chicana activists and organizers took up an essential part during the Chicana/o movement. During meetings of Las Mujeres de Lango and Las Chicanas de Aztlan, they started to discuss the different types of subjugation they were being put under, which all consisted from issues of gender, ethnicity, and social classes. Eventually, they became part of a greater group called the Hijas de Cuauhtémoc whom were exhausted of being ignored by their men counterparts in significant decision making during the movement. Discrimination towards women of this sort was seen when Anna Nieto-Gomez was elected for president of MEChA and some past male leaders within that organization weren’t willing to be part of something that was led by a

One of the first conferences where women tried to voice how they were being limited in the types of jobs they were given because of traditional principles happened in 1969 and it’s known as the Chicano Youth Conference. Although all of the women agreed on the injustice, their representative stated that “It was the consensus of the group that the Chicana woman does not want to be liberated” during the workshop report. Contradictions of this sort created confusion within the chaos that was already taking a hold of the Chicana community. Evangelina Vigil, a Chicana author during this time period, read part of her poetry in an annual conference of the National Association of Chicano Studies which later allowed women to attend a university in Texas instead of being given cleaning jobs within those learning facilities. Uprisings did not only occur physically, but also arose through meaningful melodies called Mexican rancheras which were categorized by varying themes, some could be about men’s infidelity to the inequality between genders. By using this type of musical form, Chicana feminists spoke of issues that mostly dealt with the sexist double standards in the Chicana/o movement.

Chicano and overall community disapproval towards Chicana feminism led to internal struggles women during the movement had to overcome. Judgement towards female