Moving on from White Feminism

The mainstream feminist movement in Britain has often centered the experiences, values, and goals of white, middle-class, cisgender women - frequently at the expense of those from marginalised communities. This phenomenon is known as white feminism, and it continues to shape public discourse, media representation, and policy priorities.

What Is White Feminism?

White feminism refers not to the feminism of all white women, but to a set of ideas and practices that ignore or minimise the role of race, class, sexuality, religion, and other intersecting identities in women’s experiences of oppression. It tends to universalise the experience of white, able-bodied, educated, middle-class women as the standard. As a result, the movement often overlooks or side-lines the systemic barriers faced by Black, brown, working-class, disabled, queer, and Muslim women.

In Britain, first wave feminism focused on achieving legal equality for women through gaining suffrage, the right to vote in public elections, on the same terms as men. These women, mostly led by middle class white women, wished to be elevated into the systems which men had constructed and participated.

Second wave feminism addressed systemic sexism, and amongst other issues, women's rights in the workplace including pay. Again, the desire was to include women within frameworks (i.e structure of the workplace) built within a patriarchy. By their own identity and social standing, some earlier campaigners failed to recognise poorer and marginalised women and the systemic issues they face, such as housing insecurity, poverty, and racial and disability inequality.

Campaigns for equal pay often focus on high-earning professional women, overlooking those in precarious, underpaid, and informal work. Public outrage about violence against women frequently focuses on white victims, as seen in the widespread media coverage of Sarah Everard’s murder, while the deaths and disappearances of Black women like Blessing Olusegun receive far less attention. White feminism also frequently fails to grapple with Britain’s colonial history and how it continues to shape racial inequalities today.

Black Feminism in the UK

Black feminism in Britain emerged as a response to the racism both within the wider society and the feminist movement itself. In the 1970s and 80s, Black British women—many of whom were part of the Windrush generation or their descendants—began organizing in their own spaces to address issues such as police violence, racism in healthcare and education, and the erasure of their labour and voices.

The ground breaking book The Heart of the Race (1985), by Beverley Bryan, Stella Dadzie, and Suzanne Scafe, remains a foundational text in UK Black feminism. It chronicled the lives and struggles of Black working-class women in Britain and challenged the idea that feminism could ignore race.

Groups such as the Organisation of Women of African and Asian Descent (OWAAD) and later Southall Black Sisters formed to advocate for women facing state violence, immigration injustice, and domestic abuse - often in cases where mainstream feminist organisations were silent or complicit.

Black feminism in the UK has always embraced an intersectional approach - decades before the term was widely known. As writer and activist Lola Olufemi notes, Black feminist thought “calls for the undoing of the entire social structure,” not simply inclusion within it.

Intersectional Feminism

The concept of intersectionality, coined by legal scholar Kimberlé Crenshaw in 1989, has profoundly influenced British feminist thought—particularly among younger generations. Intersectionality recognises that gender does not operate in a vacuum but is shaped by other aspects of identity such as race, class, disability, sexuality, and religion.

In the UK, intersectional feminism critiques how policies and institutions—from immigration enforcement to austerity measures—disproportionately harm certain groups of women. For instance, women of colour have borne the brunt of welfare cuts and hostile immigration policies, yet their voices are often marginalised in policy debates and feminist campaigns.

Organizations like Imkaan (which supports Black and minoritised women facing gender-based violence) and Sisters Uncut (a feminist direct-action group founded in response to cuts to domestic violence services) have brought intersectional feminism into the public eye, often challenging the complacency or narrow focus of more institutionalised feminist bodies.

Working-Class Feminism

Feminism in Britain has often been dominated by those with access to higher education, media platforms, and political networks. This has led to the neglect of working-class feminism, which foregrounds issues like wage theft, child poverty, housing precarity, and social services—issues that middle-class feminism sometimes side-lines in favour of boardroom representation or university quotas.

Working-class feminists in the UK have a long history, from the matchgirls’ strike of 1888 to the miners’ wives during the 1984–85 strike. Contemporary feminist writers such as Lynsey Hanley and Kerry Hudson have critiqued how middle-class values permeate feminist discourse, often alienating those whose feminism is rooted in economic survival rather than empowerment workshops.

Queer and Trans Feminism

While early feminist movements often adopted rigid gender binaries, queer feminism and trans-inclusive feminism have challenged heteronormative and cisnormative assumptions within British feminism. These strands of feminism assert that liberation from patriarchy must also mean dismantling restrictive ideas about gender and sexuality.

Queer and trans feminists in the UK have pushed for inclusive policies on healthcare, recognition of non-binary identities, and protections for trans women and men. However, they’ve often faced hostility—not just from right-wing commentators but from some feminists who frame trans rights as a threat to women’s rights. This tension has led to divisions within the movement, with trans-exclusionary feminism (often referred to as “gender critical”) gaining media visibility but widespread criticism from human rights organisations, grassroots feminist groups, and young activists.

Feminists like Shon Faye (The Transgender Issue, 2021) argue that a truly liberatory feminism must include all people marginalized by the gender system, not just those who fit a narrow definition of womanhood.

Muslim and Faith-Based Feminisms

Muslim feminists in the UK face a double bind: confronting sexism within some religious and cultural practices while also resisting Islamophobia from the wider society and within feminist spaces. Hijab bans, racialised portrayals of Muslim women as passive victims, and assumptions that feminism is inherently secular have excluded many practising Muslim women from feminist conversations.

Groups like Muslim Women’s Network UK and writers like Sahar Al-Faifi and Suhaiymah Manzoor-Khan have argued that feminist values—such as justice, equality, and dignity—can be grounded in Islamic principles. Their work insists that Muslim women must be able to define feminism on their own terms, not simply assimilate into white, secular narratives.

Toward a More Inclusive Feminism

The dominance of white feminism in the UK is not simply a matter of representation—it reflects deeper structural inequalities in whose voices are heard, whose pain is believed, and whose liberation is prioritised. Feminism cannot be effective if it speaks for some while ignoring others. An inclusive, intersectional feminism must:

• Address systemic racism and colonial legacies

• Include working-class and migrant women’s perspectives

• Uplift queer, trans, and non-binary voices

• Recognize the legitimacy of faith-based feminisms

• Centre those at the margins of power, not just those already within it

As the UK faces growing inequality, a worsening cost-of-living crisis, and rising authoritarianism, the feminist movement must become broader, bolder, and more accountable. The future of feminism lies not in speaking for others, but in listening, sharing power, and building solidarity across difference.

May 2025