White Feminism: From the Suffragettes to Influencers and Who They Leave Behind

Journalist Beck rebukes mainstream feminism for catering to cisgender, heterosexual white women “with managerial ambitions” in this impassioned debut. Broadly defining “white feminism” as “a specific way of viewing gender equality that is anchored in the accumulation of individual power rather than the redistribution of it,” Beck traces its history back to the suffrage movement, describing how elite white women fought primarily to gain the same rights and privileges enjoyed by their fathers and husbands. The women’s movement of the 1960s and ’70s repeated these sins, Beck argues, by focusing too narrowly on workplace issues and failing to make common cause with more radically transformative movements. Nowadays, Beck writes, profit-oriented corporate culture has merged with white feminism, resulting in a transactional #feminism brand that merely reinforces the status quo rather than challenging power structures. She argues for a more collective approach, urging readers to use their privilege to ensure that marginalized people are considered, to think systemically about oppression, and to hold powerful women accountable for perpetuating abusive systems. Beck makes many scholarly ideas about neoliberal and intersectional feminism accessible to lay readers, but her hyperfocus on the media sphere contradicts her call for a more inclusive movement. Still, this is a bracing rethink of what feminism can achieve. (Feb.)