Page "Ain't I a Woman? (book)" Paragraph 2

Meanwhile, she says, the " feminist movement ", a largely white middle and upper class affair, did not articulate the needs of poor and non-white women, thus reinforcing sexism, racism, and classism.

She suggests this explains the low numbers of black women who participated in the feminist movement in the 1970s, pointing to Louis Harris ' Virginia Slims poll done in 1972 for Philip Morris that she says showed 62 percent of black women supported " efforts to change women's status " and 67 percent " sympathized with the women's rights movement ", compared with 45 and 35 percent of white women ( also Steinem, 1972 ).