Sorority: why solidarity between women is so important

Sisterhood is one of those words that should necessarily appear in any dictionary of feminism. Both she and her derivatives (“saludos sórores”, “sororear”, etc.) speak to us about an idea: solidarity and cooperation between women. In other words, it is a term that is becoming more and more popular because individualism among women is losing followers.

In this article we will see What exactly does sorority refer to?, and why the word related to feminism and left-wing activism currents in general has appeared.

• Related article: "What is radical feminism?"

What does sorority mean?

One of the aspects that causes the most controversy about feminism has to do with its tendency to, with nuances, give preferential treatment to the feminine, the experiences that only women live. From a non-feminist perspective, the concept of sorority reflects just that: a recently created word that calls the attention for being, apparently, a way of avoiding the use of a term "fraternity", for being masculine and referring to the siblings.

But what's interesting about this choice of words is that it has the power to make us question things. Instead of thinking that the term sorority is part of a strategy to avoid everything that refers to men, you can make us wonder why there are so few words with feminine connotations that apply to all human beings, men and women. women.

When we say sorority we are referring to not only to solidarity between women, but we also take into account the context in which this solidarity occurs. And that context has to do with the historical discrimination and sexism that occurs and has occurred for millennia through what in feminist theory is known as patriarchy.

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The patriarchal use of language

The fact that "fraternal" comes from "brothers" and that it is used interchangeably with the gender of the people to which is applied can be considered a simple anecdote, something without the greatest political importance or social. Actually, few people would bother to spend time thinking about this right off the bat.

However, it is still strange, if we think about it, that the default word is used interchangeably for male groups or for mixed groups, since this creates situations of ambiguity: when we say "brothers", they are all men or there is also at least one woman in the cluster?

Simone de Beauvoir, one of the philosophers who laid the foundations of second-wave feminism, gave one of the keys to understanding this. She wrote that the meaning of the feminine and the concept of what it is to be a woman is basically what is left over when the human and the masculine are equated. That is to say, that historically, due to a set of unequal power dynamics between men and women known as patriarchy, it is assumed that humanity is equivalent to masculinity, while the feminine is defined as the negation of what is not masculine and, therefore, not human either.

Thus, for Beauvoir the reference figure is always a man, and the woman emerges subtracting and adding qualities to this "mold". It is what is not masculine, “the other”.

For example, some brands offer a line of products that are made up of the women's version of their flagship product, and for this they usually market it by playing with the color pink. However, neither the original product can be considered the masculine version of the product, nor does the color it wears make it evident that it is for men. Normally the feminine is a subsidiary of the masculine, and sorority is one of the many initiatives that combat this principle to, through language, influence how we analyze social reality and inequalities between the sexes.

Of course, the idea that by modifying the language it is possible to favor the establishment of dynamics of equality has been very debated and criticized, especially from theoretical positions linked to philosophical materialism, such as the Marxism. This is so because it is seen with skepticism, first, that changing the language significantly modifies the ideas in the intended sense from a principle, and second, that what is important is the change of ideas before there has been a material change in the objective reality in which people live. people.

Starting from inequality

One of the ideas on which the concept of sorority is based is that women, by virtue of being sorority, are in a disadvantaged position. That is why they must cooperate to access rights and freedoms that have been historically denied to them.

such a complicated task cannot be faced from individualism, but it requires the joint action of many people, capable of breaking old dynamics of submission: micromachismos, unfair laws, work environments in which women have more difficulties to prosper, etc

The equivalence between women

As we have seen, the concept of sorority is the idea that expresses the importance of cooperation and solidarity between women and awareness of the dehumanization of women. It is understood that, since the specific problems of women go beyond the individual, they must be faced not from individualism, but through solidarity among equals.

The word itself, sorority, emphasizes the fact that it only applies to people of the female gender, since "sorority" is another way of saying "blood sister", and at the same time reinforces the idea that women are equal in their situation of disadvantage before the man.

Thus, it is not that men are despised, but that it is understood that, by not being subjected as a matter of gender, it does not make sense to expect a similar cooperation structure that is transversal among all the men. Such an alliance would hardly have objectives to achieve, since they have already been achieved from the beginning.

Bibliographic references:

• Lincoln, b. (2008). Women and public space: construction and exercise of citizenship. Mexico c. F.: Iberoamerican University.
• Simon Rodriguez, M. AND. (2002). Vital democracy: women and men towards full citizenship. Madrid: Narcea.