Women, Race and Class
 First edition | |
| Author | Angela Davis |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Genre | History |
| Publisher | Random House |
Publication date | 1981 |
| Pages | 271[1][2] |
Women, Race and Class is a 1981 book by the American academic and author Angela Davis. It contains Marxist feminist analysis of gender, race and class. The third book written by Davis, it covers U.S. history from the slave trade and abolitionism movements to the women's liberation movements which began in the 1960s.[1][3][4]
Background
Angela Davis was born in Alabama, United States, in 1944 as the oldest of four children in a black middle-class family. She was an activist from an early age, inspired by female parental figures who opposed the Jim Crow laws, and became involved with socialist groups and Marxism–Leninism. She attended Brandeis University, majoring in French. She later studied under the philosopher Herbert Marcuse and joined the Black Panther Party and Communist Party USA in the late 1960s. After completing a master's degree, she began teaching philosophy at the University of California, Los Angeles. She was repeatedly fired over her political beliefs and jailed for two years for purchasing guns later used by revolutionary Jonathan P. Jackson, being released in 1972 and later acquitted.[3]
The 1981 work Women, Race and Class was Davis' third book.
Synopsis
Women, Race and Class is a collection of 13 essays about the American
Davis explores the economic role of black women slaves.[3] She writes that black women under slavery had similar struggles to black men, both groups sharing the task of manual labor and participating in abolitionist activism. However, women were also expected to perform the household labor, similar to women of other races.[1] Engaging in Marxist analysis, Davis argues that women's liberation should consist of women participating in wage labor and domestic labor becoming socialized.[2] She believes that rape is a crime of power, giving the example of white men raping their black slaves.[1] Davis describes the role of race in rape and the archetype of the black male rapist.[3] She also comments on race and birth control, linking abortion-rights movements to the Eugenics Society and commenting on the sterilization of black and Puerto Rican women.[3]
Analysis
Bernice McNair Barnett of the journal Race, Gender & Class wrote that, in Women, Race and Class, Davis was one of the first scholars to make an intersectional analysis of race, gender and class. She and other women of color writers around the same period led to the development of such analyses and research in academia. The field is sometimes known as "integrative race, gender, and class studies".[3] Reviewers for Race & Class compared the book to Ain't I a Woman? (1981) by bell hooks, as both begin with comparisons between white and black women in the abolitionism and suffrage movements of the U.S.[2]
Reception
Valerie A. Batts of the journal
References
- ^ ISSN 1012-1080.
- ^ ISSN 0306-3968.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Barnett, Bernice McNair (July 31, 2003). "Angela Davis and Women, Race, & Class: A Pioneer in Integrative RGC Studies". Jean Ait Belkhir, Race, Gender & Class Journal. 10 (3): 9–22.
- ^ a b c Laurent, Anne (January 31, 1982). "Race Against History". The Washington Post.
- ^ a b c Jean-Philippe, McKenzie (June 8, 2020). "9 Essential Angela Davis Books to Add to Your Shelf". O, The Oprah Magazine. Retrieved July 3, 2020.
- ISSN 0023-6985.
- ISSN 0001-9976.
- ISSN 0270-3149.
Further reading
- Woehrle, Lynne M (1995). "General overview of feminism and social change – Women, Race, and Class by Angela Davis". Women's Studies Quarterly. 23 (3–4). Feminist Press: 215.
- De Mesquita Silva, Luciana (2018). "Diáspora negra em contexto de tradução: discutindo a publicação de Mulheres, raça e classe, de Angela Davis, no Brasil". Trabalhos em Lingüística Aplicada (in Portuguese). ISSN 0103-1813.