Women, Race, and Class

Black History Month

Staff recommendations, guest essays, and curated reading lists.

Reading Women, Race, and Class changed my understanding of feminism forever. The book opened my eyes to the deeply racist and classist history of feminism in America, and introduced me to the concept of intersectionality. Angela Davis gave me a history lesson like none I’d ever received in school. (How had none of my teachers ever even mentioned these things about Susan B. Anthony?!) The book spans from abolition to the publication date in 1981, and it remains as relevant as ever. Knowing our history is a crucial step in acknowledging and working to end the racism and classism that still exist in feminism today. Women, Race, and Class is a seminal work, and a must-read. Recommended By Leah B., Powells.com

A powerful study of the women's liberation movement in the U.S., from abolitionist days to the present, that demonstrates how it has always been hampered by the racist and classist biases of its leaders. From the widely revered and legendary political activist and scholar Angela Davis.

"As useful an exposition of the current dilemmas of the women's movement as one could hope for." Los Angeles Times Book Review

Angela Y. Davis is a political activist, scholar, author, and speaker. She is an outspoken advocate for the oppressed and exploited, writing on Black liberation, prison abolition, the intersections of race, gender, and class, and international solidarity with Palestine. She is the author of several books, including Women, Race, and Class and Are Prisons Obsolete? She is the subject of the acclaimed documentary Free Angela and All Political Prisoners and is Distinguished Professor Emerita at the University of California, Santa Cruz.