Women, Race and Class by Angela Y. Davis Summary

Women, Race, and Class examines how racism, sexism, and classism intersect in U.S. history, arguing that systemic oppression disproportionately impacted Black and working-class women. Davis critiques mainstream feminist movements for prioritizing white middle-class interests while marginalizing Black women’s struggles, from slavery and suffrage to reproductive rights and labor exploitation.

This book is essential for readers exploring intersectional feminism, anti-racism, or labor history. Scholars, activists, and students of Women’s Studies, Black Studies, or Marxist theory will gain critical insights into how systemic inequalities persist through compounded oppression.

Yes—it’s a foundational text for understanding how race, gender, and class dynamics shape inequality. Davis’s rigorous historical analysis exposes flaws in single-issue activism and remains widely cited in academic and social justice circles for its intersectional framework.

Key themes include the exploitation of Black women under slavery, the exclusion of Black voices in suffrage movements, and the economic oppression of domestic workers. Davis emphasizes solidarity across race and class to dismantle systemic barriers.

Davis critiques white suffragists for aligning with racist ideologies to secure voting rights, abandoning Black women and perpetuating racial divides. She highlights Frederick Douglass’s support for suffrage but underscores the movement’s failure to address lynching and Jim Crow.

Enslaved Black women faced dual oppression: forced labor and sexual violence. Davis argues they redefined womanhood by resisting oppression equally alongside Black men, challenging 19th-century gender norms that excluded them from “feminine” ideals.

Davis links reproductive freedom to economic justice, showing how Black women were sterilized without consent and denied healthcare. She contrasts this with white feminists’ narrow focus on abortion access, ignoring racialized exploitation.

Davis condemns white feminists for centering middle-class concerns (e.g., suffrage, workplace entry) while ignoring Black women’s labor exploitation and sexual violence. She argues this exclusion fractured solidarity and weakened broader liberation efforts.

The book remains vital for understanding modern movements like #BlackLivesMatter and #MeToo. Its intersectional lens helps dissect disparities in wages, healthcare, and police violence, urging coalition-building across marginalized groups.

Davis discusses abolitionists like Sojourner Truth, suffragists like Susan B. Anthony, and activists such as the Grimké sisters. She contrasts their legacies, praising those who allied across racial lines while critiquing exclusionary figures.

Davis uses a Marxist framework to analyze capitalism’s role in oppressing Black women through unpaid domestic labor and exploitative workplaces. She ties emancipation to collective class struggle against economic and racial hierarchies.

Some scholars argue Davis oversimplifies early feminist movements or neglects non-Black women of color. However, most praise her pioneering intersectional approach, which inspired later works by Kimberlé Crenshaw and bell hooks.