Ain't I A Woman: Black Women and Feminism

bell hooks (1952-2021) was an American author, social critic, and teacher. Born Gloria Jean Watkins, the writer later changed her name to honor her great-grandmother. Her use of lowercase letters for her name was intended to draw attention to her work rather than her celebrity. hooks felt profoundly influenced by the women in her life, including her grandmother and childhood educators. The author grew up in a segregated community in Kentucky and was confronted daily with the intersecting oppressions of racism and sexism. Her father was a janitor, and her mother was a maid, working for white families in their homes. She felt inspired by her teachers, many of whom were Black women, who instilled in her a commitment to reading and learning and a desire to make the world a better place.

hooks studied English literature at Stanford University and earned an MA in 1976 from the University of Wisconsin. In 1983, hooks completed her PhD at the University of California, Santa Cruz. In Teaching Critical Thinking: Practical Wisdom, hooks explains that she was surprised by the limitations her college professors placed upon her and their lack of inclusivity. Her professors perpetuated the idea that hooks and other Black female students did not have the intellect required to participate fully in their fields.

hooks drew inspiration from her educators in Kentucky, who believed in her ability as a learner and held up institutions of higher learning as sources of educational integrity. When hooks became a teacher, she rejected biased thinking and traditional norms that marginalized students. At the University of Southern California, Yale University, and Oberlin College, hooks challenged her students to think critically about the world around them and the role they played within it. She was also a Distinguished Professor in Residence at Berea College. While at Berea, hooks founded the bell hooks center, a place for marginalized students to meet, work, and learn.

Ain’t I a Woman: Black Women and Feminism, the first full-length book published by hooks, examines Black womanhood and the impact of racist and sexist assumptions throughout history. The social critic began writing Ain’t I a Woman when she was 19, already keenly aware of how both race and gender had impacted her life and how others perceived her. This critically acclaimed work has inspired works in the fields of gender studies, philosophy, critical race theory, and feminist studies. In Ain’t I a Woman, hooks examines slavery and argues that Black women experienced the greatest level of discrimination. The sexual exploitation of enslaved Black women created a series of lasting perceptions and biases that Black women continue to face in contemporary culture. hooks went on to publish many works that expanded on her concept of white supremacist capitalist patriarchy, including Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center (1984), Talking Back: Thinking Feminist, Thinking Black (1989), All About Love: New Visions (1999), Communion: The Female Search for Love (2002), and The Will to Change: Men, Masculinity, and Love (2004). In the 1980s, hooks founded a support group for Black women called Sisters of the Yam, and the lessons from their sessions are chronicled in Sisters of the Yam: Black Women and Self-Recovery (1993).

hooks wrote and taught widely throughout her life and eventually settled in her native Kentucky, focusing her efforts on her work at Berea College. She died in 2021 of kidney failure, and her work continues to inform feminist scholarship and inspire activists.