Angela Y. Davis: A Critical Analysis Of Women, Race And Class

1429 Words3 Pages

Women, Race and Class is the prolific analysis of the women 's rights movement in the

United States as observed by celebrated author, scholar, academic and political activist

Angela Y. Davis. The book is written in the same spirit as Howard Zinn 's A People 's

History of the United Sates. Davis does not merely recount the glorious deeds of histories '

traditional feminist icons, but rather tells the story of women 's liberation from the

perspective of former black slaves and wage laborers.

Essential to this approach is the salient omnipresent concept known as intersectionality

Davis employs this tool in order to explain and explore the interaction between race

and class within the context of the women 's movement
In chapter 12 titled Racism, Birth Control and Reproductive Rights" Davis

meticulously exams another issue where tension and conflict is caused by the

intersectionality of class and racial oppression. Davis asserts that there was great division

amongst women with respect to the issue of birth control. According to Davis, a women 's

viewpoint on the matter was highly influenced by their socio-economic status. She

explains that the cost of having a child is much more of a burden for the women of the

labor class due to the lack of financial stability. For these women only the most dangerous

forms of birth control are available. Additionally, compulsory sterilization efforts could

become glorified eugenics programs. Davis asserth that the birth control proponents

within the femenist movment from the very begining determined that it was the moral

obligation of black and other minrity women restrict the size of their inferrior families. Acording to Davis what was seen as a right for the privileged class came to

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