Womanism

Unification is a key cornerstone of Womanism ideology.

Womanism is a social theory deeply rooted in the racial and gender oppression of black women. There are varying interpretations on what the term womanist means and efforts to provide a concise and all encompassing definition have only been marginally successful. The ambiguity within the theory allows for its continuous expansion of its basic tenets. At its core, womanism is a social change perspective based upon the everyday problems and experiences of black women and other women of minority demographics, but more broadly seeks methods to eradicate inequalities not just for black women, but for all people.[1] The self-authored spirit of activism, spirituality, and the women's relationship with herself, other women, and her surroundings comprise an essential part of the ideology. The term womanism was first coined by author Alice Walker in her 1979 short story, "Coming Apart". Here Walker describes the protagonist of the story as a womanist. Although Walker is credited for the term, there are other contributors to the womanism movement. These contributors developed their own womanist theories independently of Walker's womanism. They include scholars such as Clenora Hudson-Weems and Chikwenye Okonjo Ogunyemi.

Theory

Author and poet Alice Walker is credited with coining the term 'womanist.' From the original introduction of womanism as a social perspective, the term has evolved to envelop varied, and sometimes opposing definitions. Linda Hogan asserts that the term womanist has come to represent a feminist of color, specifically black women, since the Feminist Movement has been experienced by many as intrinsically racist.[2] While feminism can be alienating to minorities, womanism allows black women to affirm and celebrate their color and culture in a way that feminism does not.[2] In the words of theorists such as Clenora Hudson-Weems and Alicia Boisnier, Black women struggle to identify with traditional feminism, because they do not identify with the issues that feminism typically advocates.[3] Alternatively, Delores Williams, a womanist theologian, associates womanism with the traditions and activism formed from the conditions, events, meanings and values within the African- American community. Williams further asserts that the task of the Womanist theologian is to embody activism by seeking out the voices of the unheard and the experiences of the neglected. She identifies the distinct difference between the experiences of the black woman and the white woman that makes it difficult to identify with feminism. One of the key components of feminism is to end a woman's subjugation to her male counterpart, yet there are other oppressive forces that black women face that takes precedence over the perceived subjugation of the black woman by the black man .[2] This represents an expectation and experience of the black woman as one filled with the quest for knowledge, competence, and authority that surpasses the individual, but encompasses the group.[4] This idea of community rather than individuality is further illustrated by the portrayal of a woman as the embodiment of her environment.[1] In this way womanism does not focus indiscriminately on the experiences of black woman, but desires the reconciliation of all people to their spirituality, their relationships with each other, and their relationship with nature. It characterizes women as willful and capable thereby contrasting the image of a women as subservient and inferior.[5] In doing so, womanism empowers women, and challenges them to break from the traditional definition of womanhood.

Origins

A need for the term "womanism" arose during the early Feminist Movement, which was mainly led by middle-class white women advocating for social change in the form of women's suffrage. While the Feminist Movement focused on ending gender-based oppression, it largely ignored race and class-based oppression.[2] The height of this academic discourse occurred during the late 1980s when scholars such as Cleenora Hudson-Weems, and Chikwenye Okonjo Ogunyemi began to share their findings with the world. During this time, womanism was embraced, debated, and dismissed by academics, mainly due to its perspective on the African-American experience. The 1990s presented a new kind of challenge with the proliferation of black feminism within women's studies. As a result, womanism fell beneath the radar of the public eye, but academic discourse progressed, and scholars continued to contribute to and explore the discipline. By the early 2000s, womanism had resurfaced as a unique social change perspective. This was further cemented by the publication of The Womanist Reader in 2006, a collection of womanist essays and critiques.[6]

Alice Walker

Author and poet Alice Walker first utilized the term "womanist" in her work, In Search of our Mother's Gardens: Womanist Prose. She explains that the term womanist is derived from the southern folk expression "acting womanish."[7] The womanish girl exhibits willful, courageous, and outrageous behavior that is considered to be beyond the scope of societal norms. She then goes on to say that a womanist is:

A woman who loves another woman, sexually and/ or non sexually. She appreciates and prefers women's culture, women's emotional flexibility...[she] is committed to the survival and wholeness of an entire people, male and female. Not a separatist, except periodically for health... loves the spirit.... loves struggle. Loves herself. Regardless.[8]

According to Walker, while feminism is incorporated into womanism, it is also instinctively pro-humankind. The focus of the theology is not on gender inequality, but race and class-based oppression. [6] She sees womanism as a theory/movement for the survival of the black race; a theory that takes into consideration the experiences of black women, black culture, black myths, spiritual life, and orality.[9] Walker's much cited phrase, "womanist is to feminist as purple is to lavender", suggests that feminism is a component beneath the much larger ideological umbrella of womanism.[7] Walker's definition also holds that womanists are universalists. This philosophy is further invoked by her metaphor of a garden where are all flowers bloom equally. A womanist is committed to the survival of both males and females and desires a world where men and women can coexist, while maintaining their cultural distinctiveness.[7] This inclusion of men provides Black women with an opportunity to address gender oppression without directly attacking men.[10] A third definition provided by Walker pertains to the sexuality of the women portrayed in her review of "Gifts of Power: The Writings of Rebecca Jackson". Here, she argues that the best term to describe Rebecca Jackson, a black Shaker who leaves her husband and goes on to live with her white Shaker companion, would be a womanist, because it is a word that affirms the connection to the world, regardless of sexuality.[6] The seemingly contrasting interpretations of womanism given by Walker validates the experiences of African-American women, while promoting a visionary perspective for the world based on said experiences.[7] The article Everyday Use by Alice Walker illustrates the voice of a black rural middle class woman through the relationship that a black woman shares with her two daughters Dee and Martha ([11]). Dee is spoiled and believes that her education and experiences make her better than her mother and her sister. On the other hand, Martha envies her sister for her the beauty and arrogance that always gets her what she wants ([11]). Historically, it has been very common for people of color to have their stories told by Caucasians. However, Walker attempts to break this tradition by having a black rural middle class woman tell the story of her relationships with her two daughters. An important part of the story occurs when the mother in Everyday Use states, "You’ve no doubt seen those TV shows where the child who has "made it" is confronted, as a surprise, by her own mother and father, tottering in weakly from backstage… Sometimes I dream a dream in which Dee and I are suddenly brought together on a TV program of this sort…" ([11]). Here the mother reminisces about a family experience that she has witnessed on television that she wishes she could have for herself. A heart-warming scene similar to the one that the mother witnessed on television does not take place when her daughter Dee comes to visit. Instead when Dee comes to visit the mother a rough, awkward tension-filled encounter slowly unfolds. Walker employs this story and its context to illustrate that a majority of womanism is characterized by black women telling their stories.

Clenora Hudson-Weems

Clenora Hudson-Weems is credited with coining the term Africana Womanism. In 1995, the publication of her book, Africana Womanism: Reclaiming Ourselves sent shockwaves through the Black nationalism community and established her as an independent thinker.[12] rejects feminism as the theology of Africana women, that is to say women of the African diaspora, because it is philosophically rooted in Eurocentric ideals.[6] She further asserts that it is impossible to incorporate the cultural perspectives of African women into the feminism ideal due to the history of slavery and racism in America. A large part of her work mirrors separatist Black Nationalist discourse, because of the focus on the collective rather than the individual as the forefront of her ideology. Weems refutes Africana womanism as an addendum to feminism, and asserts that her ideology differs from Black feminism, Walker's womanism, and African womanism.[13]

Chikwenye Okonjo Ogunyemi

Chikwenye Okonjo Ogunyemi is a Nigerian literary critic. In 1985, she published the article, "Womanism: The Dynamics of the Contemporary Black Female Novel in English", and described her interpretation of womanism. She asserts that the womanist vision is to answer the ultimate question of how to equitably share power among the races and between the sexes.[1] She arrived at her interpretation of the term independently of Alice Walker's definition, yet there are several overlaps between the two ideologies. Rather than citing gender inequality as the source of Black oppression, Ogunyemi takes a separatist stance much like Hudson-Weems, and dismisses the possibility of reconciliation of white feminists and black feminists on the grounds of the intractability of racism.[6]

Ideologies

Womanism has various definitions and interpretations. At its broadest definition, it is a universalist ideology for all women, regardless of color. A womanist is committed to "the survival and wholeness of an entire people, male and female".[2] Walker's much cited phrase, "womanist is to feminist as purple is to lavender" suggests that Walker considers feminism as a component of the wider ideological umbrella of womanism.[10] It focuses on the unique experiences, struggles, needs, and desires of not just Black women, but all women of color in addition to critically addressing the dynamics of the conflict between the mainstream feminist, the Black feminist, the African feminist, and the Africana womanist movement.[14] However, there is Black nationalist discourse prevalent within womanist work and for this reason scholars are divided between associating womanism with other similar ideologies such as Black feminism and Africana womanism or taking the stance that the three are inherently incompatible.[12]

Black feminism

The Black feminism movement was formed in response to the needs of the women who felt racially oppressed by the Women's Movement and sexually oppressed by the Black Liberation Movement.[15] Black feminist scholars assert that African-American women are doubly disadvantaged in the social, economic, and political sphere, because they face discrimination on the basis of both race and gender.[16] Black women felt that their needs were being ignored by both movements and they struggled to identify with either based on race or gender. African-American women who use the term Black feminism attach a variety of interpretations to it.[17] One such interpretation is that Black feminism addresses the needs of African-American women that the Feminism Movement largely ignores. Feminism, as Black feminist theorist Pearl Cleage defines it, is "the belief that women are full human beings capable of participation and leadership in the full range of human activities—intellectual, political, social, sexual, spiritual, and economic".[10] With this definition, the feminist agenda can be said to encompass different issues ranging from political rights to educational opportunities within a global context.[10] The Black feminist agenda seeks to streamline these issues and focuses on those that are the most applicable to African-American women.

Africana womanism

Clenora Hudson-Weems's Africana womanism arose from a nationalist Africana studies concept. In Africana Womanism: Reclaiming Ourselves, Hudson-Weems explores the limitations of feminist theory and explains the ideas and activism of different African women who have contributed to womanist theory.[18] At its core, Africana womanism rejects feminism because it is set up in a way as to promote the issues of white women over the issues of Black women. Hudson-Weems argues that feminism will never be okay for black women due to the implications of slavery and prejudice.[6] She further asserts that the relationship between a Black man and a Black woman is significantly different from the relationship between a White man and a White woman, because the white woman battles the white man for subjugating her, but the black women battles all oppressive forces that subjugate her, her children, and the black man.[6][19] She further asserts that racism forced African-American men and African-American women to assume unconventional gender roles. In this context, the desire of mainstream feminism to dismantle traditional gender roles becomes inapplicable to the black experience. Unlike womanism,[12] Africana womanism is an ideology designed specifically with women of African descent in mind. It is grounded in African culture and focuses on the unique struggles, needs, and desires of African women. Based on this reasoning, Africana Womanism posits race and class based oppression as far more significant than gender-based oppression.[6]

Womanist identity

In her introduction to The Womanist Reader, Layli Phillips contends that despite womanism's characterization, its main concern is not the black woman per se but rather the black woman is the point of origination for womanism. The basic tenets of womanism includes a strong self-authored spirit of activism that is especially evident in literature. Womanism has been such a polarizing movement for women that it has managed to step outside of the black community and extend itself into other non-white communities. Purple is to Lavender illustrates this through experiences that Dimpal Jain and Caroline Turner discuss.[20] Some scholars view womanism as a subcategory of feminism while others argue that it is actually the other way around. Purple is to Lavender explores the concept that womanism is to feminism as purple is to lavender, that feminism falls under the umbrella of womanism. In Purple is to Lavender, Dimpal Jain and Caroline Turner discuss their experiences as non-white women in faculty.[20] They experienced a great deal of discrimination because they were minorities.[20] Jain is south Asian, while Caroline identifies as Filipino (Jain & Turner 67-70). They go on to describe the concept of "The Politics of Naming" which shapes the reason for why they prefer womanism as opposed to feminism (Jain & Turner 73-75). Jain states, "I knew that the term feminism was contested and that I did not like how it fit in my mouth. It was uncomfortable and scratchy, almost like a foreign substance that I was being forced to consume as the White women continued to smile with comforting looks of familiarity and pride" (Jain & Turner 68). Here Turner makes it well known that she feels as though feminism is something that is forced upon her. She feels like she cannot completely identify with feminism. It is also important to note Jain’s statement that, "The crux of the politics of naming is that names serve as identifiers and are not neutral when attached to social movements, ideas, and groups of people. Naming and labeling become politicized acts when they serve to determine any type of membership at a group level" (Jain & Turner 73). This statement illustrates that if an individual identifies with feminism they may do so for particular reasons. However, those reasons may not be evident to the general public because of the connotation that the word feminism brings with it in terms of social movements, ideas, and groups of people. Individuals want something to identify with that expresses and supports their beliefs holistically. They want something that they can embrace to the fullest without any hint of regret. Similarly, Alice Walker even states that, "I don’t choose womanism because it is "better" than feminism...I choose it because I prefer the sound, the feel, the fit of it… because I share the old ethnic-American habit of offering society a new word when the old word it is using fails to describe behavior and change that only a new word can help it more fully see" (qtd. in Jain & Turner 77-78). For a majority of black women feminism has failed to accurately and holistically describe them as individuals to the world that surrounds them. They feel as though it takes something new that is not already bound to a predetermined master in order to capture this new movement. Womanism is something that Alice Walker can completely identify with without having second thoughts; it feels natural to her. Feminism does not. When distinguishing between feminism and womanism it is important to remember that many women find womanism easier to identify with. In addition, a key component of a womanist discourse is the role that spirituality and ethics has on ending the interlocking oppression of race, gender, and class that circumscribes the lives of African-American women.[21]

Literature and activism

Womanist literature and activism are two areas that are largely interpolated, with each having a considerable effect on the other. A major tenet of Womanist literature and activism is the idea that Black activists and Black authors should separate themselves from the feminist ideology. This stems from assertions by Kalenda Eaton, Chikwenye Okonjo Ogunyemi, and numerous other Womanist theologians that the goal of a Womanist should be to promote the issues affecting not just Black women, but black men and other groups that have been subjected to discrimination or impotence.[22] In the words of Chikwenye Okonjo Ogunyemi, a white woman writer may be a Feminist, but a black woman writer is likely to be a Womanist. That is, she recognizes that along with battling for sexual equality, she must also incorporate race, economics, culture, and politics within her philosophy.[23] In Kalenda Eaton's, Womanism, Literature and the Black Community, black women writers are portrayed as both activists and visionaries for change in the Black Community following the Civil Rights Movement. She interweaves the historical events of African-American history with the development of Afro-Politico Womanism in a bid to create a haven for Black female activism within the black community.[23] This Afro-Politico Womanism veers from the traditional feminist goal of gender equality within a group and rather seeks to fight for the men and women whose civil rights are infringed upon. While Eaton takes the stance that Black women were largely excluded from the more prominent positions within the Black Movement, she argues that black women activists had the greatest effect in small-scale grassroots protests within their communities.[24] Using various characters from Toni Morrison's Song of Solomon, Alice Walker's Meridia, Toni Cade Bambara's The Salt Eaters, and Paul Marshall's The Chosen as symbols of the various political agendas and issues that were prevalent within The Black Movement, Eaton draws upon the actions of the protagonists to illustrate solutions to the problems of disgruntlement and disorganization within the movement. Often the main task of these literary activists was to empower the impoverished masses—defined by Eaton as mainly Southern African-Americans, and they used the black middle class as a model for the possibility of social mobility within the African-American community.[23] A common theme within Womanist literature is the failure of Black women writers to identify with feminist thought. Womanism becomes the concept that binds these novelists together.

Spirituality

Spirituality concerns the desire for a connection with the sacred, the unseen, the superhuman, or the nonexistent.[6] Patricia Hill Collins offers this definition:

"Spirituality is not merely a system of religious beliefs similar to logical systems of ideas. Rather, spirituality comprises articles of faith that provide a conceptual framework for living everyday life[10]

Whereby religion is an institutional mechanism, spirituality is a personal one. Unlike religion, spirituality cannot be abandoned or switched. It is an integral component of one's consciousness.[6] Womanist spirituality has six identifying characteristics—it is eclectic, synthetic, holistic, personal, visionary, and pragmatic. It draws from its resources and uses the summation of said resources to create a whole from multiple parts. Although it is ultimately defined by self, it envisions the larger picture and exists to solve problems and end injustice.[6] Emilie Townes, a womanist theologian, further asserts that womanist spirituality grows out of individual and communal reflection on African American faith and life. She explains that it is not grounded in the notion that spirituality is a force but rather a practice separate from who we are moment by moment.[25]" In a blaze of glory: womanist spirituality as social witness. Nashville: Abingdon Press. One of the main characteristics of womanism is its religious aspect, commonly thought of as Christian. This connotation paints the picture of spiritual black womanists being "church going" women that play a vital role in the operation of the church. In William’s article Womanist Spirituality Defined she discusses how womanist spirituality is directly connected to an individual’s experiences with God.[26] For instance, Williams declares, "the use of the term spirituality in this paper speaks of the everyday experiences of life and the way in which we relate to and interpret God at work in those experiences".[26] However, this connotation is disputed in Coleman’s Roundtable Discussion: MUST I BE WOMANIST? Where she focuses on the shortcomings of womanism that result from how individuals have historically described womanism.[27] This holistic discussion of womanism is the result of a roundtable discussion. Coleman, who initiated the discussion, describes her thoughts on why she prefers black feminism as opposed to womanism, and she also discusses the limited scope that womanist religious scholarship embodies.[27] Coleman offers deep insight into the spiritual aspect of womanism when she declares that, "Intentionally or not, womanists have created a Christian hegemonic discourse within the field".[28] Here Coleman explains that the majority of womanists have painted the spiritual aspect of womanism to be spiritual in terms of Christianity. A specific example of this occurs in Everyday Use by Alice Walker in the instance when the mother suddenly gains the courage to take a stand against her spoiled daughter as she declares, "When I looked at her like that something hit me in the top of my head and ran down to the soles of my feet. Just like when I'm in church and the spirit of God touches me and I get happy and shout".[11] This could be categorized as an example of the spiritual aspect of womanism because of the mention of relation to the Christian God. However, Coleman provides a counter example to this assumption when she states, "How, for example, might a womanist interpret the strength Tina Turner finds in Buddhism and the role her faith played in helping her to leave a violent relationship?".[28] Here Coleman pokes a hole in the pre-conceived notions of womanist scholarship. Coleman believes that the notorious sector of spirituality that womanism is most known for referring to is limited in its scope. Womanist religious scholarship has the ability to spread across a variety of paradigms and represent and support radical womanist spirituality . Considering womanism as a whole, it is also important to understand how it relates to feminism.

Ethics

Womanist ethics is a religious discipline that examines the ethical theories concerning human agency, action, and relationship. At the same time, it rejects social constructions that have neglected the existence of a group of women that have bared the brunt of injustice and oppression.[22] Its perspective is shaped by the theological experiences of African-American women.[22] With the use of analytic tools, the effect of race, class, gender, and sexuality on the individual and communal perspective is examined. Womanist ethic provides an alternative to Christian and other religious ethics while utilizing the elements of critique, description, and construction to assess the power imbalance and patriarchy that has been used to oppress women of color and their communities. The publication of Katie Cannon's The Emergence of Black Feminist Consciousness was the first to directly speak on womanist ethics. In this article, Cannon argues that the perspectives of Black women are largely ignored in various religious and academic discourses. Jacquelyn Grant expands on this point by asserting that Black women concurrently experience the three oppressive forces of racism, sexism, and classism.[22] Black feminist theory has been used by womanist ethics to explain the lack of participation of African-American women and men in academic discourse. Patricia Collins, credits this phenomena to prevalence of white men determining what should or should not be considered valid discourse and urges for an alternative mode of producing knowledge that includes the core themes of Black female consciousness.[22]

Critiques of womanism

A major ongoing critique about the womanist ideology is the failure to critically address homosexuality within the black community. Walker, In Search of Our Mother's Garden states that a womanist is "a woman who loves another woman, sexually and/or non-sexually", yet there is very little literature linking womanism to the lesbian and bisexual issue. Womanist theologian Renee Hill cites Christian influences as the cause of the lack of sympathy towards heterosexism and homophobia.[29] Black feminist critic Barbara Smith blames it on the Black community's reluctance to come to terms with homosexuality.[10] An additional critique lies within the ambivalence of womanism. In Africana womanism and African womanism, the term is associated with black nationalist discourse and the separatist movement. Patricia Collins argues that this exaggerates racial differences by promoting homogeneous identity. This is a sharp contrast to the universalist model of womanism that is championed by Walker. The continued controversy and dissidence within the various ideologies of womanism serves only to draw attention away from the goal of ending race and gender-based oppression.[12]

Further reading

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Phillips, L. (2006). The Womanist reader. New York: Routledge.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 Hogan, L. (1995). From women's experience to feminist theology. Sheffield, England: Sheffield Academic Press,1995. Print.
  3. ↑ Boisnier, A. (2003). Race and Women's Identity Development: Distinguishing Between Feminsm and Womanism Among Black And White Women. Sex Roles
  4. ↑ King, Deborah. "Womanist, Womanism, Womanish". Women's Studies Encyclopedia. Greenwood Press.
  5. ↑ Walker, A.(2012). Womanist. Buddhist-Christian Studies 32(1), 45. University of Hawai'i Press. Retrieved January 27, 2013, from Project MUSE database.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 6.5 6.6 6.7 6.8 6.9 6.10 Maparyan, L. (2012). The womanist idea. New York, NY: Routledge.Print.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 The Black Scholar , Vol. 26, No. 1, The Challenge of Blackness (WINTER/SPRING 1996)
  8. ↑ Walker, In Search of Our Mother's Garden's: Womanist Prose, p. xii
  9. ↑ ANIH, UCHENNA BETHRAND. "A Womanist Reading of Douceurs du bercail by Aminata Sow Fall". Matatu: Journal for African Culture & Society (Issue 41): 105–124.
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 10.3 10.4 10.5 Collins, Patricia (1996). "What's In a Time: Womanism, Black Feminism, and Beyond". The Black Scholar 26: 11.
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 11.3 Walker, "Use"
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 12.3 Nikol G. Alexander-Floyd and Evelyn M. Simien. Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies , Vol. 27, No. 1 (2006), pp. 67-89.Article Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org.ezproxy.rice.edu/stable/4137413
  13. ↑ Russo, Stacy. "The Womanist Reader by Layli Phillips." Rev. of The Womanist Reader. Feminist Teacher 2009: 243-45. JSTOR.
  14. ↑ King, Deborah. "Womanist, Womanism, Womanish". Women's Studies Encyclopedia. Greenwood Press. Retrieved 21 October 2013.
  15. ↑ "But Some of Us Are Brave: A History of Black Feminism In the United States". The Thistle 9 (1).
  16. ↑ Simien, E. (2004). Gender differences in attitudes toward Black feminism among African Americans. Political Science Quarterly, 119(2), 315-338. Retrieved November 20, 2013, from the JSTOR database.
  17. ↑ Off Our Backs , Vol. 3, No. 10 (September 1973), p. 9
  18. ↑ Dove, N. (1998). African Womanism: An Afrocentric Theory. Journal of Black Studies, 28(5), 515-539.
  19. ↑ Stephens, R., Keaveny, M., & Patton, V. (2002). "Come Colour My Rainbow": Themes of Africana Womanism in the Poetic Vision of Audrey Kathryn Bullett . Journal of Black Studies, 32(4), 464-466. Retrieved October 20, 2013, from the JSTOR database.
  20. ↑ 20.0 20.1 20.2 Jain & Turner 67-83
  21. ↑ Tsuruta, D. (2012). The Womanish Roots of Womanism: A Culturally-Derived and African-Centered Ideal(Concept). The Western Journal of Black Studies, 36(1), 4. Retrieved November 20, 2013, from the EHIS database.
  22. ↑ 22.0 22.1 22.2 22.3 22.4 Harris, M. L. (2010). Introduction. Gifts of virtue, Alice Walker, and womanist ethics (p. 2). New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
  23. ↑ 23.0 23.1 23.2 Sarah Smorol Rocky Mountain Review Vol. 63, No. 1 (Spring, 2009), pp. 133-134
  24. ↑ Eaton, K. (2004). Talkin’ Bout a Revolution: Afro-Politico Womanism and the Ideological Transformation of the Black Community, 1965-1980. (Electronic Thesis or Dissertation). Retrieved from https://etd.ohiolink.edu/
  25. ↑ Townes, E. M. (1995)
  26. ↑ 26.0 26.1 Williams 97
  27. ↑ 27.0 27.1 Coleman 85-98
  28. ↑ 28.0 28.1 Coleman 89
  29. ↑ Coleman, Monica (14 February 2006). "Must I Be Womanist". Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion: 88.

24 Walker, Alice (19 February 2015) "Everyday Use." American Studies at the University of Virginia. University of Virginia. 25 Jain, Dimpal, and Caroline Turner (7 April 2015) "Purple Is To Lavender: Womanism, Resistance, And The Politics Of Naming." Negro Educational Review. 26 Williams, Khalia Jelks (16 April 2015) "Engaging Womanist Spirituality In African American Christian Worship." Proceedings Of The North American Academy For Liturgy.

External links