The Challenge of Race: Rethinking the Position of Black Women in the Field of Women's History

Abstract

erda Lerner's article beautifully captures the major historiographic shifts and developments in women's history since 1969. It is impor- tant, thirty-five years later, to reflect on the ways in which the study of women's experiences has evolved. Perhaps the most significant ideologi- cal influence on early women's history was the feminist movement, which sought to overthrow male domination, patriarchy, and gender discrimina- tion. As Lerner notes, the result was a proliferation of feminist scholarship in the 1980s, which placed women's voices and experiences at the center of scholarly inquiry. Specifically within the field of history, feminist thought advocated for a woman-centered approach, and argued that there was a common sisterhood among women. 1 The creation of new feminist para- digms was tremendously useful in liberating White women from scholarly neglect and oversight, and therefore a debt of gratitude is owed to the schol- ars who blazed the trail and took intellectual risks to create this field. Despite the importance of these early contributions, however, I be- lieve that the most significant progress has been made since the 1980s, after Black scholars raised critiques regarding the implicit racism in women's history that systematically overlooked how race and class func- tioned in the lives of women of color. As Eileen Boris and Angelique Janssens explained, feminists found themselves increasingly under at- tack for ignoring differences of race and ethnicity. The universalizing rheto- ric of gender claimed to embrace all women when in fact it derived from the standpoint of usually middle-class white women in North America or northern Europe. 2 Although these criticisms slightly destabilized the field, the resulting creation of intersectionality, which examines how race, class, gender, and sexuality simultaneously influence women's lives, was an important step in constructing the stories of women's experiences. 3 Yet as Lerner points out, the changes were not only dramatic and pervasive, they were also confusing (13). At this moment in the development of women's history, we must be willing to look deeply at our approaches and evaluate their effectiveness. In my opinion, the scramble to incorpo- rate race into the narrative, while critically important, was often clumsy, awkward, and strained. The problem is twofold; first, although feminism is a useful paradigm for White women, the attempt to force Black women