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Abstract: In three phases, historical womanist theory, which situates Black women as a unique racialized and gendered laboring class in the US, is developed. Phase one illustrates how Black women have been historically contextualized as instruments of production. Phase two is an expansion of the first phase and shows the sedimentation of Black women's status as instruments of production through processes of racialization and racialized patriarchy. In turn, the third phase of theory development establishes historical womanism as an important theoretical construct and guiding lens that illuminates the contemporary status of Black women.
Keywords: historical womanist theory; feminist theory; social rhetoric; inequalities; Black women
In this paper, I develop historical womanist theory (HWT), a pointed theoretical framework, essential to understanding the unique social, political, and economic positions of Black women within the United States. While many seminal feminist theorists before me have broached the issues relevant to Black women's lives, no one theory has been able to grapple with the multi-tiered simultaneous and interconnected oppressions that make up the Black woman's experience in the US. Collins' matrix of domination clearly highlights the structural roots of oppression that impact Black women's lives (1990). Brewer explores the "polyvocality of multiple social locations" that make up the lived reality of Black women (1993:13). At its root, historical womanist theory draws from these works while providing an analysis of the political economy. HWT is derived heavily from Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels' dialectical and historical materialism. Due to the unique nature of the role of Black women's labor in the US capitalist structure and her historical and ongoing experience with these multi-layered oppressions, HWT also draws from several other perspectives rooted in race, class, and gender analysis. These theories include: womanist theory; material feminism; Black feminism; and critical race theory. Each of these perspectives is well suited to examine particular elements of processes of marginalization and exploitation. Nevertheless, none of these theories offers a comprehensive lens that explores the intricacies of marginalization and oppression experienced by Black women. According to Higginbotham,
Feminist theory, women's studies, and the women's movement more generally, have focused almost exclusively on white middle-class women in defining womanhood. Black, Hispanic, and other minority women have been variously ignores, treated as interesting asides, and viewed...