Angela Davis Sparknotes

Angela Yvonne Davis is an American activist and author. She is known for her engagement in the feminist and civil rights movements, as well as in socialist and communist ones. Davis is also a scholar, who is concerned with the topics of oppression connected to race, gender, class and other factors, often using a philosophical approach in her work. She is said to be one of the pioneers in integrative studies of these subjects. Angela Davis is one of the first people to study academically and methodologically the intersection and connection between those spheres, creating a new type of studies concerned specifically with those issues. In 1981 she published a pioneering text theorising the interconnectedness between social status, race and gender:

It shows that individuals are never defined by a single characteristic. She emphasises the fact that gender is not the only factor which enhances oppression. Through describing the history of the feminist movement in the United States and the history of emancipation of black people, she shows how race is an important factor determining the situation of women of colour. Providing many examples from the beginning of the 19th century up until the end of the 20th century she shows the different forms of oppression that black women have faced and, which have not been addressed by the mainstream movement. In the different parts of the book she makes a clear distinction between how black and white women understood the feminist movement from the beginning. She shows that for white women the oppression that they felt concerned them not having voting rights and having to stay at home, so not being able to truly participate in the political and social life. For black women at the beginning the most important concerns were the abolition of slavery, and not the possibility to work at the same positions as men, as they did the exact same jobs as black men. This shows that their concerns were not identical from the beginning, but also that those of black women were far more urgent, as they were not free in any

Angela Y. Davis understands the capitalistic system as a structure based on the exploitation of labour, which creates a hierarchical society using race, gender and class. It is built on oppression and exploitation of those, who are less privileged. The fight for social equality and justice is not separate from the fight for economic justice. For true equality to appear, the system needs to be transformed into one, which takes into accounts the needs and differences of all and treats them equally. Angela Y. Davis states that a low class status also has a great influence on the situation that women are in. It visibly makes their situation even worse. That is why all forms of oppression and injustice have to be addressed