Embracing Sisterhood
Class, Identity, and Contemporary Black Women
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- 44,99 €
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- 44,99 €
Beschreibung des Verlags
With this purported new 'era of high-profile, mega successful, black women who are changing the face of every major field worldwide' and growing socioeconomic diversity among black women as the backdrop, Embracing Sisterhood seeks to determine where contemporary black women's ideas of black womanhood and sisterhood merge with social class status to shape certain attachments and detachments among them. Similarities as well as variations in how black women of different social backgrounds perceive and live black womanhood are interpreted for a range of social contexts. This book confirms what many of today's African-American women and interested observers have known for some time: Conceptions and experience of black womanhood are quite diverse and appear to have grown more diverse over time. However, the potential for a pervasive and polarizing black 'step-sisterhood' is considerably undermined by the passion with which these women cling to the promises of cross-class gender/ethnic 'community' and of group determination. Embracing Sisterhood draws its analysis from in-depth interviews with eighty-eight contemporary black women aged 18 to 89 covering a variety of issues prompted by a survey questionnaire capturing various dimensions of gender/ethnic identity and consciousness.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
With straightforward prose, McDonald examines the notion of sisterhood among contemporary African-American women in this rigorous academic study. An associate professor of sociology at Johns Hopkins, McDonald has conducted extensive interviews with more than 80 black women-in their homes, workplaces, local hair salons, restaurants and, occasionally, their cellblocks. As they speak of self, friendship and community, McDonald breaks down their thoughts and attitudes along universal lines, looking to find some common bond among an increasingly diverse population of female African-Americans through consideration of concepts like struggle, authenticity and roots. Though her professorial tone can be dry, McDonald has a breakout chapter in her look at talk-show host and media mogul Oprah Winfrey, who represents not just "the most famous African-American woman the world has known," but also the most heavily scrutinized with regards to race and authenticity, and therefore a fitting cap to her close look at the African-American everywoman.
