An Intersectional Feminist Reading List

Suggestions from my bookshelves

September has been a busy month. I submitted my MA dissertation earlier this month which drained most of my mental energy, hence no essay this month. Instead, in the back to school spirit, I am offering a short reading list of some of the feminist texts I have found most formative to the way I think about the world. Writing a ‘feminism’ reading list felt like too vast a task to even begin to approach, so I’ve chosen to focus specifically on feminism and intersectionality for this first reading list. 

The term intersectionality was coined by Black feminist and legal scholar Kimberlé Crenshaw in her 1989 essay, ‘Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex: A Black Feminist Critique of Antidiscrimination Doctrine, Feminist Theory and Antiracist Politics’. The essay discusses what she calls the theoretical erasure of Black women within the American legal framework. Crenshaw writes:

‘I want to suggest further that this single-axis framework erases Black women in the conceptualization, identification and remediation of race and sex discrimination by limiting inquiry to the experiences of otherwise-privileged members of the group. In other words, in race discrimination cases, discrimination tends to be viewed in terms of sex- or class-privileged Blacks; in sex discrimination cases, the focus is on race- and class-privileged women.’

The idea of intersectionality has expanded to include alongside race the axes of class, sexuality, disability, migration status, and many other categories of oppression. This was not necessarily a novel idea in the 1990s; Black women, especially Black lesbians, had been at the visible forefront of the feminist movement for many years and were acutely aware of how those categories impacted their experience as women compared to their cis-hetero and white counterparts. Crenshaw’s theory of intersectionality gave the feminist movement valuable language and frameworks for understanding the way these oppressions work under what bell hooks calls the ‘imperialist white supremacist heteropatriarchy’ under which we live. 

This list is by no means exhaustive or definitive, just some books I’ve found good, interesting, and useful in my own development as a feminist thinker. I’ve mostly focused on Black intersectional feminism here since this movement was largely pioneered by Black feminists, but would love to expand on this with other specific reading lists if there’s an appetite for that. I’d also love to hear your own favourites in this area, especially from any authors outside of the UK, western Europe, and the USA.

1. Combahee River Collective Statement, Combahee River Collective

My first recommendation isn’t a book, but a twenty page long statement written by the Combahee River Collective. This was a group formed in 1970s Boston of Black women, including many Black lesbians, who felt that the feminist movement and the civil rights movement were both failing to acknowledge their unique struggles and needs as Black women and Black lesbians. Their statement is often credited with  coining the term ‘identity politics’, and is a formative text in Black feminism. The statement explores the ways in which different systems of oppression are interlocking, and how this is central to their struggle.

The Combahee River Collective Statement is a very straightforward and approachable text that lays out several of the foundational ideas of intersectionality, even decades before Crenshaw. It is a history, an explainer, and a manifesto all at once. It addresses racism in the white feminist movement, and sexism in the civil rights movement. I think this text is especially great for reading in discussion groups, in the same collective style in which it was written. If you don’t know where to start with the canon of intersectional feminist literature, start here.

If you liked this, read: Sister, Outsider by Audre Lorde. Audre Lorde was a member of the Combahee River Collective and an incredibly influential ‘black, lesbian, mother, warrior, poet’.  She’s written many fantastic books, but Sister, Outsider is probably the most famous. It’s a collection of speeches and essays building on ideas of intersectionality, alongside issues of imperial colonialism, sex and sexuality, police violence, and more. I haven’t read the whole book but the essays I have read are wonderful.

2. Feminism for the 99%: A Manifesto, by Cinzia Arruzza, Tithi Bhattacharya, and Nancy Fraser

This 2019 manifesto from three feminist scholars begins with an acknowledgement, ‘For the Combahee River Collective, who envisioned the path early on’. In many ways the text is a reaction to the liberal-capitalist feminist thought that came to dominate the 2010s à la Sheryl Sandberg’s Lean In, and a clarion call to return to the energised radicalism of the ‘second wave’. Feminism for the 99% calls for an explicitly anti-capitalist and pro-worker feminism, as expressed in the second half of their dedication: ‘and for the Polish and Argentine feminist strikers, who are breaking new ground today’. 

The book is formatted as a series of theses that demonstrate the ways in which capitalism interacts with and enforces other forces of oppression, from racist colonial violence to sexual violence to ecological destruction which disproportionately impacts both global South women and poor women in the global North. It focuses on the centrally important role of women as workers, and the feminist power of industrial action. In fact, several of the authors were organisers of the 2017 & 2018 International Women’s Strikes. Feminism for the 99% is a short but incredibly impactful text, and a useful corrective to the neoliberal conceptions of feminism many of us Gen-Z and Millenial women in the global North have been raised alongside.

If you liked this, read: War on Want’s Fashioning the Future report. The garment industry is a major employer for women in several global south countries, especially in Asia. At War on Want’s And Still We Rise conference earlier this year I heard from female trade unionists in the garment industry in Sri Lanka about their campaigns for better wages and protections, ending gender-based violence in the workforce, and more. This report is an interesting and useful summary of the human rights and ecological issues facing the fashion industry, something we all must be more conscious of as a feminist issue.

3. Women, Race, and Class, by Angela Davis

If you’ve already read one book on this list, I would guess it’s this one. Women, Race, and Class is an absolute canonical classic of feminist literature, written by Angela Davis, one of the most well known Black feminists in the USA. Davis was a member of the Black Panther party and the Communist Party USA, and remains a prominent Marxist-Feminist and antiracist scholar today. 

Women, Race, and Class is primarily a history of the fight for women’s liberation in the USA. It applies a Marxist, anticapitalist, and anti-imperialist framework to discussions of abolitionism, suffrage, and the womens movement in the 1960s and 70s when she writes. I read this book when I was 19, and it shaped my thinking in many ways. I found particularly impactful her discussion of rape as an instrument of upholding various forms of institutionalised power, from slavery to imperialist military power to racial segregation. Even if you don’t identify politically as a Marxist (I don’t necessarily), a Marxist framework is a really valuable tool for understanding the interlocking systems of oppression wielded against Black women both in the USA and around the world.

If you liked this, read: Assata: An Autobiography by Assata Shakur. Sometimes narrative can be more powerful than theory, and this book is powerful indeed. Assata Shakur was a Black Liberation Party member who was convicted and sentenced to life in prison for the killing of a New Jersey State Trooper, a crime which she maintains she did not commit but for which she remains to this day on the FBI’s most wanted list. Shakur escaped prison and is currently living in political asylum in Cuba. Her autobiography is a powerful testimony on the systemic abuse she faced at the hands of the US prison system as a Black woman and a political radical, and remains one of the best books I have ever read.

4. Heart of the Race: Black Women's Lives in Britain, by Beverley Bryan, Stella Dadzie and Suzanne Scafe

Most of the books I’ve listed so far are written from the US, so I wanted to include one that explicitly addresses the intersectional feminist context of my home, the UK. Heart of the Race is a sociological and historical exploration of the history of Black women in Britain, written in the 1980s by Beverley Bryan, Stella Dadzie and Suzanne Scafe. It explores the unique history of Black British women and their relationship with different institutions of British culture and state, such as healthcare, the education system, and the British empire and commonwealth. From the slave trade to the Windrush and beyond, this book details a crucial yet often overlooked segment of British history, written by women who were at the time creating history of their own in their roles as Black feminist activists. 

The book is packed with firsthand accounts of migrant Carribbean and African women in Britain in the twentieth century. I found particularly interesting the accounts of Black women and work. Women were recruited from the Caribbean en masse to fill certain roles like nursing, but government recruiters sold them false promises and lied and manipulated them into worse paying jobs. Education was also a struggle, both financially and due to systemic and interpersonal racism. This book is an absolutely essential read for any British feminist or historian (or anyone else). 

If you liked this, read: Speak Out!: The Brixton Black Women's Group. This is a collection of writings by the Brixton Black Women’s Group, one of the most important radical groups in Britain of the 1970s. The Heart of the Race authors Beverly Bryan and Suzanne Scafe were both members, and this book is full of fascinating interviews and first person insights about a very wide range of issues impacting Black women in 1970-1980s Britain. 

5. Feminism is for Everybody by bell hooks

As the title suggests, Feminism is for Everybody is a very approachable text. hooks’ mission with this book is to provide a straightforward and easy to understand explanation of what feminism is and what it aims to do. She says in the introduction that this is particularly directed at men and boys, but it is a great introductory text for anyone. Anecdotally I have found a lot of men in my life who are less engaged in feminism have responded very well to bell hooks, so if you’re looking for something for a man (or you are yourself a man), I’d definitely recommend this (or Will to Change). 

The book is broken up into very short 5-10 page chapters covering topics from ‘Women at Work’ to ‘Feminist Parenting’ to ‘Liberating Marriage and Partnership’. Feminism is for Everybody does a great job of explaining how gendered oppression touches all areas of our lives, and how feminism will uplift us all in so many ways. hooks is also not afraid to call out the mistakes of the feminist movement, and offers lots of exciting solutions (though I may not agree with all of them, but that’s the point of discussion and discourse). If you were one of the thousands who rediscovered her 1999 classic All About Love in the last couple years then I encourage you to branch out into her more explicitly feminist work.

If you liked this, read: Feminism, Interrupted by Lola Olufemi. I haven’t finished reading this yet so couldn’t give it a full recommendation, but Olufemi is a true visionary. I include her here after hooks because I think she shares hooks’ optimism and desire to imagine a better, anticapitalist, anti-imperialist future. It’s reclaiming feminism from the clutches of liberal capitalist consumerist culture, and bringing it back to its revolutionary roots. I’m sure I’ll go into more depth about this book in a future essay once I’ve finished it so keep an eye out. 

Honourable mentions:

It was so hard to choose just five (or ten) books for this list, so here are some other excellent titles I recommend:

A Decolonial Feminism by Françoise Vergès

This Bridge Called My Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color ed. Cherrie Moraga & Gloria Anzaldúa

Abolition. Feminism. Now. by Angela Y. Davis, Gina Dent, Erica Meiners, and Beth Richie

The Master’s Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master’s House by Audre Lorde

Against White Feminism by Rafia Zakaria

I hope you found this list helpful and found at least one new book that piqued your interest. As I mentioned before, please do comment with your own recommendations! There are dozens if not hundreds of books around this topic that I have yet to read so please do tell me what you’ve enjoyed. I’ve linked most of these titles for sale through my Bookshop.org profile so I may earn a small commission if you buy through those links (10% plus an additional 10% going to local bookshops), and the ones that aren’t available through Bookshop.org I’ve linked either secondhand or through their publisher. I also encourage everyone to buy secondhand (World of Books and Abe Books are great), or support your local bookstores. Don’t shop Amazon! I hope the beginnings of autumn are treating you well, and I’ll see you soon.