Feminist historians show male prowess shaped archival production and excluded women’s histories

Evidence

Sojourner Truth was not the only black woman to advocate social equality for women. Her eagerness to speak publicly in favor of women’s rights despite public disapproval and resistance paved the way for other politically-minded black women to express their views. Sexism and racism have so informed the perspective of American historiographers that they have tended to overlook and exclude the effort of black women in discussions of the American women’s rights movement. White female scholars who support feminist ideology have also ignored the contribution of black women. In contemporary works, like The Remembered Gate: Origins of American Feminism by Barbara Berg, Herstory by June Sochen, Hidden from History by Sheila Rowbothan, The Women’s Movement by Barbara Deckard, to name a few, the role black women played as advocates for women’s rights in the 19th century is never mentioned. Eleanor Flexner’s Century of Struggle, which was first published in 1959, remains one of the very few book-length historical works on the women’s rights movement that documents the participation of black women. — bell hooks, Ain’t I a Woman_ Black Women and…, 463 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Historians and theorists treat the archive as distinct analytic objects that are nonetheless blurring — Ann Laura Stoler, Along the Archival Grain_ Epistemic…, 288; Early archival microhistories worked in archives but did not treat them as ethnographic subjects — Ann Laura Stoler, Along the Archival Grain_ Epistemic…, 289; Historians have systematically omitted black women from accounts of feminist history — bell hooks, Ain’t I a Woman_ Black Women and…, 463 (+3 more)

Related

• Historians have systematically omitted black women from accounts of feminist history (similarity 0.90)
• Scarcity of evidence on African women philosophers reflects neglect, not absence of contribution (similarity 0.84)
• Male-centered archival practices erased women’s agentive histories from the colonial record (similarity 0.83)
• Historians have excluded black women from accounts of the women’s rights movement (similarity 0.82)
• Scholars frame black women’s organizing as anti-racist, not feminist (similarity 0.79)
• Early archival microhistories worked in archives but did not treat them as ethnographic subjects (similarity 0.79)
• The women’s movement failed to analyze black women’s sexist oppression (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• Archival genres themselves shaped colonial epistemic practices #corroborates (0.75)
• Historians have systematically omitted black women from accounts of feminist history #expands (0.60) — bell hooks, Ain’t I a Woman_ Black Women and…, 463
• Historians have excluded black women from accounts of the women’s rights movement #expands (0.60)