Gender Plus: Toward a More Inclusive Feminism

This paper explores the racism of mainstream feminism and the ways in which what we think of as feminism has not adequately addressed the needs of black women in the United States. It describes some of the ways in which black women’s experiences of oppression in the United States differ from white women’s. It then proposes a methodological tool for avoiding racism in feminist political theory, “Gender Plus,” which calls for feminist theorists to consider at least one level of inquiry beyond gender when formalizing theory. This paper engages in “Gender Plus” by using race as an example level of inquiry beyond gender, and shows how acknowledging and considering the races of the women theorists study can aid in combating tendencies toward racism in feminist thought.