Womanism

Womanism is a social theory based on the discovery of the limitations of the Second-wave feminism movement in regards to the history and experiences of black women, and other women of marginalized groups.

Writer, poet, and activist Alice Walker is credited with coining the term "womanist". The term has evolved to envelop varied, and often opposing interpretations, however, mainly, womanism allows black women and other women of color and/or marginalized groups to affirm and celebrate their color and culture in a way that feminism does not allow them to. In the words of Clenora Hudson-Weems and Alicia Boisnier, black women often struggle to identify with traditional feminism, because they do not identify with the issues that feminism typically advocates for. Alternatively, Delores Williams, a womanist theologian, associates womanism with the traditions and activism formed from the conditions, events, meanings and values within the African-American community. Williams further asserts that the task of the Womanist theologian is to embody activism by seeking out the voices of the unheard and the experiences of the neglected. She identifies the distinct difference between the experiences of the black woman and the white woman that makes it difficult to identify with feminism. One of the key components of feminism is to end a woman's subjugation to her male counterpart, yet there are other oppressive forces that black women face that takes precedence over the perceived subjugation of the black woman by the black man. This represents an expectation and experience of the black woman as one filled with the quest for knowledge, competence, and authority that surpasses the individual, but encompasses the group. This idea of community rather than individuality is further illustrated by the portrayal of a woman as the embodiment of her environment. In this way womanism does not focus indiscriminately on the experiences of black woman, but desires the reconciliation of all people to their spirituality, their relationships with each other, and their relationship with nature. It characterizes women as willful and capable thereby contrasting the image of a women as subservient and inferior. In doing so, womanism empowers women, and challenges them to break from the traditional definition of womanhood.

Author and poet Alice Walker first utilized the term "womanist" in her work, In Search of our Mother's Gardens: Womanist Prose. She explains that the term womanist is derived from the southern folk expression "acting womanish." The womanish girl exhibits willful, courageous, and outrageous behavior that is considered to be beyond the scope of societal norms. She then goes on to say that a womanist is:

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