ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts covered in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book reflects the contemporary centrality of women-of-color feminisms in feminist thought and to highlight the concept of intersectionality. It then focuses on women of color in the United States, specifically Black/African American, Latin American/Latina/Chicana, Asian American, and Indigenous women. The book discusses global, postcolonial, and transnational feminism, all of which we understand as related but distinct approaches to worldwide feminist concerns. Initially, psychoanalytic feminists focused on Sigmund Freud's work, looking within it for a better understanding of sexuality's role in the oppression of women. According to some psychoanalytic feminists, the Oedipus complex is the root of male rule, or patriarchy, and nothing more than the product of men's imagination, a psychic trap that everyone, especially women, should try to escape. On a related note, care-focused feminists seek to understand why women as a group are usually linked with interdependence, community, and connection.
