Introduction

These five essays are all grounded in the experiences of particular women-be they individual activists and writers or representatives of a wider contingent. But this is not a catalogue of personal life stories, nor a rhetorical burst on sexism and racism. The authors in this section use biography and autobiography, oral testimonies and interview material as a means of providing a panoramic description of the ‘realities’ of Black women’s lives within the theoretical frameworks constructed through their research. In the main, they are concerned with external barriers to Black women’s equality in Britain. Social and political structures which undermine Black women’s lives-in education, employment and social servicesare rarely subject to detailed scrutiny. Without such analysis the development of Black British feminist thought, and related feminist activism, is inevitably hindered.