ABSTRACT
Recent trends in feminist theory, and in social theory more generally, have made explicit the role of language in shaping, reproducing and challenging power relations. This chapter draws together several strands of research on language use among African American women in order to demonstrate the benefits of strengthening the relationship between feminist scholarship in linguistics and in the other social sciences. Recent research on African American women's and girls' speech shows several points of intersection with Black feminist theory and exemplifies the important new research paradigms that have begun to surface in studies of the language use of African American women. The form of Black feminist theory is developed by sociologist Patricia Hill Collins. A frequently voiced critique of the feminist scholarship within all the social sciences, including linguistics, is that its focus has been limited, for the most part, to white, Western, middle-class, heterosexual adults.
