Biography

Born in Memphis, Tennessee in 1946, Beverly Guy-Sheftall came from a family of small fortune and a hard work ethic. Her interest in women's studies and feminism has played a constant role in her life due to her mother, Ernestine Varnado Guy, who was an active feminist and women’s studies enthusiast; she was also an accountant and math teacher. Without a father figure, Beverly Guy-Sheftall learned to be independent at a young age, proving herself by graduating from Memphis's Manassas High School in 1962 with honors at the age of 16. That same year she started her college career at Spelman College in Atlanta. At Spelman College she received a B.A. in English with a minor in secondary education. For a fifth year of schooling she attended Wellesley College, focusing her English thesis paper on the treatment of women throughout novels, the beginning of a concentration in women’s studies. After a year of teaching English at Alabama State University, Guy-Sheftall returned to the familiar and comfortable by taking at position at Spelman College in the English department.
While teaching, Beverly Guy-Sheftall has released a large number of publications focusing on African-American women feminism and women’s studies. She pioneered the Women’s Research and Resource Center as well as being named the Anna Julia Cooper Professor of women’s studies. The center is extremely valuable because it has recognized sexism and racism in women’s studies. A popular speaker and guest, many colleges and universities across the nation request her to visit. Beverly Guy-Sheftall is also in high demand for interviews with magazines, television and news shows. Her most famous books include, Sturdy Black Bridges: Visions of Black Women in Literature (Doubleday, 1980), her dissertation, Daughters of Sorrow: Attitudes Toward Black Women, 1880-1920 (Carlson, 1991); Words of Fire: An Anthology of African American Feminist Thought (New Press, 1995); and an anthology she co-edited with Rudolph Byrd entitled Traps: African American Men on Gender and Sexuality (Indiana University Press, 2001).
Known to be lively and vivacious, Beverly Guy-Sheftall is not the typical university professor, or feminist activist. She has given so much more back to society and communities in her hometowns as well as across the United States by being active and spreading her word. A strong believer in tradition and improvement through education, she doesn’t appear to be lessening her efforts to contribute to what she has dedicated her life to, feminism and racism in the women’s movement through women’s studies.

Work Referenced:
Answers.com. Black Biography information about Beverly Guy-Sheftall. Contemporary Black Biography. 2006, The Gale Group, Inc. [22 February 2007]. http://www.answers.com/topic/beverly-guy-sheftall

Spelman College: Centers of Distinction. WRRC: Dr. Beverly Guy-Sheftall. 2004. [13 February 2007]. http://www.spelman.edu/about_us/distinction/womenscenter/sheftall.shtml

The Way She Became an Academic

As stated in her biography, Beverly Guy-Sheftall received a B.A. in English with a minor in secondary education when she was only 19. Her fifth year of schooling was at Wellesley College, where she wrote her English thesis then proceeded to teach English at Alabama State University and Spelman College. It was, however, at 22 that Beverly Guy-Sheftall claims she was “propelled into women’s studies” and she’s been at if for more then thirty years. Beverly Guy-Sheftall’s idols include many famous feminists but most importantly Anna Julia Cooper, Toni Cade Bambara, and Bell Hooks. These were the women that captured her interest in women’s studies and drove her to become an academic in that department. Her master’s thesis was the first sign of her involvement with women’s studies, where she realized that the world is male-dominant and that woman should be heard. She continued to read and research, taking her first women’s studies course during her time at Wellesley. Throughout the rest of her academic career everything began to relate to her new interested in gender and race issues, specifically focusing on “complex intersections between history and literature in the constructions of black and white womanhood, especially in the South (Howe, 223),” where she always considers home. Beverly Guy-Sheftall understood that history and culture are intertwined with race and gender. What really established Beverly Guy-Sheftall into the academic world was the publishing of her first literary work Sturdy Black Bridges, which she co-wrote with colleague Roseanne Bell and feminist Bettye Parker; it became a foundation text for black women’s studies. Beverly Guy-Sheftall’s reasons for Sturdy Black Bridges resulted from the lack of black women’s literature and intellectuals she felt was available to her college students. She wanted to provide something more that her black female student’s and other students could gain some knowledge and understanding of the importance of black women’s studies. While Beverly Guy-Sheftall is an established academic through her degrees, being established as an academic in women’s studies was a separate independent journey.

Work Referenced:
Answers.com. Black Biography information about Beverly Guy-Sheftall. Contemporary Black Biography. 2006, The Gale Group, Inc. [22 February 2007]. http://www.answers.com/topic/beverly-guy-sheftall

Edited - Howe, Florence. The Politics of Women’s Studies. The Feminist Press. New York: 2000

Teaching

As well as being one of the most prominent voices for black studies and the women's movement, it seems that Beverly Guy-Sheftall believes the best way in changing the world is through education. Since returning back to her undergraduate school, Spelman College, to teach, Beverly Guy-Sheftall has become an icon for women's studies - especially concerning black women and the black community. As the founding director of the Women's Research and Resource Center she has helped to shape the programs women's studies has to offer at Spelman. Her main focus is the Comparative Women's Studies department, where she teaches and supervises students in the major. In 1973After she published her first major work Sturdy Black Bridges, Beverly Guy-Sheftall was able to teach her first women’s courses, Images of Women in Literature and then Images of Women in the Media. Those two courses were the first in shaping the women’s studies major that was approved in 1997. She then went on to teach and establish two other mini-courses entitled Black Women Novelists and Black Women’s Autobiographies. Motivated by her desire to teach about important black female literary tradition that was absent in conventional literacy programs enabled Beverly Guy-Sheftall to persistently pursue her vision of the women’s studies major. Now her program is an interdisciplinary comparative women's study focusing on women of African descent as well as other global cultures. It provides insight and analysis of women's experiences cross-culturally. It deals with understanding gender, class, race, social hierarchy, and more from various disciplinary perspectives. Spelman has the distinction of having the first established undergraduate women's studies major at a historically black college/university, which probably would not have happened without the efforts of Beverly Guy-Sheftall and her respective staff. Being awarded the Anna Julia Cooper Professor of Women's Studies after the famous Anna Julia Cooper feminist is a major achievement in women's studies and completely deserving. She finds Anna Julia Cooper's A Voice from the South by a Black Woman of the South the most inspiring literature in black women's studies naming it "the first extensive Black feminist analysis of the plight of Black women in this century (Guy-Sheftall, Review)." She has influenced not only the school community but also her city, in hopes of inspiring others to push for the understanding of black women’s studies in other programs and schools. It seems that her teaching style is very interactive from what people have said of her in person; that Beverly Guy-Sheftall commits to what she believes in and what she has to say and being a teacher is helping her to get her opinions and points across in order to spread the knowledge that is lacking in the American and National population. “Perhaps more important, I am as passionate about teaching women’s studies as I was when I taught my first women’s studies course, Images of Women in Literature, in 1973 in a department which I recall having read only a few women writers as an undergraduate English teacher (Howe 226).”

Work Referenced:
Spelman College: Centers of Distinction. WRRC: Dr. Beverly Guy-Sheftall. 2004. [13 February 2007]. G]http://www.spelman.edu/about_us/distinction/womenscenter/sheftall.shtml

Guy-Sheftall, Beverly. Review: Black Women/Black Studies. All the Women Are White, All the Blacks Are Men, but Some of Us Are Brave: Black Women's Studies. Phylon (1960-), Vol. 43, No. 3. (3rd Qtr., 1982), pp. 280-281. http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0031-8906%28198233%2943%3A3%3C280%3ABWS%3E2.0.CO%3B2-N

Edited - Howe, Florence. The Politics of Women’s Studies. The Feminist Press. New York: 2000

Community Action

Being a distinguished teacher in English, women’s studies and black women’s studies as well as building the Women’s Center at Spelman College, and attending world wide seminars, Beverly Guy-Sheftall is the epitome of community action and involvement. Although this may not be the typical activism of perhaps rallying and petitioning that most feminist activists are known for and involved in, it is the type of constructive community action that is bettering society through educational purposes. The Women’s Center at Spelman College was established in 1981 and it is historically the first women’s center of its kind at a black college. “Under the consistently creative and effective leadership of Beverly Guy-Sheftall, Spelman has continued to develop its Women’s Center as a leading institution in the birth and maturing of black women’s studies (Howe, 333).” The three goals that the center tries to achieve are: curriculum development in women’s studies emphasis on women of African descent, community outreach, and research on black women which has been put forward in SAGE, a Scholarly Journal on black women (Davie, 79). Constructing the Women’s Center and the women’s study major program has helped broaden the interdisciplinary study of black women’s studies by reaching out and theorizing on global black feminisms. Beverly Guy-Sheftall has been continually supportive in reaching out into black women and their communities. Other things that Beverly Guy-Sheftall has involved herself in and attended are notable conventions such as the National Women’s Studies Associations where she has met other famous feminists, including those that have greatly influenced her work. By public speaking and writing she is repeatedly putting herself out there for the open. Public speaking, teaching, and creating a place of research and feminist discussion keeps her involved and remains one of Beverly Guy-Sheftall’s top priorities, “I am also convinced that teaching antiracists, cross-cultural women’s studies courses to undergraduates is still the most important and fulfilling work that I do. Perhaps it is even the most radical work in which I am still engaged (Howe 226).”

Work Referenced:
Edited - Davie, Sharon L. University and College Women’s Centers, A Journey Toward Equity. Greenwood Press. Connecticut: 2002.

Edited - Howe, Florence. The Politics of Women’s Studies. The Feminist Press. New York: 2000

Research

Major Works:

Sturdy Black Bridges: Visions of Black Women in Literature (Doubleday, 1980)
Spelman: A Centennial Celebration (Spelman College, 1981)
Daughters of Sorrow: Attitudes Toward Black Women, 1880-1920 (Carlson, 1991)
Double Stitch: Black Women Write about Mothers & Daughters (Beacon Press, 1992)
Words of Fire: An Anthology of African American Feminist Thought (New Press, 1995)
Traps: African American Men on Gender and Sexuality (Indiana University Press, 2001)
Thesis, "Faulkner's Treatment of Women in His Major Novels."

Being an academic, Beverly Guy-Sheftall is known for her many books, articles, and reviews. Beverly Guy-Sheftall also established the periodoical SAGE: A Scholarly Journal on Black Women which she co-founded with Patricia Bell-Scott. It is one of the only scholarly journal’s concerning women of African descent, a major mark in history. Beverly Guy-Sheftall's publications speak to women, most informing and teaching them about historically important intellectual’s black feminist thought and black women’s studies. She also focuses on global understanding of the effects of race, gender, class, culture, and history on black women. Beverly Guy-Sheftall is now more known for her speeches on feminist issues and a reviewer for books and magazines concerning black feminist issues. She is also a consultant to numerous universities for women's studies and multicultural programs. Her first publication, Sturdy Black Bridges: Visions of Black Women in Literature with Roseann Bell and Bettye Parker was the first anthology of black women’s literature and became a staple guide for courses. Like Sturdy Black Bridges, Beverly Guy-Sheftall’s Words of Fire: An Anthology of African American Feminist Thought is comprised of a collection of famous black women’s literature on black feminist thought of over 150 years. It was set to be another textbook for women’s studies classes, without any nonsense, just straight forward feminist writing. Beverly Guy-Sheftall’s book Traps: African American Men on Gender and Sexuality coedited with Rudolph Byrd, is a book composed of articles and essays written by black men and their opinion on politics and culture of their community concerning equality for women as well as other sub-groups such as gays and feminists. Gender Talk: The Struggle for Women’s Equality in African American Communities, cowritten with Johnetta Cole, discusses gender relationships, inequality, and roles in black communities using interviews and personal statement. It also includes a history of the black feminist movement, and how these topics affected Beverly Guy-Sheftall and Johnetta Cole’s lives. It is one of the most logical, comprehensible, productive black women’s studies books that speak out to a wide audience. Beverly Guy-Sheftall has been repeatedly praised for her work on Gender Talk, which is different from so many women’s studies publications out there.
Beverly Guy-Sheftall likes to reference Anna Julia Cooper in many of her literary works because she agrees with Anna Julia Cooper’s point of view on feminism. Anna Julia Cooper focuses on power versus difference; that dominating powers effects race, class, gender, morality, and global cultures. I think that Beverly Guy-Sheftall appreciates the unique claims Anna Julia Cooper makes that isn’t classified under typical sociological theory.
In Beverly Guy-Sheftall’s, Daughters of Sorrow: Attitudes Toward Black Women, 1880-1920 inspired by W.E.B. Du Bois, she investigates the attitudes toward black women by white males and females as well as black males during the Progressive Era, 1880-1920. It also included black women’s opinions and attitudes toward themselves. Beverly Guy-Sheftall chose the Progressive Era, because very little study of the connections between race and gender during that time has been published. She believes it was an important period because it was a period of “awakening of women to the possibility of full equality with men, the emancipated womanhood was beginning to be taken seriously (Guy-Sheftall, 2),” and the attitudes toward black women are critical to understand because it was the period of black peoples “lowest point” (Guy-Sheftall, 2).
The first section of the book is written historical background of black women during the Progressive Era. Beverly Guy-Sheftall wanted to provide all the unbearable hardships that black women were experiencing as a background to understand what black women have overcome, that they were able to write and complete written works in the worst of conditions. The second section concentrates on antithetical views concerning black women and the private sphere. The private sphere tackles sex roles, in which the women’s role as a mother and homemaker places her in the domestic sphere while men are in the public sphere. It is a setting stone for examining male and female roles in society and the male attitude toward black women. She writes that women had a moral role to play outside of the public political sphere, surrendering to “the cult of True Womanhood (Guy-Sheftall 38),” true womanhood applying to the domestic homemaker. Beverly Guy-Sheftall concludes that the black female was greatly devalued and oppressed by black males who preferred them to live up the cult of true womanhood; while white females and males believed that black women did not embody that of the true womanhood and that they were “doomed” despite their best efforts. The third section of the book talks about black women out in the public sphere was the end of the Progressive Era began to provide jobs in education and reform work for black women. This point of the era “feminist consciousness for many women was become awakened, and their defiance of Victorian notions about women’s proper sphere intensified (Guy-Sheftall, 92).” The black male’s attitude to women being in the public sphere was mostly negative, they did not like the idea of black women straying from their role’s at home. Black males were also questioned about emancipation of their race and if that incorporated women, whom they seemed to disregard. For white males and females, racial prejudices were still held against the idea of black women gaining an education, however there did not seem to be a lot written about what they felt about black women being in the public sphere. The attitude of white females appeared to be for majority that black women should stay at home, doing domestic work.
The conclusion Beverly Guy-Sheftall makes in Daughters of Sorrow, illustrates how black women are a prime example of race and gender problems in America. She connects everything through historical experiences which explain why culturally race and gender are interrelated, at a time of racial and sexual frigidness. Here Beverly Guy-Sheftall claims she’s testing the theory that “one’s racial identity, as opposed to one’s gender classification, is the most important determinant of attitudes about a particular segment of the American population, in this case black women, at any given point in history (Guy-Sheftall, 166).” Beverly Guy-Sheftall stands up for black women in that they are not a sub group that can be ignored, “sub-groups are not passive onlookers as traditional history would have us believe, but active participants in a formulation and transmission of cultural attitudes (Guy-Sheftall, 167).” Towards the end of the conclusion, Beverly Guy-Sheftall talks about black women’s studies, providing answers to conceptual issues. She understands black women’s studies to have “emerged from the failure of black and women’s studies to address adequately the unique experiences of black women in America and throughout the world (Guy-Sheftall, 168).” Beverly Guy-Sheftall ends Daughters of Sorrow on the issues of black women’s studies by explaining that a problem they continue to confront is completely exploring the intersection of race, gender, and class and constructing theoretical frameworks that will thoroughly explain the “complexity and diversity of the black female experience throughout the world (Guy-Sheftall, 168)”; that black women are unique for suffering the burden of racism and sexism and deserve attention not to just be classified as another sub-group.

Work Referenced:
Thomson Gale. Contemporary Authors Online. 2006. [20 February 2007].
http://0-www.galenet.com.library.uor.edu/servlet/LitRC?vrsn=3&OP=contains&locID=redl79824&srchtp=athr&ca=1&c=1&ste=6&tab=1&tbst=arp&ai=U14681541&n=1
Guy-Sheftall, Beverly(Review). Review: Black Women Speak Their Minds. Words of Fire: An Anthology of African-American Feminist Thought. The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education, No. 10. (Winter, 1995-1996), pp. 111-112. http://links.jostor.org/sici?1077-3711%28199524%2F199624%290%3A10%3C111%3ABWSTM%3E2.0.CO%3B2-D

Answers.com. Black Biography information about Beverly Guy-Sheftall. Contemporary Black Biography. 2006, The Gale Group, Inc. [22 February 2007]. http://www.answers.com/topic/beverly-guy-sheftall

Lengermann, Patricia, Niebrugge-Brantley, Jill. The Women Founders. Sociology and Social Theory 1830-1930. McGraw-Hill Companies Inc. 1998. New York

Guy-Sheftall, Beverly. Daughters of Sorrow: Attitudes Toward Black Women, 1880-1920. Carlson Publishing Inc, 1990. Brooklyn, New York.

Accomplishments

Beverly Guy-Sheftall has been a prominent contributor to the field of women's studies and active feminism attending and holding numerous conventions, seminars, lectures while being constantly interviewed for her achievements in this field. The number of awards that she has achieved includes the Kellogg fellowship, W.K Kellogg Foundation, Woodrow Wilson Fellowship, Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation, and the Spelman College Presidential Faculty Award for outstanding scholarship. Along with these exceptional awards she also founded the Women's Research and Resource Center.
Beverly Guy-Sheftall has also been rewarded the title of Anna Julia Cooper Professor of women's studies, after the renowned feminist. The biography of Anna Julia Cooper draws parallels between hers and Beverly Guy-Sheftall’s. With their somewhat similar biographies and feminist thought, it is understandable why Beverly Guy-Sheftall holds Anna Julia Cooper in the highest respect, and has been given her title. Just like Beverly Guy-Sheftall, “Cooper’s life is the story of an extraordinary intellect, with a genuine love for learning and for aesthetic experience, reflecting on a world that put up barriers of race, gender, and class to her pursuit of that love (Lengermann, 154).” Anna Julia Cooper also became literate at an early age during the civil war when it was prohibited. At school she focused on reading and writing, and after graduation was in demand for public speaking. She spoke about the importance of higher education for women, attended exchange meetings of black teachers for cross-cultural comparison of race relations, and responded to writings on racism and other published works. Towards the end of Anna Julia Cooper’s career she involved herself as much as she could in community service and education. These brief highlights of Anna Julia Cooper’s life are uncannily similar to that of Beverly Guy-Sheftall’s. Another major resemblance between them was “Cooper’s handwritten memories of her early years show a love of learning and an appreciation of the strengths of her mother (Lengermann, 154),” and Beverly Guy-Sheftall’s unwavering appreciation and admiration for all that her mother taught her. It is completely logical that Beverly Guy-Sheftall would be named the Anna Julia Cooper Professor due to their mirrored lives and black feminist thought.

An article noted that something Beverly Guy-Sheftall would have liked to achieve would have been that her mother, someone she looked up to her whole life, lived to see her accomplishments. Her mother died after a vicious battle with breast cancer. The Atlanta Constitution asked her how she thought her mother would respond to her career and status in the academic community, Guy-Sheftall replied "She'd be happy. She would feel that she made her point."

Work Referenced:
Lengermann, Patricia, Niebrugge-Brantley, Jill. The Women Founders. Sociology and Social Theory 1830-1930. McGraw-Hill Companies Inc. 1998. New York

Edited - Howe, Florence. The Politics of Women’s Studies. The Feminist Press. New York: 2000

Goals

For Beverly Guy-Sheftall, it seems the goals she wants to achieve are those that she is already involved in. “I continue to engage in interdisciplinary feminist scholarship, mostly now about the history of black feminisms (Howe, 226).” It appears that teaching and writing has remained the center of her academic career and involvement in women’s studies, particularly pertaining to the history of black feminist thought along with race, class, gender and its association with African American women. To continue teaching, speaking, and spreading knowledge is an individual goal that she seems dedicated to and that she wants more people to contribute to. She has been involved in women’s studies for over thirty years, and claims “I am committed to the field and its continued transformation as I was when I took my first women’s studies course as a doctoral student at Emory University in 1976 with Professor Darlene Roth (Howe, 226).” A personal goal that Beverly Guy-Sheftall also recognized was that she would like to create a complete biography of Anna Julia Cooper before she retires, because this is yet to be done.

Work Referenced:
Edited - Howe, Florence. The Politics of Women’s Studies. The Feminist Press. New York: 2000

Thoughts on the Future of the Displines of Feminism

Taken from Beverly Guy-Sheftall’s Daughters of Sorrow, she mentions that there is still “exciting and challenging work yet to be done in black women’s studies.” She talks about the area of reconceptualizing black studies and women’s studies requiring attention it has yet to receive so that “the history, experiences, and cultures of black women will be more effectively taught and studied (Guy-Sheftall, Black Women's Studies).” This allows for the discipline of black studies and women’s studies to both display much more precisely the intricacy of black women and women around the world’s experiences. Beverly Guy-Sheftall recognizes that there is an ultimate challenge that scholars of both disciples have to identify with, which is that black women’s history belongs in the category of women’s history and not that of black history. That race should not interfere with gender. This also applies to the black female experience. “The black female experience, by the very same nature of its extremity, illuminates the subjugation of all women. Such a perspective would render black women’s studies unnecessary, or at the very least redundant, over the long run (Guy-Sheftall, 176).” Again Beverly Guy-Sheftall focuses on the discipline of black women’s studies and how it is being portrayed and taught through history, experience and cross-cultural awareness. These subjects are at the center of her understanding for black feminist thought and that much more can be done with them to better educate.

Work Reference:
Guy-Sheftall, Beverly. Daughters of Sorrow. Carlson Publishing Inc, 1990. Brooklyn, New York.

Guy-Sheftall, Beverly. Black Women's Studies: The Interface of Women's Studies and Black Studies. Phylon (1960-), Vol. 49, No. 1/2. (Spring-Summer, 1992), pp. 33-41 http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0031-8906%28199221%2F22%2949%3A1%2F2%3C33%3ABWSTIO%3e2.0.CO%3B2-8

My Final Thoughts

From what I've been able to conclude, I think that Beverly Guy-Sheftall's feminist opinions and what she has put forward in her books and speeches to the community are so important and undervalued. I appreciate her appreciation for women’s history and how that can be applied to feminist theory, as well as taking into consideration a women’s experience, and internationally comparing and examining black women’s studies with other cultures. Her work seems to encompass history, gender, race, class, and the global community which is admirable for all that it involves. I remember reading that it was hard to get her point across and address issues concerning African American women in the black community because they already felt that they were liberated and that they didn't need feminism. That she pursued to spread what she thought would better women's studies and how black women are represented shows great courage. Beverly Guy-Sheftall comes off as someone not easily defeated, after struggling against combined sexism and racism, something so taboo in the greater community she stood to achieve what others deemed impossible. With her own Women's Center, first black women’s studies journal, first ever black women’s studies concentrated major at a university, and her extensive literary work, she seems to be what other feminists today envy and strive to be.

Useful Links and Work Referenced

Books and Articles

Guy-Sheftall, Beverly. Daughters of Sorrow: Attitudes Toward Black Women. Carlson Publishing Inc, 1990. New York.

Edited - Davie, Sharon L. University and College Women’s Centers, A Journey Toward Equity. Greenwood Press, 2002. Connecticut.

Edited - Howe, Florence. The Politics of Women’s Studies. The Feminist Press, 2000. New York.

Lengermann, Patricia, Niebrugge-Brantley, Jill. The Women Founders. Sociology and Social Theory 1830-1930. McGraw-Hill Companies Inc. 1998. New York

Smith, Valerie. Gender Politics in the Black Community. The New Crisis, April 2003. Vol.110. Baltimore.

Weathers, Diance. Black America’s Dirty Little Secret. Essence, July 2003. Vol. 34. New York

Websites and Online Journals

Answers.com. Black Biography information about Beverly Guy-Sheftall. Contemporary Black Biography. 2006, The Gale Group, Inc. [22 February 2007]. http://www.answers.com/topic/beverly-guy-sheftall

Spelman College: Centers of Distinction. WRRC: Dr. Beverly Guy-Sheftall. 2004. [13 February 2007]. http://www.spelman.edu/about_us/distinction/womenscenter/sheftall.shtml

Thomson Gale. Contemporary Authors Online. 2006. [20 February 2007].
http://0-www.galenet.com.library.uor.edu/servlet/LitRC?vrsn=3&OP=contains&locID=redl79824&srchtp=athr&ca=1&c=1&ste=6&tab=1&tbst=arp&ai=U14681541&n=1
Guy-Sheftall, Beverly. Black Women's Studies: The Interface of Women's Studies and Black Studies. Phylon (1960-), Vol. 49, No. 1/2. (Spring-Summer, 1992), pp. 33-41 http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0031-8906%28199221%2F22%2949%3A1%2F2%3C33%3ABWSTIO%3e2.0.CO%3B2-8

Guy-Sheftall, Beverly. Review: Black Women Speak Their Minds. Words of Fire: An Anthology of African-American Feminist Thought. The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education, No. 10. (Winter, 1995-1996), pp. 111-112. http://links.jostor.org/sici?1077-3711%28199524%2F199624%290%3A10%3C111%3ABWSTM%3E2.0.CO%3B2-D

Guy-Sheftall, Beverly. Review: Black Women/Black Studies. All the Women Are White, All the Blacks Are Men, but Some of Us Are Brave: Black Women's Studies. Phylon (1960-), Vol. 43, No. 3. (3rd Qtr., 1982), pp. 280-281. http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0031-8906%28198233%2943%3A3%3C280%3ABWS%3E2.0.CO%3B2-N

Pictures
http://www.paulagordon.com/shows/cole/BGuy-Sheftall.jpg
http://www.valpo.edu/events/mlk2007/assets/images/BGuySheftall1.jpg
http://www.randomhouse.com/catalog/covers/9780345454133.gif
http://www.spelman.edu/about_us/distinction/images/womenscenter.jpg

Why I am Interested in Women's Studies

When I was a senior in high school my older sister told me the best class that she ever took in her entire college career was a women's studies class. I remember this surprised me because how often do you ever here a college student raving about women's studies? Ever since enrolling in Redlands, I knew that I did not want to leave the university without experiencing a women's studies class, especially because the subject contrasts so much with my particular major. Taking this class has broadened my education, opinions, and perspective on not only our community but today's society. It's interesting that I've been through so many years of schooling without hearing these women's names, the ideas they have founded, and the work they've dedicated their lives to. As a topic overlooked, it seems depreciative to their efforts and disadvantageous for us. I've learned to approach topics and theories from a different perspective; from the women's perspective. Not only has it broadened my thoughts on this subject, but every subject I've ever taken and future subjects to come. It provides us with history, foundation, and action that need to be taken into consideration when approaching any understanding to society and equality.