Reading Feminism What to Read on Feminism

In this reading list, the ‘x’ in womxn is used in an inclusive way to indicate gender fluidity and inclusivity. Read more on it here and here. However, the spelling ‘women’ is also used in this reading list to be consistent with the way in which it was used in the selected texts.

For generations, womxn have been dedicated to pursuing an agenda opposed to patriarchy—simply defined as a social system in which men primarily hold the power and benefit from it, while womxn are largely excluded from it. This fight does not exclude African womxn with their own experiences, writings, activism and scholarship.

It is important to be clear that feminism—which includes opposing ‘the patriarchy’—on the African contintent is not a new concept or phenomena imported from Western regions. See, for example, Ali Mari Tripp’s piece on this reading list—How African Feminism Changed the World—which discusses how African women, such as Egyptian novelist, Nawal El Saadawi, and Moroccan sociologist, Fatema Mernissi, challenged efforts by Western feminists to define global feminism at the 1976 international conference on Women and Development at Wellesley College.

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