This volume utilizes the cross-cultural, historical and ethnographic perspective of anthropology to illuminate the intrinsic connections of race, class and gender. The author begins by discussing the manner in which her experience as a participant observer led her to research and write about various aspects of African-American women's experiences. She goes on to provide a critical analysis of the new scholarship on African-American women, and explores issues of race, class and gender in the arenas of work, kinship and resistance.

Contents; ; Preface; Introduction; Part 1. Women, Work, and Community; Introduction; 1. Notes on Women, Work, and Society; 2. Uneven Development: Class, Race, and Gender in the United States Before 1900; 3. Minority Women, Work, and Health; Part 2. Kin and Family; Introduction: Perspectives on the American Family; 4. Anthropological Perspectives on the African American Family; 5. Households Headed by Women: The Politics of Race, Class, and Gender; Part 3. Representation, Resistance, and Transformation: Theory and Practice in Politics and in the Academy; Introduction; 6. Images, Ideology, and Women of Color; 7. Mapping Gender in African American Political Strategies 8. Gender and the Application of Anthropological Knowledge to Public Policy in the United States; 9. Race, Inequality, and Transformation: Building on the Work of Eleanor Leacock; 10. Reclaiming Culture: The Dialectics of Identity