The Radical Imagination of Black Women: Ambition, Politics, and Power

by Pearl K. Ford Dowe

Overview

Historically, many Black women have viewed political participation as a means to achieve full equality and improve their status in US society. To this end, Black women have long engaged in politics through activism, voting, mobilization, and seeking office. Since 2016 the number of women, particularly Black women, seeking office has increased dramatically. Including interviews with Black women holding political office at the national, state, and local levels, as well as focus group data, The Radical Imagination of Black Women challenges political science's current approach to political ambition by exploring how Black women decide to seek political office. Pearl K. Ford Dowe argues that ambition for Black women cannot be measured only by political candidacies and ascents of the political chain of power. Black women are uniquely positioned within their communities to influence politics and public policy, which stems from unique variables of socialization, gender and racial identity, and marginalization that shape the political attitudes of Black women. Thus, Dowe asserts that Black women's political ambition often manifests outside formal politics, in activism and community building, a process that is linked to a wider radical vision for a full democracy. This is ambition that occurs in a specific context of marginalization, and both motivation and the conditions surrounding such motivation are critical to understanding the full range of Black women's political work. By focusing on Black women's experiences in elite politics, The Radical Imagination of Black Women is a much-needed intervention in the literature on electoral ambition, women in politics, and candidates and elections.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780197650820
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	08/29/2023
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	610 KB

About the Author

Pearl K. Ford Dowe is the Asa Griggs Candler Professor of Political Science and African American Studies at Emory University. She currently also serves as Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs. She is the co-author of Remaking the Democratic Party: Lyndon B. Johnson as Native-Son Presidential Candidate and co-editor of the National Review of Black Politics.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments Introduction 1. The Radical Imagination of Black Women's Ambition 2. Black Women and Ambition: A Community Decision 3. An Ambition that Resists Marginalization 4. Black Women's Leadership, Connecting Socialization and Careers 5. What Do Black Women Need from Black Women Elected Officials? 6. Conclusion Appendix A: List of Interviewees Appendix B: Interview Questions Appendix C: Focus Group Questions Notes Bibliography Index

Editorial Reviews

"Focusing on Black women as political actors, Dowe launches a new conversation on candidate emergence, offering new ways of conceptualizing political ambition. She illuminates new spaces where women candidates are groomed and offers a vision of political ambition that is grounded in a collective, community-based ethos rather than an individualist frame, which has dominated much of the candidate emergence literature emergence. Anyone interested in women in electoral politics will find this book an essential read." — Wendy Smooth, The Ohio State University

"This book is one I have been waiting for. With an impressive new theoretical formulation, Dowe offers an important corrective to theories of political ambition that fail to recognize the capacity of Black women to move from community service and grassroots activism to legislative policymaking and public office-holding. Her theory of Ambition on the Margins has indisputable value and magnificently captures said dynamic whereby Black women's voting and officeholding emerge as a paradox of participation." — Evelyn M. Simien, University of Connecticut

"The Radical Imagination of Black Women is a necessary intervention into scholarly understandings of Black women's political ambition. Dowe centers Black women's culture, epistemology, and community commitment as the key factors that undergird their political ambition. This novel approach to traditional political science studies is what sets this book apart. While the uniqueness of the data and methodological framework is a key selling point, the theoretical underpinning of this text is the real star. Only Pearl Dowe could have written this masterpiece-one that is wholly encapsulated in the beauty of Black women's marginalities and wholenesses and can weave together the complexities of a structurally-driven but agentic-created origin story of Black women's political ambition." — Nadia E. Brown, Georgetown University

From the Publisher