Talk by Professor Ula Taylor, UC Berkeley: “The Promise of Patriarchy: Women and the Nation of Islam”

The partiarchal structure of the Nation of Islam (NOI) promised black women the prospect of finding a provider and a protector among the organization’s men, who were fiercely committed dto these masculine roles. Black women’s experience in the NOI, however, has largely remained on the periphery of scholarship. In her presentation, Ula Taylor documents their struggle to escape the devaluation of black womanhood while also clinging to the empowering promises of patriarchy. Taylor shows how, despite being relegated to a lifestyle that did not encourage working outside of the home, NOI women found freedom in being able to bypass the degrading experiences connected to labor performed largely by working-class black women and in raising and educating their children in racially affirming environments.

Co-sponsored by the College of Letters and Sciences; the MultiCultural Center; the Department of History; Hull Chair in Feminist Studies; and Black Studies