---
title: "Womanist — AP African American Studies Definition"
description: "Womanist, coined by Alice Walker in the 1980s, names Black women's fight against racism in feminist spaces and sexism in Black communities. Core to Topic 4.13."
canonical: "https://fiveable.me/ap-african-american-studies/key-terms/womanist"
type: "key-term"
subject: "AP African American Studies"
unit: "Unit 4"
---

# Womanist — AP African American Studies Definition

## Definition

Womanist is a term Alice Walker coined in the 1980s to describe a vision of Black women's liberation that confronts both racism within the feminist movement and sexism within Black communities, building on centuries of Black women's activism from Sojourner Truth to the Combahee River Collective.

## What It Is

Womanist is [Alice Walker](/ap-african-american-studies/key-terms/alice-walker "fv-autolink")'s word for a Black woman's brand of liberation politics. Walker coined it in the 1980s because mainstream feminism often ignored [racism](/ap-african-american-studies/unit-4/1-the-ngritude-and-negrismo-movements/study-guide/eK9QyiGxxk1iteQm "fv-autolink"), and Black freedom movements often ignored sexism. Black women lived at the crossroads of both, so they needed language that named their whole experience instead of forcing them to choose between "woman" and "Black."

The term didn't appear out of nowhere. The CED frames womanism as part of a long line of Black women's activism. Eighteenth- and nineteenth-century figures like Jarena Lee, Sojourner Truth, and Harriet Tubman resisted [oppression](/ap-african-american-studies/unit-4/21-black-studies-black-futures-and-afrofuturism/study-guide/j47itxqaFB3GyMzG "fv-autolink") as enslaved and free people, and the Black feminist movement of the 1970s, including the Combahee River Collective, drew direct inspiration from them. Womanism is Walker giving that tradition its own name in the 1980s. Think of it as a label for something Black women had already been doing for two hundred years.

## Why It Matters

Womanist sits in **Topic 4.13 (The Black Feminist Movement, Womanism, and Intersectionality)** in **[Unit 4](/ap-african-american-studies/unit-4 "fv-autolink"): Movements and Debates**. It directly supports learning objective **[AP African American Studies](/ap-african-american-studies "fv-autolink") 4.13.A**, which asks you to explain how the twentieth-century Black feminist movement drew inspiration from earlier Black women's activism. Womanism is the perfect evidence for that objective because the term itself is a continuity argument. Walker deliberately rooted her 1980s coinage in the legacy of activists like Truth and Tubman (per EK 4.13.A.1), the same legacy the Combahee River Collective honored by naming itself after Tubman's raid that freed over 700 enslaved people. If you can explain womanism, you can show how Black women's organizing connects across three centuries, which is exactly the kind of thinking Unit 4 rewards.

## Connections

### [Alice Walker (Unit 4)](/ap-african-american-studies/key-terms/alice-walker)

Walker is the person behind the word. Knowing the coiner matters because multiple-choice questions test the term and its author as a pair. Her choice to invent new language, rather than just call herself a feminist, was itself a statement that existing movements weren't fully serving Black women.

### [Combahee River Collective (Unit 4)](/ap-african-american-studies/key-terms/combahee-river-collective)

The Collective's 1977 statement laid out the Black feminist critique of racism and sexism that womanism builds on. They named themselves after [Harriet Tubman](/ap-african-american-studies/key-terms/harriet-tubman "fv-autolink")'s Combahee River raid, so both the Collective and Walker's term anchor 1970s-80s politics in nineteenth-century activism. Same move, different decade.

### Kimberlé Crenshaw and Intersectionality (Unit 4)

Crenshaw's [intersectionality](/ap-african-american-studies/unit-2/14-freedom-womens-rights-and-education/study-guide/bp2sHi0HFb0u4pX4 "fv-autolink") gave a legal and academic framework to the same reality womanism describes, that race and gender oppression overlap rather than stack neatly. Womanism is the cultural and literary expression; intersectionality is the analytical tool. Topic 4.13 covers them together for a reason.

### Sojourner Truth and Early Black Women's Activism (Units 2 & 4)

EK 4.13.A.1 explicitly links womanism back to eighteenth- and nineteenth-century activists like [Jarena Lee](/ap-african-american-studies/key-terms/jarena-lee "fv-autolink"), Sojourner Truth, and Harriet Tubman. This is your cross-period thread. Black women resisting both racism and sexism is a continuity running from enslavement through the 1980s, not a 1980s invention.

## On the AP Exam

Womanist shows up most often in multiple-choice questions, and they tend to hit three angles. First, attribution, asking who coined the term (Alice Walker, 1980s). Second, definition, asking what it primarily addresses (racism in feminist spaces plus sexism in Black communities). Third, lineage, asking how it connects to earlier activism, like the Combahee River Collective taking its name from Tubman's raid. No released FRQ has used the term verbatim, but it's strong evidence for short-answer and project responses about how twentieth-century movements drew on earlier Black women's activism, which is the heart of LO 4.13.A. The skill being tested is continuity. Don't just define womanism; show that Walker was naming a tradition that already existed.

## womanist vs Black feminism

They overlap heavily but aren't identical labels. Black feminism is the broader movement, organized in the 1970s by groups like the Combahee River Collective, that challenged racism in feminism and sexism in Black communities. Womanist is the specific term Alice Walker coined in the 1980s to capture that same dual struggle in language rooted in Black women's culture and history. On the exam, attach 'womanist' to Walker and the 1980s, and attach 'Black feminist movement' to the 1970s organizing that inspired her.

## Key Takeaways

- Alice Walker coined the term womanist in the 1980s, and the exam expects you to know both the word and its coiner.
- Womanism addresses a double bind, opposing racism within the feminist community and sexism within Black communities at the same time.
- The term builds on earlier Black women's activism, including eighteenth- and nineteenth-century figures like Jarena Lee, Sojourner Truth, and Harriet Tubman.
- Womanism is part of the same Topic 4.13 cluster as the Combahee River Collective and Kimberlé Crenshaw's intersectionality, so study all three together.
- The strongest exam move with this term is a continuity argument, showing that Walker named a tradition of Black women's resistance that stretches back centuries.

## FAQs

### What does womanist mean in AP African American Studies?

Womanist is a term Alice Walker coined in the 1980s for Black women's liberation politics that opposes racism in the feminist movement and sexism in Black communities. It appears in Topic 4.13 in Unit 4.

### Did Alice Walker invent Black feminism with the word womanist?

No. Black feminist organizing came first, with the Combahee River Collective issuing its statement in 1977, and the broader tradition reaches back to activists like Sojourner Truth. Walker's 1980s coinage gave a new name to a struggle Black women had been waging for generations.

### How is womanism different from intersectionality?

Womanism is Walker's cultural and literary term for Black women's dual struggle against racism and sexism, while intersectionality is Kimberlé Crenshaw's analytical framework for how overlapping identities create overlapping oppression. They describe the same reality from different angles, which is why Topic 4.13 pairs them.

### Why is womanism connected to Harriet Tubman and Sojourner Truth?

The CED (EK 4.13.A.1) frames womanism as inspired by earlier Black women activists who resisted oppression as enslaved and free people. The Combahee River Collective made the link explicit by naming itself after Tubman's raid that freed over 700 enslaved people.

### Is womanist likely to show up on the AP African American Studies exam?

Yes, it's named directly in Topic 4.13 of the CED. Expect multiple-choice questions on who coined it, what it addresses, and how it connects to earlier Black women's activism.

## Related Study Guides

- [4.13 The Black Feminist Movement, Womanism, and Intersectionality](/ap-african-american-studies/unit-4/13-black-feminist-movement-womanism-and-intersectionality/study-guide/hflrqrysG5O7jMOP)

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