The Profeminist Politics of W. E. B. Du Bois with Respects to Anna Julia Cooper and Ida B. Wells Barnett

Abstract

W. E. B. Du Bois's profeminist writings are argued to have been influenced by his masculinist worldviews that deradicalized his progressive views on gender. Although Du Bois is rightly recognized for his profeminist politics, & for his ability to maintain conceptual & political linkages between the struggles to end racism, sexism, & war, his larger paradigm, in which the male is normative, reinforces male dominance. It is argued that this reinforcement is visible in Du Bois's marginalization of two prominent women writers -- Anna Julia Cooper & Ida B. Wells Barnett -- who were active in the black movement in the first half of the 20th century. Du Bois quotes from the writings of Cooper without citing her by name, & slights Wells Barnett when she is being ostracized at the founding conference of the National Assoc for the Advancement of Colored People. It is concluded Du Bois's profeminism is tinged with paternalism. 22 References. H. von Rautenfeld