Graduation Year

2025

Document Type

Thesis

Degree

M.A.

Degree Name

Master of Arts (M.A.)

Degree Granting Department

Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies

Major Professor

Jill McCracken, Ph.D.

Committee Member

Tangela Serls, Ph.D.

Committee Member

Peter Funke, Ph.D.

Keywords

Community, Ideology, Marxist Feminism, Social Movement Actor

Abstract

The purpose of this project is to investigate the impact ideology has on social movement actors. I do this by conducting a case study on the influence of Marxist feminist ideologies on the Black Panther Party’s (BPP) Free Breakfast for Schoolchildren Program (FBP). Within this case study, I narrow my focus to Marxist feminism, rather than Marxism more broadly, to choose a theoretical framework that aligns with my subject while ensuring gender is considered as a critical axis for examination. This research is situated at the intersection of feminisms and social movements, drawing from both social movement scholarship and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies scholarship. I aim to identify naturally arising themes that reflect the presence of Marxist feminist ideology in how women Panthers discuss their organizing. My research question asks how does the ideology of Marxist feminism affect the perspectives of women Panthers who worked in the FBP? I answer this question through a feminist close reading of personal narratives of working-class Black women who served in the FBP selected from Comrade Sisters by Erika Huggins, as well as excerpts from the autobiography from A Taste of Power by Elaine Brown, the woman who rose to the highest ranks within the BPP. I argue that the BPP used militarized language to describe traditionally feminized labor and claimed ownership of the means of liberation, which parallels the Marxist idea of owning the means of production. These specific insights about the BPP, an organization with well documented and consistent ideology, contributes to conversations about how ideology impacts social movement actors and their understanding of their organizing practices. The presence of Marxist feminism in the narratives of women Panthers, written in many cases decades after their experiences in the BPP, point to the lasting impact of ideology on social movement actors. These findings also illustrate how ideology helps to transform individual social movement actors into a collective with a shared understanding of their work and their goals. Additionally, the findings of this study suggest that future scholarship on the BPP should recognize feminism as a central ideology of the organization, alongside Marxism and Black Power.

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