Benefiting by Design: Women of Color in Feminist Psychological Research
Editor: Chemba Raghavan, Arlene E. Edwards and Kim Marie Vaz
Date Of Publication: Aug 2008
Isbn13: 9781847186508
Isbn: 1-84718-650-5
The presence of women of color within the practical applications of social science research findings is severely limited, since spaces where and when women of color enter the arenas of research methodology, research question and intervention design and knowledge generation is often that of the other. Benefitting by Design addresses this limitation. It does so by locating the experience and knowledge of women of color as its central theme, with sections of the text referring to emerging trends that attend to the need for greater representation of women of color in research and academic settings. A key theme is the dislodging of currently accepted positions for the experience of women of color as marginalized, and subsumed under normative modes of examination to central positions in areas of social science research and clinical practice. This is in response to the typical assumption of the need to ‘fix’ women of color be it based on their immigration status, sexual orientation, race, culture, class or spiritual practice. Benefitting By Design attends to the salient contexts of the lives of women of color from an emic perspective, by providing models for addressing the limitations that result from exclusion, and strategies for centering the experiential knowledge of women of color in social science research and practice that is designed for their benefit.

Chemba Raghavan, Ph.D., is a visiting research scholar of Psychology from New College of Florida and currently serves as a Consultant for the regional headquarters of UNESCO and UNICEF, Bangkok. As a Consultant for the Asia-Pacific Programme on Education for All (APPEAL)-UNESCO, she is the Series Editor for several Advocacy Briefs relating to gender and how to address gender issues in policymaking, in the Asia-Pacific region. At UNICEF, she currently oversees a regional exercise for mapping resources and national data on early childhood from over 30 countries in the Asia-Pacific region. She also continues to publish peer-reviewed articles and make presentations based on her research (Project SAFARI) on immigrant gender role identities in the United States.

Arlene E Edwards, Ph.D. is a community psychologist currently affiliated with the Career MPH Program at Emory University and teaches part time in the Department of Psychology at Morehouse College. Her research interests include attending to the themes found in Black women’s community work and conducting HIV/AIDS prevention research. She also runs a small nonprofit, The ELVA Collective, aimed at conducting collaborative, community-based work with a specific focus on the lives of Black women.

Kim Vaz, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Women’s Studies at The University of South Florida, a faculty member of the Tampa Bay Institute for Psychoanalytic Studies. Vaz is author of The woman with the artistic brush: A life history of Yoruba batik artist, Nike Davies, from M.S. Sharpe Publications, and editor of Black women in America and Oral narrative research with Black women, both from Sage Publications. She has published Many Floridas: Women Envisioning Change (with Rhonda Ovist, Judy Hayden, Sharon Masters, 2007 from Cambridge Scholars Publishing and Florida without Borders: Women at the Intersections of the Local and Global (with Judy Hayden and Sharon Masters) again through Cambridge Scholars Publishing. She sees patients in her private practice for psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic psychotherapy.

"Benefiting by Design: Women of Color in Feminist Psychological Research is a significant contribution to the literature. The term "Women of Color" has too often been defined as African American, women of Asian or Hispanic descent, and occasionally Native American women. It is time to broaden the definition to include women who occupy the ethnic/racial category of "Other." Benefiting by Design accomplishes this goal by including the experiences of Arab/Muslim women, Caribbean American women, and Asian-Indian immigrant women. "Intersectionality," as a term and theory, has made its way into numerous academic fields including, psychology, sociology, and advocacy. More specifically, feminist researchers assert that women have multiple identities influenced by gender, race, class, caste, and sexual orientation. It is imperative to understand how living at the intersection of multiple identities influence the daily lives of Women of Color. Benefiting by Design is a unique book because it utilizes the powerful feminist voices, of both emerging and senior scholars, to capture the complexity of ethnicity and

the contexts in which Women of Color operate. Equally as important, Benefiting by Design considers "diversity within diversity." For example, this book grapples with the "triple jeopardy" of being a young, Black, lesbian. These too often muted voices are given the opportunity to reach professional audiences. Benefiting by Design: Women of Color in Feminist Psychological Research is an impressive, comprehensive book. The reader will find an update on the latest developments in theory, research, practice, and pedagogy. This book is a fresh approach and much needed "paradigm shift"

- Dr. Carolyn M. West, Associate Professor, Psychology, Bartley Dobb Professor for the Study and Prevention of Violence

“Benefiting by Design:Women of Color in Feminist Psychological Research represents a departure from anthologies currently available to address racism and/or sexism in psychological research. The difference lies in the emphasis on intersectionality, the multiple, complex and intersecting categories of race, class, gender, caste, sexualities, and sexual orientation. Intersectionality argues that such categories of difference are not separate or even additive, and in fact may be somewhat arbitrary, influenced as they are by the social consensus of the majority. The exciting part about this perspective as indicated by the title of the volume, Benefiting by Design, is that it embraces empirical research as foundational to social equality while at the same time redefining the parameters of traditional methods. The volume puts front and center the salience of social context, social activism, application and connection to the community, couched in an analysis of the role of power and status in the maintenance of social inequality. This book has something for everyone, interesting theoretical questions of intersectionality and how to identify and study it, along with practical answers to questions of training, practice and research in women of color psychologies. This is one for every feminist bookshelf.”

- Patricia D. Rozee, professor of psychology and women's studies at California State University, Long Beach.

"This book is essential reading for mental health professionals and, of course, for educators, lawyers, and community activists. "Benefiting by Design: Women of Color in Feminist Psychological Research," shares precious psychological information and knowledge about women of color who have been marginalized and who deserve to be mainstreamed--not only because it is the right thing to do but because it teaches everyone crucial things about the majority culture as well. This volume contains important pieces about African-American, Latina-American, Asian-American and about immigrant women from the Carribbean and from India.

Gender identity is more complex as a function of ethnicity, immigrant status, color, sexual preference, class, etc. White Americans place a value upon independence and individuality that other cultures do not always share. When one studies minority girls and women who live in a predominantly white environment, their "stressors," both real and internalized, are not the same as those who live in a predominantly all-minority environment. I loved the inclusion of faith and ritual as healing tools by Kimberly Kirby et al who focused on "Cocaine-Dependent African-American Women;" I was especially moved by Kim Vaz's article "Ritual and Recovery," which unites a West African tradition with a western psycho-analytic tradition; and by Ami Robinson's article about African American Lesbian Youth titled "Misunderstood, Misled, and Misfit: The Marginalization Experiences of African-American Lesbian Youth.""

Phyllis Chesler, Emerita Professor of Psychology and Women's Studies, Author of "Women and Madness" and "Woman's Inhumanity to Woman."

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