Hagar's Daughters: Womanist Ways of Being in the World (Madeleva Lecture in Spirituality : 1995)

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Summary: The Strength of African American women to change the world!
Review: Diana L. Hayes' book Hagar's Daughters is a wonderful and insightful look into the spiritual and cultural power that African American women possess. Hayes offers a historical look at the role of African American women in traditional African culture as well as the role African American women have played in the transmission of cultural and spiritual values post-slavery. Her book encourages African and African American women to utilize the power within themselves to transform our communities into places of love, growth and encouragement. Her book is also a call to revitalize the respect and reverences for the elders within the community so that all can learn and grow from the history and knowledge they possess.

While Hayes maintains Alice Walker's definition of what it means to be a womanist, she challenges those who call themselves womanists to draw out the contradictions within the black community, especially within the black church. Womanists are called to rectify the inequities of power within the black church that tend to keep women silent or simply relegate them to positions of service rather than positions of power.