Early Professional LifeDespite Gloria's full time studies at Stanford University, at the age of 19, she started writing her first manuscript, Ain't I a Women. During this time Watkins was also working as a telephone operator where she found something she yearned for, a community of African American working women.
Over the next six years, Gloria wrote several drafts of her manuscript. It was during this time that her pen name, Bell Hooks, was created. In 1981, Ain't I a Women was finally published. Today, the manuscript is described as one of the most influential women's books, making Hooks a well known name amongst influential feminist. |
Although Ain't I a women brought Bell Hooks into the spotlight, it was her work behind the scenes that she felt was her most important. Hooks believed one of the most impactful forms of political resistance was teaching. In the early 1980's, she held various teaching positions at the University of California in Santa Cruz, but later left for a position at Yale to teach courses in African American Studies. In 1988 she began a teaching career at Oberlin college, in Ohio. Here, she taught an influential women studies class, a program that now offered the critique of racism that was absent during her undergraduate years. |