Lifting

This phenomenological study captured the unique perspectives and insight of how 10 black women experience and define leadership in their HIV/AIDS community work. Black feminist epistemology provided the framework for understanding how these women experienced leadership at the intersection of race/gender/power while working on behalf of marginalized and stigmatized community members. Salient themes that emerged from the analysis include leadership is situational and contextual, leadership is inclusive and collective, intent is more important than label, leadership is transformative, leadership is scrutinized, and power is centered in mothering relationships. Their leadership builds on the efforts of the liberation and racial uplift work of the 19th-century Black Women’s Club Movement and emerged as black feminist leadership to address the contemporary social injustice of HIV/AIDS.