In it, Williams primarily develops a rereading of the biblical figure Hagar to illuminate the importance of issues of reproduction and surrogacy in black women's oppression.
[10] The term womanism was coined by a contemporary of Williams, Alice Walker, used in her 1979 short story "Coming Apart"[11] and again in her 1983 essay collection In Search of Our Mothers' Gardens.
In 1977, she wrote an article entitled, "Womanist Theology: Black Women's Voices," which Cheryl A. Kirk-Duggan notes as being a "seminal moment" in the development of the field.
As a practice of thought, womanism intends to attend to the particularity and specificity of black women's experiences in order to cultivate methods and concepts which are adequate to their situation.
The goal of the womanist movement was not only to eliminate inequalities but to assist black women in reconnecting with their roots in religion and culture and to reflect and improve on "self, community and society".
In the book, Williams uses black women's experience of struggle as a starting place for biblical analysis, and explores themes from the story of Hagar in the wilderness.
"The issue is an understanding of biblical accounts about God that allows various communities of poor, oppressed black women and men to hear and see the doing of the good news in a way that is meaningful for their lives.
While she was not naïve in believing that this alone would eradicate racism or sexism, Williams found a dialogical sharing of resources was important because "all women regardless of race or class, have developed survival strategies that have helped [them to] arrive sane at [their] present social and cultural locations".