White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack

Dr. Peggy McIntosh is a senior research scientist at the Wellesley Centers for Women in Wellesley, Massachusetts. In 1988, she published an article titled “White Privilege and Male Privilege: A Personal Account of Coming to See Correspondences through Work in Women’s Studies.” A shorter version of the essay, “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack,” was published the next year in Peace and Freedom Magazine.

Dr. McIntosh received her BA, MA, and PhD from Harvard University, with a year of study at University College in London. At Wellesley, which is one of the “Seven Sisters”—elite American colleges for women founded in the 18th and 19th centuries—she was the founder of the National SEED Project on Inclusivity in Curriculum (Seeking Educational Equity through Diversity). She has been an expert on gender and race issues in America for over 50 years, observing and recording social changes and the intersection of different forms of discrimination such as sexism, racism, ableism, and ageism.

McIntosh is a white woman of considerable privilege, especially in her class and educational opportunities, who studies and writes about the inequities and disadvantages embedded in the cultural systems and structures that give her the resources to be heard.