The literature review attempts to connect and integrate feminist literature, political economy literature on women in the work force and gang research to explain the distinctive features of female corporate gang members. The book seeks to explain the women's attempts to gain their economic independence in an economic system that relegates them to poverty and welfare. It studies the histories of racial and gender oppression, drug use and distribution, and black feminization of poverty. It also examines gangs and the informal drug economy, and the history of female gang involvement. The women interviewed for this study included drug dealers, drug users, and some who just found themselves in the inner-city drug-dealing zones. Underclass black women are entering the informal economy to make money, combining drug-selling, prostitution and welfare to feed their children. In the process, they are assuming many of the attitudes and behaviors previously associated exclusively with men. Tables, appendixes, bibliography, index