African American women and social equality

SIGNIFICANCE: African American women as a group have done much to effect greater social equality based on race, gender, and social class.

In spite of the many social and economic hardships that African American women have endured in the more than four hundred years since they were brought to America, as a group they have made significant contributions to the United States, both to the survival and progress of the African American community and to the social and economic development of the larger society. The challenges that African American women have faced include slavery, segregation, and institutional race, gender, and class discrimination. Nevertheless, they have made notable accomplishments in education, politics, government, the social sciences, entertainment, human services, journalism, law, medicine, business, sports, and the military. African American women have also played a key role in sustaining vital institutions within the African American community, such as the African American family, the Black church, Black colleges and universities, and Black-owned businesses. A major factor that has enabled African American women to continue to survive and progress despite enormous structural barriers is their strong sense of community. Their belief in strong kinship bonds and reliance on mutual aid networks, consisting of family, friends, and neighbors, have helped African American women to function as agents of social change.

Sociodemographic Characteristics

According to the 2012 U.S. Census, African American women in the United States constituted 6.2 percent of the population. When African American males are included, the entire African American population makes up 12.2 percent of the U.S. population. As a group, African American women have made strides in education over the years. As of 2020, African American women make up 64.1 percent of the African Americans who hold a bachelor's degree.

Although the number of African American women represented in white-collar occupations has increased significantly since the 1960s, the majority work at the lower end of the pay scale in these positions. Generally, African American women are employed in clerical, technical, retail sales, and administrative support positions. They continue to be underrepresented in professional and managerial positions and to be overrepresented in low-paying service occupations. Their income remained relatively low. In 2020, the median annual income for African American women was $31,500, compared with $50,982 for all women.

In spite of the social and economic gains that African Americans experienced in the 1960s and 1970s, African American women, along with African American men and children, continue to be overrepresented in the impoverished class. In fact, in 2013, the percentage of African Americans women with incomes below the poverty level was 29 percent, compared to 17 percent for all women. Among the primary factors contributing to an inordinate number of African Americans having incomes below the poverty level are social policies that have resulted in occupational displacement and an inequality in economic and educational systems that has destabilized families and contributed to an increase in the rates of marital disruption. In 2020, 20 percent of African American families were headed by women. An inordinate number of these families maintained by women were poor.

Social and Economic Issues

African American women continue to be confronted with social and economic factors that impede their upward mobility in the United States. In many respects, various laws, policies, and practices have contributed to the marginal status of African American women. In spite of the fact that they have increased their participation in the private sector and government, they remain largely outside decision-making positions. Therefore, as workers, African American women have not been well positioned to influence policies and practices that limit their full participation in the workplace. Other factors that continue to prevent African American women from experiencing social equality in the United States include negative cultural images, factory closings, the relocation of factories to foreign markets, business development outside central cities, lack of adequate funding for inner-city schools, federal cuts to financial aid to higher education, employment discrimination, and housing discrimination.

The decline in old-line industries such as the automobile and steel industries beginning in the 1970s, in conjunction with the relocation of many factories to foreign markets where labor is cheaper, has meant the occupational dislocation of many African American women and men who once depended on these industries. Living primarily in central cities, African American women have also been adversely affected by the trend of businesses moving from the central cities to suburban communities and other areas peripheral to cities.

The traditional funding of public schools is also a factor that affects how well African American girls are academically prepared and skilled in marketable technologies. When inner-city schools are compared with suburban schools, the former have inadequate resources, including facilities, textbooks, equipment, and other educational materials. The fact that property taxes serve as the primary source of funding for public schools means schools within the inner city are economically disadvantaged in comparison with suburban schools.

Employment discrimination adversely affects the participation rates and mobility of African American workers. Employment discrimination manifests itself most frequently in the refusal of employers to hire African American women. These women have also experienced glass ceilings, in which employers limit how far they can rise within the company or agency. In addition, they have faced tokenism, whereby employers set a limit on the number of African American women whom they are willing to hire in order to meet affirmative action requirements.

Housing discrimination continues to affect African American women. In many communities, financial institutions have used various, often insidious methods to refuse property loans to African American women. In addition, discrimination is directed against African Americans who rent. In the past, the most common practice found among savings-and-loan institutions to prevent African Americans from purchasing property was to retain their applications in the pending file until their contract on the property expired.

The Response of African American Women

African American women have challenged unjust policies and practices in courts, in legislatures, and before school boards and other policy-making bodies. They have done so through voting and other forms of political participation and by establishing schools, businesses, and civic organizations within their own communities. African American women have also challenged the television, film, and music industries to eliminate their negative and nonrepresentative images and messages and to replace them with positive imagery and accurate information.

African American women have recognized that while they have concerns that are unique because of race, gender, and social class, they also share common interests with women who are members of other racial and ethnic groups. Some of these issues are the need for affordable child care and health care, pay equity, and the need for policies and legislation that can eliminate race, gender, and class inequities within societal institutions.

Bibliography

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