Myths of the Balck Family

Throughout history women have struggled against race, social class, education, financial status and societal definitions that have altered the scale of equality in the home and the work force. Ironically it is these same issues and other social and cultural variables that continued to divide us from one another.

In pre-industrial times, the United States was an agricultural society and the home was the center of production for all of the families needs. White Women did spinning and weaving making lace, soap candles and shoes and could be found doing jobs that consisted of hard physical labor such as farming, pitching hay, tending the livestock, hunting and trapping. Single women worked in the domestic trade also as assistant homemakers. If the husband owned a shop or were fortunate enough to be married to a prominent businessman, land or store owner, your life may consisted of supervising slaves or servants, managing the plantation or farm, as well as managing a family. Women were not excluded from work in colonial America; it was found that some owned shops, saloons, and they were innkeepers, teachers, nurses, and even doctors. Times were hard and everyone worked if they wanted to survive.

African American Women were slaves and did most of the domestic work for the more affluent white families as well as the hard physical labor in the fields. Black woman were not considered as weak as white women instead they were looked on more like a work horse and not human. They suffered horrible sexual and physical abuse by their slave owners; and they were culturally controlled, and alienated from there own families. Wives of slave owners benefited from this type of labor and shared in the oppression of women of color.

Native American women, depending on the tribe and region they were in played a big role in their communities. Native American women were responsible for using every part of the environment. They gathered nuts, berries, and wild plants for food, herbs for medicine, clay for pottery, dyes, bark and reeds for making clothes. They cured meats and prepared the skins for clothing. The jobs that Native American women did were considered to be heathenish and repulsive by many European standards. European colonization forced Native Americans to move to reservations which changed the roles that men and women held in their communities. Since there was no land to hunt on the men began taking on the agricultural jobs and the women were confined to the more domesticated work thus making their communities resemble European culture.

In the 19th century society moved from a mainly agricultural society to a more urban industrialized community. Society's description for the roles of women changed drastically as factories began to produce items that were generally produced in the home. This diminished the need for women as an important economic role in the community. Middle class white women were now expected to be warm and cheerful, to maintain the home, tend to the needs of the children and support their husbands. Society's hang-up of women working prevented many talented women from entering in the work force. Only the rich engaged in educational institutions not for the purpose of work but to enrich their mind for a suitable husband. The same women who worked beside the men in the fields were now considered weak, fragile, passive, and incapable of doing of doing anything that required strength or intelligence.

After slavery was abolished; racism and discrimination still existed in a new form of slavery, slavery without being bought and sold. Black women were confined to low pay, long hours and back breaking jobs of a domestic nature. In order to survive black women took in laundry, ironing, became nannies, and tended to all of the needs of the home they worked in.

All skilled jobs were reserved for the men and the lower class women who did work were given jobs that required little or no skill and the lowest paid. Harsh conditions, safety concerns, and health risks caused groups like the Women's Trade Union League, to push for protective labor legislation, which began to take root shortly after the turn of the century. This legislation sought to provide safe and clean working conditions, minimize health hazards, put a floor under wages, and shorten hours. The industrial states also passed restrictive laws that forbid women from working in a wide variety of jobs and from working at night. Further enforcing the ideology of the woman's place was in the home.

The depression caused unemployment to rise at an alarming rate, so in 1932 the government passed the National Recovery Act which forbade more than one family member from holding a government job. Thus some women were asked to give up their jobs to men. Despite efforts to exclude women especially married women in the workforce, women began entering the workforce in a shocking rate partly due to economic need. Still jobs by women were either light industrial, domestic, part-time or seasonal. In 1933 the Fair Labor Standards Act established minimum wage without regards to sex. This was a big step forward for white women in the workforce but had no effect on woman of color. In 1939 World War II briefly allowed more women to take jobs in the war industries only because men were off at war. The acceptance of women in the workforce was rationalized as being patriotic and supportive of the men at war. Job segregation for Black women was given a short reprieve which gave them the opportunity to move into skilled factory jobs. But at the end of the war, they, along with other women, were pushed out of jobs to make way for returning veterans.

As technology advanced into television and new machinery societies corrupted ideology of a woman's role was further emphasized. Television shows and commercials showed women who were secretaries, worked in retail, or homemakers. Young girls in school were taught home economics and office skills. Career counseling for young women was steered more towards office work, retail jobs, educators and domestic service. Men still held the majority of managerial jobs and received higher pay for the same work that women did.

Racism and the lack of education was still apart of everyday life for the black woman so job opportunities were scarce. Most black women still worked in the domestic trade earning menial wages and working long hours. Between the 1940 and 1960 low skilled factory jobs began to open up and things began to change for a small group of women of color. Small advances were taken in hiring black women for secretarial jobs and retail clerks.

The disruption of traditional Native American life left a scare on their community that would take till the 1960's to begin to heal. The roles of the traditional Native American society changed greatly which left them in very