Being An African American Woman

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As stated in Webster's II Dictionary, a woman is defined to be an adult female human. In today's society being an African American woman is a rigid task to live up to. It means to reside to what their ancestors have left behind, which means to be stronger than ever. Rosa Parks was strong, Harriet Tubman was also strong, and Jezebel was even stronger. So what exactly does it mean to be a woman? It means to stand up for what is right, even if that means sacrifice, it means to be strong whether it be physically, emotionally, or mentally. African American women are perceived to be the backbone of the family, meaning that even though the male may support the family financially, that the women have the emotional and mental part in the bag. Now let's talk about this. A characteristic of a woman is their event to stand up for what is right even if that means sacrifice. What I mean about sacrifice is that things do not come easily for African American women, they have obstacles such as: making less money than men, not being able to get a certain job because of gender, and even not being able to get a certain job because of being African American, so you see women do not have it easy. For example, as stated in an "Internet source", female workers in the United Kingdom earn 27 percent less as an average compared with male workers. So you see females are being discriminated everywhere. Also in an internet source it is stated that in a 100 percent of the total workplace, 54.3 percent are males and 45.7 percent are females. Basically, companies feel that females are not capable of completing the tasks that males take forth. For example, if a woman was to go to a job interview inquiring about a construction job and her competition... ... middle of paper ... ...ay for it but males have a component within them called impatience, which means that all of the business phone calls; the wives have to do. Women provide the emotional stability while the man provides the finances. In conclusion, I like quoting the song "Four Women" by Nina Simone which talks about four different women and their different situations. It is stated in so many words that Aunt Sarah is a slave, Seffronia is a mulatto, Sweet Thang is a jezebel, and Peaches is militant. This segment explains the different challenges that women are faced with which makes them the way they are. So the definition of an African American woman is not just an African American adult female, it is more in depth. To me an African American woman is an adult female that have morals and stands up for what is right while accepting the stereotypes that they face on a regular basis.

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