African-American Women Sexism and Racism

It is no secret that women are less privileged than men, over the last century women of different race and ethnicities have been fighting to earn the same privileges as men. Men are typically valued more than women for their skill, intellect, and ability; however in today’s society women should be equally privileged.

Women’s rights are defined as rights that promote a position of legal and social equality of women with men. These rights include the right to live free from violence, slavery, and discrimination; to be educated; to own property; to vote; and to earn a fair and equal wage. Despite great strides made by the international women’s rights movement over many years, women and girls around the world are still married as children or trafficked into forced labor and sex slavery. They are refused access to education and political participation, and some are trapped in conflicts where rape is perpetrated as a weapon of war. Around the world, deaths related to pregnancy and childbirth are needlessly high, and women are prevented from making deeply personal choices in their private lives still in America and other countries today.

Though all women should have the same opportunities through a time of such pain and suffering; it seemed as if Caucasian women had it better than African American women. In 1844, all black people were ordered to get out of Oregon Country, the expansive territory under American rule that stretched from the Pacific coast to the Rocky Mountains. Those who refused to leave could be severely whipped, the provisional government law declared, by “not less than twenty or more than thirty-nine stripes” to be repeated every six months until they left. During 1922, in North Carolina mills did not hire black women because of segregation. As a consequence, white mill workers often hired black women as domestic and child-care workers. As the women's suffrage movement gained popularity through the nineteenth century, African-American women were increasingly marginalized.[1] African-American women dealt not only with the sexism of being withheld the vote but also the racism of white suffragists. The struggle for the vote did not end with the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment In some Southern states, African American women were unable to freely exercise their right to vote up until the 1960s. However, these difficulties did not deter African-American women in their effort to secure the vote.

Today in society, it could be portrayed as women have the same rights as men, however men are still given better opportunities than women. Education and experience should affect the opinion of hiring companies however, men are typically given a job over a women simple because “it’s a man job.” You find this very common in engineering, welding, and offshore jobs. Society puts women behind a desk, in a classroom, in a hospital as a nurse, and even in the home as a housewife. We have all seen this publicly in the government. For example, in November 1789, we received our first male president and 229 years later only men have held a position as a President of the United States of America. Women have ran to become the President however society feels a s if only a man has the privilege to lead our country. 

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