Being an African American Woman

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 was a male, the woman would not even be considered because of the intensity of the job which is unfair and need I say; illegal, the job would automatically go to the male. Sometimes companies would get away with it because of their way to cover it up but other companies would be sued because of gender discrimination. In another event, if a woman was having a child and it was a matter of life and death, where only one of them could live, the woman would give up her life for her child which is a huge sacrifice. Even walking around carrying a child for 9 months is a vast sacrifice; you have to be strong to complete an operation like that.

Another characteristic that women have is being strong, whether it is physically, emotionally, or mentally. Because of things such as discrimination, women need to have a backbone. Women have put up with so many things that a number of these things do not bother them anymore. One main thing that women have to put up with on a regular basis is stereotypes. There are many stereotypes about women floating around in this world that instead of harming them, they actually make them stronger. One stereotype that women