African American Women

Work is one of the ways we meet daily survival needs. The type of work you do determines how you are rewarded in society. Paid work is paid employment as well as, a form of work that requires obligation time. Domestic labor is the unpaid tasks involved in maintaining the household, purchasing and prepping food, and taking care of the children. It is a system that is based on love and duty, not wage. Many do not consider domestic labor as “work”. Women’s unpaid labor in the home maintains systems of oppression. One way unpaid domestic labor maintains systems of oppression is because men benefit from the domestic labor that women perform and they expect women to do it. It reenforces the idea that women are there to take care of the children

Some have experienced better outcomes than others, but there has always be a struggle for women and women of color to find and keep sustainable jobs. One of the biggest impacts of the marginalization of men and women of color form the work force is slavery. African American slaves worked for free for White families for 200 years. During this time, controlling images and stereotypes were creating for African Americans. These stereotype would later impact African Americans chances for finding work long after slavery was abolished. Even work was available, the jobs would mirror the jobs from slavery. A black women cold find a job easily as a maid for a white family but would have a much harder time finding a job as a bank teller. These types of jobs that women of color are able to attain keep minorities at the bottom while the people in power can continue to rise to the top of the cooperate world and job market. Men who hold positions in mostly women dominated jobs face problems as well. Professions that women typically occupy are teachers and nurses. Many male teachers faced back lash from their students parents siting worries about homosexuality. Also, African American male nurses face criticism from patients who assume he is a janitor or of a member of the housekeeping staff. These are just some of the examples of racism and sexism seen in the labor force. Sexism is even more of an issue

Though there are more women in the work force now more than ever, they are still being paid less than men for doing the same job. Three explanations for the wage gap between men and women are discrimination, human capital and organizations of jobs. A group theorists who believe the wage gap is a result of discrimination are called bias theorists. Aulette and Wittner state that bias theorists believe that “decisions about who will be hired, promoted, fired and what an employee will be paid are made in ways discriminate against women” (189). Some discriminatory practices are openly represented while some are more subtle. An example of an overt discriminatory practice would be a woman being barred from a promotion simply because she is a woman. Men superiors also use backhanded tactics as a way to subtly undercut women with whom they work with. An example of this would be what Aulette and Wittner call, “Supportive discouragement” (192). Supportive discouragement is discouraging women in the work place from competing for a challenging opportunity because she “might not make it”. Though this is taken lightly, it is still discriminatory to the woman because she is being treated differently and not given the same opportunity simply because she is a woman. Human capital is referred to, “the talents that we have to do our jobs” (Aulette and Wittner 192). Some of the believe held toward women in the work force