The Pros And Cons Of Being African American Female

Introduction

When looking at individual groups, communities, cultures, and/or ethnicities, you must consider various factors into how they are perceived by others and how they perceive others. Every population can be broken down into various subgroups and each subgroup can be broken down further. Every subgroup is going to have its own unique set of experiences created by differences in race, gender, sexual orientation, age, and more. Some groups are represented more than others in the news, on social media, in academia, and so on. It is important as counselors to be aware of how people’s experiences are unique based on their culture and who they are holistically. African American females are a unique group to study because they have two demographic

So, to understand the different factors that influence the African American female population, I had to look at this population from two different viewpoints - being female and being African American. From there I could compare the different variables that would affect this population specifically, and that need to be understood by the counselor when working with this population. The variables I will discuss in this paper are violence and harassment, inequity in pay and at home, unequal education, underrepresentation in positions of power, social pressure toward unrealistic body ideals, spirituality, and nationally and locally that may affect his population. Lastly, I will discuss how this information impacts counseling some with this identity and why counselors should be aware of this

For women in the United States, it is estimated that 31.5% are subjected to partner violence, 19.3% are raped, 43.9% suffer from some type of sexual violence, and 15.2% are victims of violence outside of their homes (Derald Wing Sue et al., 2022). Research indicates that African American communities face higher levels of violence related to gangs, intimate partner violence, childhood maltreatment, and police use of excessive force than other communities in the United States today (Frazer et al., 2018). It is estimated that 21.2 percent of Black women have been raped at some point in the life (Derald Wing Sue et al., 2022). Intimate partner violence is a leading form of violence against African American women. African American women in the United States have the highest probability of any other racial and ethnic group to be murdered by their intimate partner (Waller et al.,