Proposal for a Special Issue of Gender & Society

African American Women:

Gender Relations, Work, and The Political Economy in

The Twenty-First Century

Over the past few decades, there has been a remarkable expansion of scholarship by and about African American women. Much of this research was sparked by the now-infamous Moynihan Report (1965), which attributed family instability and poverty among African Americans to their failure to establish patriarchal families. According to Moynihan, female-headed families were inherently pathological, since they were bereft of male authority and economic provision. The Moynihan thesis generated considerable controversy among scholars, especially in the context of the civil rights and women’s movements. In the succeeding years, studies by Allen (1978, 1979), Billingsley (1968), Hill (1972), Ladner (1971), Stack (1972) and Gutman (1976) were notable in helping us understand that social and structural factors–such as slavery, racism, discrimination, and systematic exclusion—had shaped the family arrangements of African Americans. Moreover, much of the revisionist research of the civil rights era defended Black families as strong, viable, and well-functioning entities and challenged the presumed superiority of the breadwinner-homemaker family model. Within that context Black women, especially those who were heading their own households, were defined as independent, strong, and even "liberated," and gender relations among Black women and men were seen as fairly egalitarian (Scanzoni, 1972).

Interest in how social structural factors shape the social construction of gender led directly to research on the diverse work experiences of women based on their race and class location. Working-class, poor, and/or women of color have historically had to combine their work and family roles, while middle-class White women were expected to confine their energies to the home. Work has been central in structuring the family and gender roles of African American women. Researchers such as Bonnie T. Dill (1986), Paula Giddings (1984) and Jacqueline Jones (1985), for example, focused on how work had broadened Black women’s concept of womanhood, and they highlighted the dynamic relationship between the work, family, and gender roles. These researchers claimed that the work roles of Black women were essential to the survival of families, and thus a source of female power and authority in families. Collins (1990:24) includes work, family experience, and culture in her list of factors that have produced a distinctive feminist standpoint, or consciousness, among Black women. The work experiences of Black women, however, were uniquely structured by gender, race, and class barriers--an observation that led Deborah King (1988) to advocate a "multiple jeopardies" framework in understanding the inequalities faced by Black women. Multicultural feminism has now become a key framework in articulating the experience as Black women since, as Rose Brewer notes "gender takes on meaning and is embedded institutionally in the context of the racial and class order" (1993:19)

Black feminists have now created an impressive legacy of research that explains the roles of African American women in the "race and class order" of the society. Race, class, and gender have shaped the work experiences of Black people and, subsequently, their family systems and gender behaviors. Much of this analysis, however, remains rooted in the research of the 1970s, and thus has been less attentive to contemporary economic transformations and opportunity structures, and their impact on gender and families. For example, we now know a great deal about how structural forces and ideologies such as slavery, racism, legalized segregation and exclusion have historically shaped the roles of Black women, but we are just beginning to explore how contemporary forces such as equal opportunity, affirmative action, welfare reform, and class mobility are changing and/or redefining gender expectations and families.

In addition, some researchers are "revising the revisionists" of the 1970s by taking a closer look at the contention of historic gender equality among Blacks. Franklin (1997), for example, focuses on strident efforts by African American men to create patriarchal families even before the end of slavery—often with adverse consequences for their families, especially women, In Too Heavy a Lord (1999) Deborah White also challenges conventional wisdom about gender equality among Blacks. In her exploration of Black women’s participation in clubs and political organizations, she documents the vying for power between Black men and women during the civil rights era, with men often asserting the necessity of male leadership. Revisionist studies like these provide a suitable framework for analyzing contemporary gender dynamics among African Americans. How are the gender roles and identities of African American women being renegotiated and reconfigured in the context of current economic and policy changes? To what extent to do gender and race still structure the opportunity system for Black people, and how do they manage racism and sexism on the job? And how are these changes affecting their roles in families and personal relationships?

Multicultural feminism contends that gender is shaped by race and class, and thus would predict that gender is dynamic, being reshaped, renegotiated, and redefined in the context of social structural forces. The last half of the twentieth century has witnessed significant shifts in traditional social structures based on gender and race. The politics of the 1960s, especially as captured by the civil rights and women’s movements, led to the passage of equal opportunity and affirmative action policies designed to provide greater opportunities for women and racial minorities. College attendance increased among African Americans during the civil rights era, followed by a gradual increase in the number occupying high-level occupations. A decade later, however, economic transitions such as deindustrialization and public policy changes such as drastic cuts in welfare were undermining the employment and marriage prospects of a significant percentage of Black people, creating what many have referred to as an "underclass." Thus, a significant class polarization occurred among Black people between 1974 and 1994, with an increase in the percentage earning less than $15,000 and of those earning more than $75,000 (Hurst, 1998). While there are core experiences that link African Americans together, their economic, family, and lived experiences are increasingly diverse.

As we have shown earlier, there is a dynamic interplay between work, family, and gender: that is, they are social structures which operate interactively (Giddings, 1984; Jones, 1985; Zinn and Eitzen, 1999). What are the gender implications of evolving patterns of work and family among African Americans? How are changing patterns of work reconfiguring, challenging, or being mediated by the historic gender expectations of African American women and men? Scholars are already beginning to explore these issues. Black men, for example, are increasingly gaining entry into high-level positions in major White-owned corporations (Collins, 1998; Freeman, 1981; Farley, 1984), often acquiring the resources that traditionally have produced male dominance. Some recent studies continue to show gender equality as the norm in Black families (Blee and Tickamyer, 1995; John, Shelton, and Luschen, 1995), although class mobility is also correlated with family structures that cast women into traditional domestic roles. Black women, concentrated occupationally in domestic work as late as 1960, are now better represented in managerial and professional occupations (Durr and Logan, 1997). Middle-class Black women often face a unique form of "gendered racism" in the workplace (St. Jean and Feagin, 1998). Menaghan (1991) tells us that workplace conditions—such as work overload, job loss, poor earnings, low opportunity for problem-solving—can adversely affect the quality of marriage and family life. In addition, while the overall rate of labor force participation for Black and White women is now nearly the same, Black married mothers of infants (70%) are still more likely than their White counterparts (59%) to be employed.

Paralleling the movement of some African Americans into high level occupations is the declining status of others due to deindustrialization, job loss, and welfare reform policies. How has economic decline affected gender relationships and Black families? Perhaps the best known research on this issue has been by Wilson (1997), who suggests that structural changes in the economy have produced cultural changes in gender norms in ways that have reduced the authority and power of women. Wilson contends that the very scarcity of men and absence of marriage opportunities heighten the exploitation of women. While focusing on their adaptability, Jarrett (1996) documents conventional family aspirations among low-income mothers, who want to marry and the sense of stigma they feel over being single and welfare dependent. It also appears that traditional sources of female power, such as extended kinship units, are declining. Kaplan (1997) and others (Ladner and Gourdine, 1984; Rochelle, 1997) report a demise in the supportiveness of families, which traditionally have been a source of authority and autonomy for Black women. Thus, there appears to be some profound changes in traditional gender relations based on patterns of work. While much research remains to be done, it appears that Black male joblessness and scarcity, as well as their economic and political advancement, may redefine gender in ways which undermine the position of women. Many scholars are beginning to examine how class and class mobility shape gender identity, how African Americans successfully navigate social institutions, the impact of the global economy of Black women and their families, and how gender is being negotiated in personal and family relationships.

Gender & Society seeks to explore and analyze social and structural forces that create and perpetuate gender inequality, and to advance feminist theory. In the past years, it has expanded its inclusion of research on working-class and/or women of color, often through papers that analyze gender within the context of race and class. The proposed special edition will bring fresh analyses and insights to the issue of gender among Black Americans by drawing on research that looks at the how structural transformations of the post-civil rights are reshaping gender and research that challenges conventional perspectives on gender. In this edition, we seek theoretical and conceptual research that highlights the growing diversity of work and family experiences among Black people. This volume will advance the articulation of multicultural feminism and contribute to our understanding of processes of class mobility, family formation, and racial assimilation.

Our central contentions are that the changing work patterns and opportunities of the twenty-first century are producing unprecedented social class diversity among African Americans, and that these social structural changes are challenging, redefining, and reconfiguring gender among African Americans. In this special issue of Gender & Society we seek papers that explore the link between the gender, work, and family roles of Black women. To that end, the papers in this issue will revolve around these broad questions

1. What are the gender implications for African Americans of major contemporary economic transformations (e.g., deindustrialization, class mobility, etc.) and public policies (e.g., affirmative action, welfare reform, etc.)?
2. How are gender, race, and class structuring employment opportunities, and how are Black women managing and negotiating their dual identities in the workplace
3. How are economic transformations, public policies, and employment experiences shaping the family and interpersonal relationships of Black women and men? To what extent are traditional systems of female authority and autonomy changing, and what are the implications of these changes?

   Some examples of questions/topics that papers will address include (but are not limited to):

   1. Revisionist analyses of the negotiation of gender among African Americans in families, interpersonal relationships (broadly defined) or political organizations;
   2. Critical appraisals of how race and gender continue to shape employment opportunities;
   3. Assessments of how the workplace challenges and/or reinforces gender and racial stereotypes;
   4. The influence of employment on the division of domestic work and family power;
   5. The impact of welfare reform on the work, marriage, and childbearing patterns of women;
   6. The relationship career mobility and gender expectations for men and women;
   7. The impact of the global economy on the work and family lives of Black women;
   8. Analyses of how Black women negotiate and navigate their "new" workplaces;
   9. Changing/continuing patterns of power among Black women in their communities; and
   10. Research linking patterns of family violence and work.

    

To initiate the search for papers and generate thought about these issues, we have organized a roundtable at the upcoming Association of Black Sociologists meeting (August 10-12, 2000) to be held in Washington, D.C. In addition, we plan to distribute the Call for Papers widely to members of SWS, SSSP, SSSI, ABS, and ASA, and through regional meetings and personal networks. Listed below is our timetable: