Impact Of Being A Minority Women In Society

By Author: Henry Ford
Total Articles: 189
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Women have been considered minor compared to men from time immemorial. This can be demonstrated by the treatment of Eve. On eating the forbidden fruit, she was referred to as the evil one. Women have been blamed ever since as the cause of the human suffering because it was Eve who gave the forbidden fruit of knowledge to Adam. Eve made Adam sin and this made them to be disbanded from the Garden of Eden. This example of the first people have been repeated and demonstrated in history in terms of books, stories legends and tales all over the world. In all these the woman has been considered inferior, minor and a subordinate to man. The ideology that man is more superior to woman is what is referred to as sexism. This ideology is present in virtually all societies in the world and it is an ideology that started from the beginning of time. This ideology has led to the discrimination of women throughout history. In different societies and at different historic al times, there are different views as to why women are inferior to men. Some of these include a smaller brain size and difference in their genitalia which some believe makes ...
... them inferior in their personality. In this regard men are considered superior in terms of political power, education, wealth and social status (Hacker, 1951). Though Western women have been able to liberate themselves from this stereotyping, there are many others especially the African-American women who are still viewed as inferior in the American society. This discrimination and prejudice do not come from men only but also from white women who see the black women as inferior. This paper will try to look at the psychological and cultural impact of black women in an American society.

Cultural impacts
Health care- there is a continued existence of disparities in provision and access of health care in the minority women. This has resulted into poor health of the minority group. This poor health has been associated with some cultural factors that include inability to pay for the health care services, lack of understanding of the treatment plans, and lack of transport. Some cultural practices and beliefs among the black American women have contributed to their poor health despite the income and their level of education. This in turn leads to non utilization or underutilization of the health care services even when they are readily available. Though there is a remarkable advancement in the field of medicine, the health of the black woman in American society is deteriorating. Studies have shown an increase in cancer, diabetes and hypertension in these women compared to the non minority group (Russell, 1992). The life expectancy also varies between black and white women with black women having a life expectancy of 73.4 years with white women having a life expectancy of 78.9 years (National Center for Health Statistics, 1991). Most African American women suffer from Obesity and other diseases like diabetes and cardiovascular diseases mainly due to racial discrimination. The psychological health is affected by repeated discrimination which may cause high blood pressure and increase heart rates.

Family
The African American women are struggling with family and working responsibilities. They are unable to balance the roles of being a family woman and a working woman. Also prejudices from their white working colleagues coupled with internal working cultures are making them hard to adapt and balance these two roles. The inability to balance these roles has affected these minority women from being actively involved in national and political matters, career progression and advancement in education. This has impacted negatively in the economic growth as it is these minority women who can bring a new face in terms of skills, competencies and new ideas in organizations that have been predominantly occupied by men and white women. This is because these women have all the necessary knowledge of their culture in terms of norms and perspectives. If given a chance in an organization, they can bring new approaches in terms of the way that people relate to each other and how people should be managed because they have associated with equality and inequalities, social justice and injustices, human rights and empowerment. Hence they can be able to lead through inclusion and facilitation because they have better understanding of ‘power’ (Fawcett, 2008). Most Minority ethnic and black women are however unemployed and therefore are economically inactive. Those employed are likely to be in temporary jobs and are prone to stereotyping from their employers and are therefore forced to take jobs with lower skills and lower benefits.

Stereotyping
These are usually generalizations and assumptions that are made towards people of a particular race, culture, religion and sex. Minority women are viewed in terms of their race and gender. These suffer the most from stereotyping and therefore are confined to jobs that have a lower status and those that are poorly paying. This stereotyping has led to minority women being victims of discrimination in education and employment. The white Americans view the black minority as fat with no sex appeal, untrustworthy and violent. It is this stereotyping that has denied the ethnic minority women an opportunity to progress in the work places, academic fields or even pursue their career dreams.

Economic status
The economic status of the minority women is very poor. This is because white women have a higher likelihood of being employed and being self employed than the minority group. When employed, these women are usually in the low level jobs which are poorly paid. Thus they are unable to cater for their basic needs with the little salary that they are getting. In this regard, their economic status remains poor.

Sexism
Though there is an ideology that men are superior, the fight for women equality stems back to many years ago. The famous Greek philosopher Plato was an advocate of gender equality regardless of the race. Women regal rights only emerged in the United States in the 19th century (Feldstein, 1972). Minority women are the greatest victims of sexism from their men and from the white men. Due to racialism and discrimination, African American men tend to be violent against their women. This can be seen as a scapegoat or shifting frustrations. Also most minority women are from cultures that glorify men and also cultures that hold many things as taboo. Hence these women do not have many options apart from confining themselves to the status quo.

Psychological impact
African American women have gone through much psychological distress both in the past and in the present due to the experience that they have undergone. This has resulted from racial discrimination and inequality. The effect of these is that the minority women have developed self hate and mistrust. Also these women have rejected psychological assistance (Yinger, 1965). The mere fact of being a minority woman in a male dominated American society has led to pressure and psychological turmoil which has affected their psyche. The accumulation of psychological stress by this group has resulted from slavery, post slavery and the current racial discrimination. African American women have suffered from psychological turmoil because of first of all being women and secondly for being black, a race that is seen as lesser and different by the white Americans (McWhorter, 2001). African American women are more prone to psychological distress and depression compared to the white women due to, cultural differences, racial tension and the unequal economic status faced by these women (Berlin, 2005)

The discrimination both perceived and real leads to the body developing a cognitive response that sets the body into a psychological protective mechanism that can lead to high blood pressure, hyper vigilance and elevated heart rates.

Effects of racism
These have impacted the way African American women live and think. The psychological impacts stem back from slavery and they affect these minority women. In turn they are not ready to seek psychological treatment and they would rather talk with family and relatives. Racism also leads to the development of negative attitudes towards self, others and also towards institutions, low self esteem and inferiority complex.

Conclusion
Sexism, discrimination and prejudice are the main factors that determine the psychological and cultural implications of being a woman in a minority group. Even though, the current societies have taken a more modern perspective towards women in the minority group in particular and towards all women in general. Thus women have become more liberated and are taking senior positions in education, business and even in government. Even though there is need for more efforts to achieved gender equality.

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