African American Women Tradition

The role of females in society has often been limited to being a traditional housewife tasked primarily with the upbringing of children. In the United States, however, women have steadily rose to prominence ever since the ratification of the Woman’s Suffrage Amendment, which prohibited citizens from being denied the right to vote on the basis of sex, in August of 1920. In less than one hundred years, females have slowly closed the gap between their male counterparts in the workplace, and have garnered more attention on a political and social level. The result has given more freedom to women, who are no longer chained down to traditional social expectations like housecleaning, cooking, childcare, shopping, and running errands. Furthermore, with

Its no surprise that in today’s world, just a couple hundred years removed, women are still facing the uphill climb of being seen as equals, instead of people that exist just to please men. The historical influence and tradition captivates men into believing that the structure of the past should be the same as the structure of the present. Simply put, people stand for tradition because they are used to the status quo, and believe that any progress is a result of the framework that that the founders put in place. However, people forget that African Americans were once considered three-fifths of a person. A grim reminder that as time moves on, our values should naturally evolve to encompass an acceptance for everyone. A modern example is when Bell references misogyny and says, “devastated and disappointed that their daughter had not become the woman they raised her to be: a good girl who would marry her first boyfriend” (25). Unlike Colonial America, today’s country involves a less rigid view on women, but nonetheless still includes misogynistic ideals that need to be removed from society. For example, instead of women being expected to marry their first boyfriend, they are expected to not have many sexual partners, but still have enough sexual experience. Women are allowed more sexual freedom, but are still restricted to an imaginary line drawn by men. This is a classic case of sexually objectifying women, and making them look like they are only here to please males. The “contradictory directive”, or conflicting ideals, is that women have been granted the freedom to understand themselves, but only to a certain point which keeps them from being able to reach self actualization, or a truly liberating sense of happiness (Bell 27). This is a subtle mental tactic that men use to keep control over women. The end result