From Mammy To Miss America Analysis

In this chapter of From Mammy to Miss America, K. Sue Jewell addresses policies created to insure women were to receive equal access to opportunities and societal resources. She specifically discusses social welfare programs, affirmative action programs, job training and health and medical programs. While discussing the implementation of new social policies during the 1960s and 19070s, she also addresses some of the adverse effects of these social policies on African American women. Before getting into the policies she beginnings this chapter by quickly addressing the intersection of racial discrimination, social class and gender inequality. Due to the intersectionality of race, class, and gender, African American women have historically been …show more content…
“Colonial beliefs that poverty is a function of able bodied men refusing to adopt American values of work. Added to the social and economic disadvantages imposed upon the African American woman and her family was the societal presupposition that people are poor because of laziness, a flawed moral character, and a disregard for the American values of work and moderate consumption.” It is these types of beliefs that made welfare devastating for African American families who wore torn apart in an attempt to have a better life. Men left the home at an alarming rate to make their families eligible for the governmental benefits that they needed. Once these men were out of the house, African American women were stigmatized as welfare queen from being single mothers while black men were considered to be dead be fathers. Today, there is still this misconception that black men are not in the home which is why the children and women are struggling to get out of poverty. Instead of taking responsibility for African American women and children who were in need, the government blamed the men who were forced out of their lives. The man-in-the house role contributed to the development of the lasting black male discourse we see