Madame C. J Walker Research Paper

When thinking of what it means to be a strong man or a strong woman, the thought of physical strength might come to mind. In some cases being strong does not always mean having a great deal of physical strength. Madame C.J Walker, however, is a woman who embodies what it means to be strong in a non-physical aspect. She, along with many other influential women such as, Shirley Chisholm, Hattie McDaniel, and Angela Davis give women throughout the world a sense of strong female empowerment; especially African American women. Madame C.J. Walker once said, “I am a woman who came from the cotton fields of the south. From there I was promoted to the washtub. From there I was promoted to cook kitchen and from there I promoted myself into the business of manufacturing on my ground (American Association of University Women ).” From those words, one can develop an image of the type of woman Madame Walker was.
Madame Walker was the first African American female millionaire …show more content…
Walker would sever as a washerwoman making less than two dollars an hour. During this time in Madame Walker’s life, the stress of maintaining and providing for herself in addition to her daughter took a heavy toll on her. Walker started to lose her hair for two reasons. The first was due to the lack of hygiene. The second was due to stress. Hygiene was a huge contributor to her hair loss. With this in mind, Walker decided that she would take it upon herself to fix her hair problem. Already surrounded by many cleaning products, Madame Walker began to experiment with them. After numerous trials she finally created the product she was looking. Petrolatum and sulfur were the two key components in Walker’s hair remedy. The petrolatum acted as a modern day Vaseline; the sulfur on the other hand, helped to heal the scalp from whatever cuts, scars, and/or scratches that was there. After the development of her product, Wlaker’s life would forever be