Blackness And Womanhood Essay

significant (p = .06); no such variations existed between the other clusters. Potential differences in sexual orientation, socioeconomic status (i.e., level of education obtained), and religion/spirituality based on cluster membership were explored using cross tabulation of frequencies and the Pearson chi-square statistic (i.e., dependent variable - gendered racial identity clusters; independent variable -demographic characteristics). Though there were relative differences in educational attainment between clusters, these differences were not significant. No other significant differences were identified.
Qualitative Analysis of Blackness, Womanhood, and Black Womanhood
The qualitative data collected from the Self-Defined Gendered Racial Identity Questionnaire (S-GRIQ) was used to explore the meaning Black women assign to their GRI. This questionnaire included three questions asking women to describe the meaning associated with their Blackness (racial identity), womanhood (gender identity), and Black womanhood (gendered racial identity). Prior to analysis, participants’ responses to each of the three questions were grouped, meaning all the responses to question one were grouped together, then the same for questions two …show more content…
When describing Blackness, many women used a string of adjectives to describe their experiences. Of the many personality characteristics and adjectives Black women used to describe their Blackness, some of the most commonly noted were strong, resilient, proud, and authentic. Many women attributed the development of such characteristics to their shared history: “[being Black] means to be a part of a collective culture of people who are both uniquely oppressed, yet uniquely proud and resilient” (BW027, age 31). Another woman described how, she “belong(s) to the past and the future of a people who embody love, resilience, faith. . .” and how she carries the “spirit of collective pain of generations past” (BW053, age