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Article: Black women: the unfinished agenda: African American women made great progress in education and entering into previously forbidden occupations--but their gains in earnings mysteriously stopped.(Viewpoint essay)
- Article from:
- The American Prospect
- Article date:
- October 1, 2008
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2008 The American Prospect, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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We occupy many of the seats on the 5:30 P.M. Metrolink train from downtown Los Angeles to San Bernardino. We are behind the counters at the Department of Motor Vehicles and on both sides of the desks at the Department of Social Services. We push wheelchairs in parks and hospitals and hug children at day-care centers. Black women, who in 2006 constituted 7 percent of the working-age population, represented 14 percent of women workers and 53 percent of black workers, yet we are largely invisible in the policy discourse about both race and gender.
Like black men, black women live in neighborhoods far from employment opportunities and with low-performing schools. Like ...