Women of Color in U.S. Society

by Maxine Baca Zinn

Overview

The theme of race, class, and gender as interlocking systems of oppression unites these original essays about the experience of women of color—African Americans, Latinas, Native Americans, and Asian Americans. The contributing scholars discuss the social conditions that simultaneously oppress women of color and provide sites for opposition.

Though diverse in their focus, the essays uncover similar experiences in the classroom, workplace, family, prison, and other settings. Working-class women, poor women, and professional women alike experience subordination, restricted participation in social institutions, and structural placement in roles with limited opportunities.

How do women survive, resist, and cope with these oppressive structures? Many articles tell how women of color draw upon resources from their culture, family, kin, and community. Others document defenses against cultural assaults by the dominant society—Native American mothers instilling tribal heritage in their children; African American women engaging in community work; and Asian American women opposing the patriarchy of their own communities and the stereotypes imposed by society at large.

These essays challenge some of our basic assumptions about society, revealing that experiences of inequality are not only diverse but relational.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781439901540
Publisher:	Temple University Press
Publication date:	12/30/1993
Series:	Women In The Political Economy
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	360
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Maxine Baca Zinn is Professor of Sociology at Michigan State University.

Bonnie Thornton Dill is Professor of Women's Studies at the University of Maryland.

Contributors: Regina Arnold, Esther Ngan-Ling Chow, Patricia Hill Collins, Cheryl Townsend Gilkes, Linda Grant, Elizabeth Higginbotham, Karen Hossfield, Jennie R. Joe, Nazli Kibria, Dorothy Lonewolf Miller, Leith Mullings, Vilma Ortiz, Denise Segura, Carol B. Stack, Ruth Zambrana, and the editors.

Table of Contents

Preface 
Foreword – Patricia Hill Collins

Part I: Introduction 
1. Difference and Domination – Maxine Baca Zinn and Bonnie Thornton Dill 
2. Women of Color: A Demographic Overview – Vilma Ortiz

Part II: The Constraining Walls of Social Location 
3. Helpers, Enforcers, and Go-Betweens: Black Females in Elementary School Classrooms – Linda Grant 
4. Hiring Immigrant Women: Silicon Valley’s "Simple Formula" – Karen J. Hossfeld 
5. Inside the Work Worlds of Chicana and Mexican Immigrant Women – Denise A. Segura 
6. Black Professional Women: Job Ceilings and Employment Sectors – Elizabeth Higginbotham 
7. Puerto Rican Families and Social Well-Being – Ruth E. Zambrana

Part III: Social Agency: Confronting the "Walls" 
8. Fictive Kin, Paper Sons, and Compadrazgo: Women of Color and the Struggle for Family Survival – Bonnie Thornton Dill 
9. Black Women in Prison: The Price of Resistance – Regina Arnold 
10. Cultural Survival and Contemporary American Indian Women in the City – Jennie R. Joe and Dorothy Lonewolf Miller 
11. Asian American Women at Work – Esther Ngan-Ling Chow 
12. "If It Wasn’t for the Women...": African American Women, Community Work, and Social Change – Cheryl Townsend Gilkes 
13. Migration and Vietnamese American Women: Remaking Ethnicity – Nazli Kibria

Part IV: Rethinking Gender 
14. Images, Ideology, and Women of Color – Leith Mullings 
15. Different Voices, Different Visions: Gender, Culture, and Moral Reasoning – Carol B. Stack 
16. Feminist Rethinking from Racial-Ethnic Families – Maxine Baca Zinn

About the Contributors 
Index

Editorial Reviews

This far-ranging and well-documented book explores race, class and gender as systems of oppression against women of color in the United States. Following a demographic overview of women of color in the U.S., a number of essays show how patterns of oppression are built into the structure of our society, and how this social structure limits opportunities for women of color. Linda Grant, for example, examines how schools foster a nurturing role in black girls at the expense of intellectual development that could lead to high-status jobs. The book goes on to examine how women of color respond to various forms of oppression. Esther Ngan-Ling Chow looks at how the culture of Asian-American women affects the way they deal with authority on the job. Finally, the book shows how images of women of color are used not only to control them but also to rationalize their subordinate position in society. Meeting the editors' intention of broadening the white, middle-class perspective of earlier feminist scholars, this volume is an important addition to the literature of women's studies. Baca Zinn co-edited The Re shap ing of America ; Dill is a professor of women's studies at the University of Maryland. (Dec.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

"This far-ranging and well-documented book explores race, class and gender as systems of oppression against women of color in the United States....[A]n important addition to the literature of women's studies."
—Publishers Weekly

"[T]his collection should be welcomed by all those concerned with issues of race, gender, and class in American society. It presents a wealth of information, data, and analysis in direct, refreshingly jargon-free language, and would make an excellent text for undergraduate courses in sociology, women's studies, and ethnic studies."
—Contemporary Sociology

"This book will be extremely important in the growing literature that examines the intersections of race, class, and gender stratification.... The list of contributors includes some of the most significant writers working in this field."
—Margaret L. Anderson, University of Delaware

From the Publisher