Oppression of Black and Chicana Women Essay (Critical Writing)

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Mistreatment of women has been a problem since time immemorial. White people oppressed black and Chicana women for their skin color, gender, and race. During the second-wave women’s movement, these women were treated differently than white women. Ideally, they got unequal opportunities in work, school, and politics; their role remained largely domestic. In addition, they did not have basic freedoms such as the choice of birth control.

Black and Chicana women received unfair treatment as compared to their white counterparts. In the home setting, domestic house chores were their sole role. Other than that, they performed a biological function- sex role to their husbands. The only job they could get was in the kitchen of the white man (Beale 482). The exploitative capitalist system led to black women constituting most of the Black workforce, doing available jobs to provide their families with required basic needs such as food, clothing, and shelter. They would take care of whites’ children at the expense of their children back at home (Beale 483). In addition, white masters physically assaulted the black women at the workplace, often sexually molesting them.

The Chicana women experienced undue oppression and discrimination in the twentieth century, too. They faced job inequalities, prejudice in the schooling system, male chauvinism, and controlled family planning (Vidal 484). Consequently, they sought legalization and subsidization of abortion and birth control methods. White masters, however, told them to keep away from women’s liberation movements perceived as ‘Anglo.’ On the other hand, Chicana men refused to support women’s efforts to revolutionize the oppressive system.

Chicana women particularly faced a triple form of oppression, which put their freedoms and interests at stake. They encountered racial discrimination since they were of foreign La Raza descent. Being workers, they had poor job conditions at their employment. Vidal (486) asserts that whites used black women for experimentation with contraceptives, as was the case with some Chicana women taking placebo anti-conception pills, thus, ending up pregnant. The second-wave women’s liberation movements also fought forced sterilization imposed on blacks. Whites campaigned against Chicana liberation movements for fear of being overthrown. Phyllis Schlafly was a typical anti-feminist whose most notable work was opposing the Equal Rights Amendment (History). Generally, black and Chicana women faced a lot of discrimination and oppression before the mid-twentieth century. Nevertheless, the pressure was significantly reduced as a result of vibrant women’s liberation movements.

Works Cited

Beale, Frances. “Double jeopardy: To be Black and female.” (1970): 482-484.

“History” PowerPoint presentation.

Vidal, Mirta. “Rising Consciousness of the Chicana About Her Special oppression.” (1971): 484-486.

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