As Workers, Wives, and Mothers Domestic Violence against African American Women

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B. Review on Socio-Cultural-and Historical Background

The review of socio-cultural-and historical background deals with a brief overview of African American women in 1960-1970s. The overview is divided into two sections. The first section deals with the roles of African American women as mothers, wives, and workers. The second section deals with domestic violence which is exposed against African American women.

1. African American Women in 1960s-1970s

This section deals with African American women in 1960s-1970s. I attempt to narrow down the focus of the review to revealing their roles as workers, wives, and mothers. This is attempted to get a clear depiction of African American women fulfilling their roles as workers, wives, and mothers in the novel.

a. As Workers, Wives, and Mothers

African American women in the 1960s-1970s had to face reality that they were not only born to be slaves or domestic servants but also wives and mothers. When an African American woman held a marital status, she would devote most of her time and energy to her husband and children. Genovese 1974 in his book Roll Jordan Roll: The World the Slaves Made agrees with the statement above. According to Genovese, African American women “generally had a longer day than their” p. 495. In addition to their usual work, they had to cook for their families, cleaning houses, putting children to bed and even sewing until midnight p. 495. The work load that African American women had to carry enabled them 19 to strengthen their husbands’ self-esteem since they supported the economic and financial benefits, which were supposed to be provided by their husbands p. 500.

b. Domestic Violence against African American Women

The fact that the women have more complex roles than their husbands force the women to ensure their men that they do not mean to undermine the men. Practically, as Genovese mentions previously, the women keep their husbands from “avenging” an insult by convincing the husbands that they will not deprive their husbands’ roles as fathers and husbands. However, as women try to convince their husbands about their roles, they have to receive unexpected response in the form of domestic violence. According to Jordan n.d., domestic violence is an “abusive behavior” in which a person performs harassments, humiliations, and forces to maintain “power and control over his or her intimate partner” p. 15. Jordan n.d. notes down that most of domestic violence happens due to economic factor and it is committed in racial groups. She then states that poverty has become the main reason of a person to commit domestic violence against his partner p. 16. The poverty caused by racial discrimination requires African American men and women to work hard for earning a living. However, as Genovese 1974 says that African American women are considered to be more valuable in handling any job, the women earn more money than their husbands do . This condition has made the husbands think that they are” emasculated” p. 16. Thus, when an African American man feels that his wife earns more money that he does, he will feel emasculated, which finally drives him to abuse his wife. 20 Jordan notes that African American men will consider their wives as the worst enemies when the wives happen to earn more financial needs. In addition, it will also be easy for African American men to accuse their wives for taking the control over their power and dignity.

C. Theoretical Framework