Minority American Women

Paper Summary:

This paper explains that the lives and experiences of Chinese, Mexican and African-American women are similar because they all faced severe hardship, discrimination, and degrading social conditions; however, due to their ethic identities and cultural roots, their experiences are dramatically dissimilar. The author points out that Vicki Ruiz, in her book "Out of the Shadows", takes readers through the immigration eras, beginning with Spanish-speaking women moving north out of Mexico centuries before the Euro-Americans arrived and that Judy Yung, in her book "Unbound Feet", writes about the history of Chinese women coming to San Francisco in the late 1800s. The paper relates that Jacqueline Jones, in her book, "Labor of Love, Labor of Sorrow" writes about the early twentieth century when black urban women participated in boycotts against segregated public facilities and resisted racist customs.

From the Paper:

"But what was it like for a Mexican woman migrating into the U.S. in the early 20th Century? Ruiz writes that first of all getting across the border was challenging, particularly during the Mexican Revolution (1910-1921) when "starvation was not unknown and danger a constant companion ." Women were raped and kidnapped by soldiers and "marauders" while on their way north; it was back-breaking work once Mexicans arrived in the southwest, as many were paid twelve cents per day in the fields. Twenty-one percent of Mexican women in early 20th Century America worked in the fields."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Jones, Jacqueline. Labor of Love, Labor of Sorrow: Black Women, Work, and the Family from Slavery to the Present. New York: Basic Books, Inc., 1985.
• Ruiz, Vicki L. From Out of the Shadows: Mexican Women in Twentieth-Century America. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998.
• Yung, Judy. Unbound Feet: A Social History of Chinese Women in San Francisco. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995.

More papers on Minority American Women:

• Term Paper # 95335 : "African American Women"
• Research Paper # 99515 : "African-American Women and Suicide"
• Analytical Essay # 129754 : "Suicide and the African American Woman"

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