WOMEN &

MINORITIES
Historically Speaking ...
Traditional history
• White men, fleeing from rigid customs, social
hierarchies, and the constrained resources
of Europe to a land of opportunity
New History
• Many colonists failed to prosper due to
disease, crop problems, predators, and
hostile Native Americans
• Those who did do well, did so at the expense
of Indians, indentured servants, and slaves
Go West?
• Not all of America was the English
going west
• Spanish were heading north from
Mexico
• Russians coming east from Siberia
• French coming south through the
Great Lakes and down the Mississippi
River
• Not simply that Europeans, Africans,
and Indians converged together
• When thrown together in the New
World, each had to find a new
commonality to aid in their survival in
the new world.
• All were in a flux when they
encountered each other in the
colonies.
The Problem WASP

US Society Male-dominated
Society

Discrimination

Asian Native Latinos African

Americans Women Americans Americans
Native Americans

Bering Strait land bridge

Settlement
Paleo-Indians
Paleo-Indians:
The Inuit (Eskimo)
Archaic Indians
Horticulture
 Evolved over generations from the
practices of gathering wild plants
 Indians developed the three great crops
of North Americans horticulture: maize,
squash, and beans
 As plants became more important in their
diet, less time was devoted to hunting,
gathering, and fishing.
Hohokam
&
Anasazi
Hohokam
Anasazi
Mound Builders
Indians in America
Indian Beliefs
 Had a more complex understanding of
the interdependent relationship between
the natural and the supernatural.
 Believed that they lived within a
contentious world of spiritual power that
sometimes demanded human restraint
and at other times offered opportunities
for exploitation.
 Disease and Depopulation in
New England
 Powerful with a total
population of up to 15 million
inhabitants before European
contact
 1990 U.S. census indicates a
total current population of less
than two million.
 Depopulation is greatly
attributed to diseases brought
by Europeans to the New
World.
 Yet epidemics throughout
history have rarely produced
an irrecoverable effect.
http://galenfrysinger.us/1/new_england/native15.jpg
 Environmental and Social Factors
Spreading of diseases:
 Cultural changes after
European contact
 The introduction of
domesticating animals
 The spread of trade
allowing more person-to-
person contact http://www.wkrac.org/artworld/natam/culture/
 Increasing agriculture led graphics/831721.jpg

to deforestation,
temperature changes, and
livestock overrunning
crops
 Malnurishing diet affecting
their ability to sustain
even that low level
nutrition
http://clarke.cmich.edu/nativeamericans/mphc/furtrade.jpg
 Health and Medical Practices
Native Americans:
 had no cures for such
unknown New World diseases
 believed the underlying
causes of disease were either
supernatural or the result of
inappropriate behavior
 the medicine of the time
involved a combination of
religious beliefs and traditional
herbal medicine
Europeans:
 could also offer no cures or
medical explanations to the http://www.itmonline.org/image/arthealing1.jpg
Natives
 War and Religious Convictions
 Many colonists believed
the Native Americans
were heathens who God
punished with disease for
not being Christian, and
waged war on the Natives
 Native weapons such as
hatchets and bows were
no match for European
rifles.
 Natives did not kill
women and children in
war, which colonists did.

http://home1.gte.net/espaxson/custer3e.jpg
 Social Disorder
 The loss of the more
susceptible elderly and
children
 Families were torn apart by
death through war and
disease
 Tribes lost leaders, as well as
elderly, who kept tribal
wisdom, causing cultural
disorientation and power
struggles
 Falling ill caused tribes to
miss annual hunting and
planting cycles
 Difficult for tribes to protest
http://www.bethelhistorical.org/great%20dying.jpg
the swift European expansion
onto Native lands
Women
 Unequal treatment
 Prescribed/traditional roles
 Earning less for equal work
 Under-represented in politics and
business
 Until mid 1800s, ‘civil death’ upon
marriage
 Yet, American women as workers
have a long history
Female Reform
Fighting for
 Better conditions in prisons,
asylums, hospitals, schools, gettos
 Women’s rights
– Property and divorce rights
– Educational and employment
opportunities
– Female suffrage (granted in 1920)
 Anti-slavery campaign
Women & Work
 Women have worked since colonial
period
 Different colonies, different roles
(yet, similar inferior status)
 Greater political awareness during
the revolutionary struggle
 Assuming male roles in time of
war, yet in the aftermath returning
to their domestic, private and
dependent roles
The 13 American Colonies
New England Colonies – Religious Freedom
Rhode Island
Connecticut
Massachusetts
New Hampshire

Middle Colonies – Trade & Profits

Delaware
Pennsylvania
New York
New Jersey

Southern Colonies – Economy (Plantations)

Maryland
Virginia
North Carolina
South Carolina
Georgia
Back
Feminist Movement
The Feminine Mystique
If I am right, the problem that has no name stirring in the
minds of so many American women today is not a
matter of loss of femininity or too much education, or the
demands of domesticity. It is far more important that
anyone recognizes… It may well be the key to our future
as a nation and a culture. We can no longer ignore the
voice within women that says: ‘I want something more
than my husband and my children and my home.’

— Betty Friedan (1963)

American Women Today
 Equality between sexes
 Numerous laws and regs passed
for women’s benefits
 Increasing numbers of women in
politics and business
 Yet, women were several times as
likely to be living in poverty as men
African Americans
 US 2nd largest minority group
 First brought to US in the 1600s
 Hereditary slavery, considered as
property
 Mostly needed in Southern
plantations (cotton, tobacco, etc.)
 Slavery as one of the causes of Am
Civil War (1863-1865)
Separate-but-equal
 Slavery was abolished after the
Civil War (the 14th Amendment)
 Yet, blacks weren’t accepted as
equal
 ‘Jim Crow’ Laws – public
segregation
 1900s started the fight for blacks’
civil rights – NAACP
Civil Rights Movements
 Major protest movements during the
1950s and early 1960s.
 Fought to end long-standing political,
social, economic, and legal practices
that discriminated against black
Americans.
 Influenced later movements for social
change.
 Produced one of the most important
American social activists of the 20th
century, Martin Luther King, Jr.
African Americans Today
On Education
 Place special importance on acquiring
education
 Realize that formal schooling is key to
social mobility
 Affirmative Action
 Educational gap between Blacks and
Whites
– Always been present
– Gap is narrowing in recent years
African Americans Today
On Employment
 Even in the best of times, national
unemployment rate is significantly higher
for Blacks than Whites
 Factors explaining official unemployment
rate of young African American males
– Many live in depressed economy of central cities
– Immigrants and illegal aliens present increased
competition
– White middle-class women entered the labor force
– Illegal activities at which youth find they can make
more money have become more prevalent
African Americans Today
On Middle Class
 African Americans still aware of racial
subordination even when that have
achieved economic equality
 Migration of middle-class African
Americans from ghetto in 1970s and
1980s left a vacuum
– No longer present as role models
 African American middle-class do not
automatically accept all aspects of White
middle-class
Wealth Inequality: White vs Black
African Americans Today
On Criminal Justice
 Blacks constitute:
– 3% of the lawyers
– 14.9% of police
– 17.6% of detectives
– 29.8% of security guards
– 39% of jail inmates
 FBI’s Uniform Crime Report
– Black’s account for 28% of arrests even though
they represent only about 13% of the nation’s
population
In Politics ...

ALTHOUGH BARACK OBAMA

ENTERED THE WHITE HOUSE
AS PRESIDENT IN 2009,
AFRICAN AMERICANS IN
GENERAL HAVE NOT
RECEIVED AN EQUAL SHARE
OF THE POLITICAL PIE
Asian Americans
 Refers to those individuals living in the U.S.
and having origins of in any of the original
peoples of the Far East, Southeast Asia and
the Indian subcontinent
 By 2000, there were 3.6% of the US
population, approximately 10 million, were
Asian American
 Asian American, a fast growing minority
– (12.5%) in the U.S. next to Hispanic/Latino
– (13%)* from April, 2000 to June 2003
Geographic Distribution of
Asian American

The greatest concentrated areas are California

(4.2 million), New York (1.2 Million) and
Hawaii (0.7 million), a total of over 50% of
Asian American.
Origins of Asian American
 51% of Asian American are
immigrants
 The six largest groups, account for
89% of Asian American:
– Chinese (2.7 million),
– Filipinos (2.4 million),
– Asian Indian (1.9 million)
– Korean (1.23 million)
– Vietnamese (1.22 million)
– Japanese (1.15million)
Model Minority: Fact or Fiction?
Diversity of Asian Americans
Asian American are very diverse in
terms of:
 Countries of origin & Ethnicities
 Languages/dialects
 Immigration History
 Length/Generation of being in the US
 Socioeconomic status
 Religious
 Acculturation
Latinos: A young population

35% under 18 years old

(compare with 23% non-Hispanic
white rate)

5% 65 years or older
(compare with 14% non-Hispanic
white rate)

45
A disadvantaged population
 More likely to be unemployed
 More likely to work in service or labor
 More likely to earn less
 More likely to live in poverty
(23% v. 8%)
 Less likely to have finished high
school

46
U.S. vs. Foreign Born
 60% of the Hispanic population
was born in the United States

 Of the 40% foreign born:

– 27% arrived before 1980
– 30% arrived in the 1980s
– 43% arrived in the 1990s

47
Distribution by origin

48
Limited English Proficiency

49
Trump’s Views on
Women & Minorities
Women & Minorities Today
 Compare and contrast the status of
women & minorities and the
treatment they receive before and
after Trump elected President