How+the+novel+treats+and+adresses+issues+facing+American+Women

** **"The Black female is assaulted in her tender years by all those common forces of nature at the same time that she is caught in the tripartite crossfire of masculine prejudice, white illogical hate and Black lack of power. "**
 * Adressing The Issues of American Women:

~Women were aloud to have jobs but jobs were seperated in jobs for men, and jobs for women. ~A women could not do a mans job. ~Black still work in cotton fields and still aren't being paid much. ~Maya works in a white family's house with the cook, whose family used to be slaves owned by the white family. ~Maya recieves a scholarship to become a dancer after highschool graduation. ~Maya's Momma was respected throughout the community although she was a woman who ran her own business. ~Maya becomes the first black female, streetcar conductor.
 * Jobs :**

~Though in this time period men have domanance over women, women are beging to gain more domanance as the years go by. ~The judge subpoenaed Mrs. Henderson only to realize to his surprise that the accused had referred to a black woman as “Mrs.” This unusual title, usually reserved for whites, indicates Momma’s high status in her community." ~Maya's birthmother has a strong desire to be white. ex: Pat Petterson and the China Doll Pat Petterson curses Maya's mother out one night when she was out alone, she then told her brothers. Her brothers go to see Pat, a black male, and beat him almost to death while calling him race slures, and there was no police investigation incvolved. Maya's birthmother sent her a white, blonde haired, blue eyed china doll for christmas, this represents that her mother looks at whites as more beautiful people than than blacks and she would rather be all white than half. ~Women didn't have an extensive knowledge on lesbians or hermaphrodites, they only knew what society wanted them to be. ex: Maya thinks she is a lesbian because she notices how masculine her body is, on the other hand she knows she is not attracted to women, and she later tells us that she had confused being a lesbian with being a hermaphrodite.
 * Men vs. Women :**



~Black women aren't seen as beautiful. ~Maya pretends she is a blonde haired, blue eyed white girl. ~Maya's mother is half white. ~Maya's maternal grandmother is white. ~Segragation still occures in the job force. ~Maya's school was mostly black students in the town of Stamps, which was segregated into a white and black community. ~Maya says she wasn't sure if whites even really existed, because she saw them so seldom. ~Maya attends a "white" school after graduation because of her intelligance, which is rare for a black woman. ~Joe Louis, a black man, won a boxing match against a white man, this was the begining of blacks gaining power. ~A white dentist, Dr :Lincoln, refused to see Maya because she was black, even though her grandmother had lent him money during the depression.
 * Race :**

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