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<h1><center>The Double Task:<br>
The Struggle of Negro Women for Sex and Race Emancipation</h2></center>
<h2><center>By ELISE JOHNSON McDOUGALD</h2></center>
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THROUGHOUT the long years of history, woman has been the
weather-vane, the indicator, showing in which direction the wind
of destiny blows. Her status and development have augured now calm and
stability, now swift currents of progress. What then is to be said of the
Negro woman today?<p>
In Harlem, more than anywhere else, the Negro woman is free from the
cruder handicaps of primitive household hardships and the grosser forms
of sex and race subjugation. Here she has considerable opportunity to
measure her powers in the intellectual and industrial fields of the great
city. Here the questions naturally arise: "What are her problems?" and
"How is she solving them?"<p>
To answer these questions, one must have in mind not any one Negro
woman, but rather a colorful pageant of individuals, each differently
endowed. Like the red and yellow of the tiger-lily, the skin of one is
brilliant against the star-lit darkness of a racial sister. From grace to
strength, they vary in infinite degree, with traces of the
race's history left in physical and mental outline on each.
With a discerning mind, one catches the multiform charm,
beauty and character of Negro u omen; and grasps the fact
that their problem cannot be thought of in mass.<p>
Because only a few have caught this vision, the attitude of mind of most
New Yorkers causes the Negro woman serious difficulty. She is
conscious that what is left of chivalry is not directed toward her. She
realizes that the ideals of beauty, built up in the fine arts, exclude her al-
most entirely. Instead, the grotesque Aunt Jemimas of the street-car
advertisements proclaim only an ability to serve, without grace or
loveliness. Nor does the drama catch her finest spirit. She is most often
used to provoke the mirthless laugh of ridicule; or to portray feminine
viciousness or vulgarity not peculiar to Negroes. This is the shadow over
her To a race naturally sunny comes the twilight of self-doubt and a sense
of personal inferiority. It cannot be denied that these are potent and
detrimental influences, though not generally recognized because they are
in the realm of the mental and spiritual. More apparent are the economic
handicaps which follow her recent entrance into industry. It is conceded
that she has special difficulties because of the poor working conditions
and low wages of her men. It is not surprising that only the determined
women forge ahead to results other than mere survival. The few who do
prove their mettle stimulate one to a closer study of how this achievement
is won in Harlem.<p>
Better to visualize the Negro woman at her job, our vision of a host of
individuals must once more resolve itself into groups on the basis of
activity. First, comes a very small leisure group the wives and daughters
of men who are in business, in the professions and in a few well-paid
personal service occupations. Second, a most active and progressive
group, the women in business and the professions. Third, the many
women in the trades and industry. Fourth, a group weighty in numbers
struggling on in domestic service, with an even less fortunate fringe of
casual workers, fluctuating with the economic temper of the times.<p>
The first is a pleasing group to see. It is picked for outward beauty by
Negro men with much the same feeling as other Americans of the same
economic class. Keeping their women free to preside over the family,
these women are affected by the problems of every wife and mother, but
touched only faintly by their race's hardships. They do share acutely in the
prevailing difficulty of finding competent household help. Negro wives
find Negro maids unwilling generally to work in their own
neighborhoods, for various reasons. They do not wish to work where
there is a possibility of acquaintances coming into contact with them
while they serve and they still harbor the misconception that Negroes of
any station are unable to pay as much as persons of the other race. It is in
these homes of comparative ease that we find the polite activities of social
exclusiveness. The luxuries of well- appointed homes, modest motors,
tennis, golf and country clubs, trips to Europe and California, make for
social standing. The problem confronting the refined Negro family is to
know others of the same achievement. The search for kindred spirits
gradually grows less difficult; in the past it led to the custom of visiting all the large cities in order to
know similar groups of cultured Negro people.<p>
A spirit of stress and struggle characterizes the second two groups. These
women of business, profession and trade are the hub of the wheel of
progress. Their burden is twofold. Many are wives and mothers whose
husbands are insufficiently paid, or who have succumbed to social mal-
adjustment and have abandoned their families. An appalling number are
widows. They face the great problem of leaving home each day and at the
same time trying to rear children in their spare time this too in
neighborhoods where rents are large, standards of dress and recreation
high and costly, and social danger on the increase.<p>
The great commercial life of New York City is only slightly touched by
the Negro woman of our second group. Negro business men offer her
most of their work, but their number is limited. Outside of this field,
custom is once more against her and competition is keen for all. However
Negro girls are training and some are holding exceptional jobs. One of the
professors in a New York college has had a young colored woman as
secretary for the past three years. Another holds the head clerical position
in an organization where reliable handling of detail and a sense of
business ethics are essential. For four years she has steadily advanced.
Quietly these women prove their worth, so that when a vacancy exists and
there is a call, it is difficult to find even one competent colored secretary
who is not employed. As a result of opportunity in clerical work in the
educational system of New York City a number have qualified for such
positions, one being appointed within the year to the office work of a high
school. In other departments the civil service in New York City is no
longer free from discrimination. The casual personal interview, that
tenacious and retrogressive practice introduced in the Federal
administration during the World War has spread and often nullifies the
Negro woman's success in written tests. The successful young woman
just cited above was three times "turned down" as undesirable on the
basis of the personal interview. In the great mercantile houses, the many
young Negro girls who might be well suited to salesmanship are barred f
rom all but the menial positions. Even so, one Negro woman, beginning
as a uniformed maid, has pulled herself up to the position of "head of
stock."<p>
Again, the telephone and insurance companies which receive
considerable patronage from Negroes deny them proportionate
employment. Fortunately, this is an era of changing customs. There is
hope that a less selfish racial attitude will prevail. It is a heartening fact
that there is an increasing number of Americans who will lend a hand in
the game fight of the worthy.<p>
In the less crowded professional vocations, the outlook is more cheerful.
In these fields, the Negro woman is dependent largely upon herself and
her own race for work. In the legal, dental, medical and nursing
professions, successful women practitioners have usually worked their
way through college and are "managing" on the small fees that can be
received from an underpaid public. Social conditions in America are
hardest upon the Negro because he is lowest in the economic scale. This
gives rise to a demand for trained college women in the profession of
social work. It has met with a response from young college women,
anxious to devote their education and lives to the needs of the submerged
classes. In New York City, some fifty-odd women are engaged in social
work, other than nursing. In the latter profession there are over two
hundred and fifty. Much of the social work has been pioneer in nature:
the pay has been small with little possibility of advancement. For even in
work among Negroes, the better paying positions are reserved for whites.
The Negro college woman is doing her bit in this field at a sacrifice, along
such lines as these: in the correctional departments of the city, as
probation officers, investigators, and police women; as Big Sisters at-
tached to the Childrens' Court ; as field workers and visitors for relief
organizations and missions ; as secretaries for travelers-aid and mission
societies; as visiting teachers and vocational guides for the schools of the
city; and, in the many branches of public health nursing, in schools,
organizations devoted to preventive and educational medicine, in
hospitals and in private nursing.<p>
In New York City, nearly three hundred Negro women share the good
conditions in the teaching profession. They measure up to the high
pedagogical requirements of the city and state law and are increasingly,
leaders in the community. Here too the Negro woman finds evidence of
the white workers' fear of competition. The need for teachers is still so
strong that little friction exists. When it does seem to be imminent, it is
smoothed away, as it recently was at a meeting of school principals. From
the floor, a discussion began with: "What are we going to do about this
problem of the increasing number of Negro teachers coming into our
schools?" It ended promptly through the suggestion of another principal:
"Send all you get and don't want over to my school. I have two now and
I'll match their work to any two of your best whom you name." One might
go on to such interesting and more unusual professions as journalism,
chiropody, bacteriology, pharmacy, etc., and find that, though the number
in any one may be small, the Negro woman is creditably represented in
practically every one. According to individual ability she is meeting with
success.<p>
Closing the door on the home anxieties, the woman engaged in trades and
in industry faces equally serious difficulty in competition in the open
working field. Custom is against her in all but a few trade and industrial
occupations. She has, however been established long in the dressmaking
trade among the helpers and finishers, and more recently among the
drapers and fitters in some of the best establishments. Several Negro
women are themselves proprietors of shops in the country's greatest
fashion district. Each of them has, against great odds, convinced skeptical
employers of her business value; and, at the same time, has educated
fellow workers of other races, doing much to show the oneness of interest
of all workers. In millinery, power sewing-machine operating on cloth,
straw and leather, there are few Negro women. The laissez-faire attitude
of practically all trade unions makes the Negro woman an unwilling
menace to the cause of labor.<p>
In trade cookery, the Negro woman's talent and past experience is
recognized. Her problem here is to find employers who will let her work
her way to managerial positions, in tea-rooms, candy shops and
institutions. One such employer became convinced that the managing
cook, a young colored graduate of Pratt Institute, would continue to build
up a business that had been failing. She offered her a partnership. As in
the cases of a number of such women, her barrier was lack of capital. No
matter how highly trained, nor how much speed and business acumen has
been acquired, the Negro's credit is held in doubt. An exception in this
matter of capital will serve to prove the rule. Thirty years ago, a young
Negro girl began learning all branches of the fur trade. She is now in
business for herself, employing three women of her race and one Jewish
man. She has made fur experts of still another half-dozen colored girls.
Such instances as these justify the prediction that the foothold gained in
the trade world will, year by year, become more secure.<p>
Because of the limited fields for workers in this group, many of the
unsuccessful drift into the fourth social grade, the domestic and casual
workers. These drifters increase the difficulties of the Negro woman
suited to housework. New standards of household management are
forming and the problem of the Negro woman is to meet these new busi-
ness-like ideals. The constant influx of workers unfamiliar with household
conditions in New York keeps the situation one of turmoil. The Negro
woman, moreover, is revolting against residential domestic service. It is a
last stand in her fight to maintain a semblance of family life. For this
reason, principally, the number of day or casual workers is on the
increase. Happiness is almost impossible under the strain of these
conditions. Health and morale suffer, but how else can her children, loose
all afternoon, be gathered together at night-fall? Through it all she
manages to give satisfactory service and the Negro woman is sought after
for this unpopular work largely because her honesty, loyalty and
cleanliness have stood the test of time. Through her drudgery, the women
of other groups find leisure time for progress. This is one of her
contributions to America.<p>
IT is apparent from what has been said, that even in New York City,
Negro women are of a race which is free neither economically, socially
nor spiritually. Like women in general, but more particularly like those of
other oppressed minorities, the Negro woman has been forced to submit
to over-powering conditions. Pressure has been exerted upon her, both
from without and within her group. Her emotional and sex life is a reflex
of her economic station. The women of the working class will react,
emotionally and sexually, similarly to the working-class women of other
races. The Negro woman does not maintain any moral standard which
may be assigned chiefly to qualities of race, any more than a white
woman does. Yet she has been singled out and advertised as having lower
sex standards. Superficial critics who have had contact only with the
lower grades of Negro women, claim that they are more immoral than
other groups of women. This I deny. This is the sort of criticism which
predicates of one race, to its detriment, that which is common to all races.
Sex irregularities are not a matter of race, but of socio-economic
conditions. Research shows that most of the African tribes from which
the Negro sprang have strict codes for sex relations. There is no proof of
inherent weakness in the ethnic group.<p>
Gradually overcoming the habitual limits imposed upon her by slave
masters, she increasingly seeks legal sanction for the consummation and
dissolution of sex contracts. Contrary to popular belief, illegitimacy
among Negroes is cause for shame and grief. When economic, social and
biological forces combined bring about unwed motherhood, the reaction
is much the same as in families of other racial groups. Secrecy is
maintained if possible. Generally the married aunt, or even the mother,
claims that the illegitimate child is her own. The foundling asylum is
seldom sought. Schooled in this kind of suffering in the days of slavery,
Negro women often temper scorn with sympathy for weakness. Stigma
does fall upon the unmarried mother, but perhaps in this matter the
Negroes' attitude is nearer the modern enlightened ideal for the social
treatment of the unfortunate. May this not be considered another
contribution to America?<p>
With all these forces at work, true sex equality has not been
approximated. The ratio of opportunity in the sex, social, economic and
political spheres is about that which exists between white men and
women. In the large, I would say that the Negro woman is the cultural
equal of her man because she is generally kept in school longer. Negro
boys, like white boys, are usually put to work to subsidize the family
income. The growing economic independence of Negro working women
is causing her to rebel against the domineering family attitude of the
cruder working- class Negro man. The masses of Negro men are engaged
in menial occupations throughout the working day. Their baffled and
suppressed desires to determine their economic life are manifested in
over-bearing domination at home. Working mothers are unable to instill
different ideals in their sons. Conditions change slowly. Nevertheless ,
education and opportunity are modifying the spirit of the younger Negro
men. Trained in modern schools of thought, they begin to show a
wholesome attitude of fellowship and freedom for their women. The
challenge to young Negro womanhood is to see clearly this trend and
grasp the proffered comradeship with sincerity. In this matter of sex
equality, Negro women have contributed few outstanding militants. Their
feminist efforts are directed chiefly toward the realization of the equality
of the races, the sex struggle assuming a subordinate place.<p>
OBSESSED with difficulties that might well compel individualism, the
Negro woman has engaged in a considerable amount of organized action
to meet group needs. She has evolved a federation of her clubs,
embracing between eight and ten thousand women, throughout the state
of New York. Its chief function is to crystallize programs, prevent
duplication of effort, and to sustain a member organization whose cause
might otherwise fail. It is now firmly established, and is about to strive for
conspicuous goals. In New York City, one association makes child
welfare its name and special concern. Others, like the Utility Club, Utopia
Neighborhood, Debutante's League, Sempre Fidelius, etc., raise money
for old forks' homes, a shelter for delinquent girls and fresh air camps for
children. The Colored Branch of the Y. W. C. A. and the womens'
organizations in the many churches, as well as in the beneficial lodges
and associations, care for the needs of their members.<p>
On the other hand, the educational welfare of the coming generation, has
become the chief concern of the national sororities of Negro college
women. The first to be organized in the country, Alpha Kappa Alpha, has
a systematized and continuous program of educational and vocational
guidance for students of the high schools and colleges. The work of
Lambda Chapter, which covers New York City and its suburbs, is
outstanding. Its recent campaign gathered together nearly one hundred
and fifty such students at a meeting to gain inspiration from the
life-stories of successful Negro women in eight fields of endeavor. From
the trained nurse, who began in the same schools as they, these girls
drank in the tale of her rise to the executive position in the Harlem Health
Information Bureau. A commercial artist showed how real talent had
overcome the color line. The graduate physician was a living example of
the modern opportunities in the newer fields of medicine open to women.
The vocations as outlets for the creative instinct became attractive under
the persuasion of the musician, the dressmaker and the decorator.
Similarly, Alpha Beta Chapter of the national Delta Sigma Theta Sorority
recently devoted a week to work along similar lines. In such ways as these
are the progressive and privileged groups of Negro women expressing
their community and race consciousness.<p>
We find the Negro woman, figuratively, struck in the face daily by
contempt from the world about her. Within her soul, she knows little of
peace and happiness. Through it all, she is courageously standing erect,
developing within herself the moral strength to rise above and conquer
false attitudes. She is maintaining her natural beauty and charm and
improving her mind and opportunity. She is measuring up to the needs
and demands of her family, community and race, and radiating from
Harlem a hope that is cherished by her sisters in less propitious
circumstances throughout the land. The wind of the race's destiny stirs
more briskly because of her striving.<p>
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<h4>The <i>Survey Graphic</i> Harlem Number (March 1925)</h4>
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