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5.7: Women of Color- A Triple Burden

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    Women of Color: A Triple Burden

    Earlier we mentioned multicultural feminism, which stresses that women of color face difficulties for three reasons: their gender, their race, and, often, their social class, which is frequently near the bottom of the socioeconomic ladder. They thus face a triple burden that manifests itself in many ways.

    For example, women of color experience extra income inequality. Earlier we discussed the gender gap in earnings, with women earning 82.2 percent of what men earn, but women of color face both a gender gap and a racial/ethnic gap. Table 4.3 depicts this double gap for full-time workers. We see a racial/ethnic gap among both women and men, as African Americans and Latinos of either gender earn less than whites. We also see a gender gap between men and women, as women earn less than men within any race/ethnicity. These two gaps combine to produce an especially high gap between African American and Latina women and white men: African American women earn only about 70 percent of what white men earn, and Latina women earn only about 60 percent of what white men earn.

    Table 4.3 The Race/Ethnicity and Gender Gap in Annual Earnings for Full-Time, Year-Round Workers, 2010*

      Annual earnings ($) Percentage of white male earnings
    Men    
    White (non-Hispanic) 44,200 ___
    Black 32,916 74.5
    Latino 26,416 59.8
    Women    
    White (non-Hispanic) 35,568 80.5
    Black 30,784 69.7
    Latina 26,416 59.8
    Median weekly earnings x 52 weeks    

    Source: US Department of Labor. (2011). Highlights of women’s earnings in 2010. Washington, DC: Author.

    Alt text for image: annual earnings for white males

    These differences in income mean that African American and Latina women are poorer than white women. We noted earlier that almost 32 percent of all female-headed families are poor. This figure masks race/ethnic differences among such families: 24.8 percent of families headed by non-Latina white women are poor, compared to 41.0 percent of families headed by African American women and also 44.5 percent of families headed by Latina women (DeNavas-Walt et al., 2011).DeNavas-Walt, C., Proctor, B. D., & Smith, J. C. (2011). Income, poverty, and health insurance coverage in the United States: 2010 (Current Population Reports, P60-239). Washington, DC: US Census Bureau. While white women are poorer than white men, African American and Latina women are clearly poorer than white women.


    5.7: Women of Color- A Triple Burden is shared under a not declared license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by LibreTexts.

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