Title Page

Overview

 

Conflict: African-American Women and the New Dilemma of Race and Gender Politics examines the growing development of an influential voting bloc of women within the national political landscape in the United States and how this emerging voting bloc may have had a direct impact on the historic election of Barack Obama as President of the United States. There is a significant under representation of women in elective office in proportion to their percentage of the U.S. population. This book reveals data to indicate an even greater under representation for African-American women and the impact that it has on the political and socioeconomic mobility of women of color.  According to the Center for American Women in Politics, in 2008 women make up approximately only 20 percent of the total number of officials in elective office, despite women representing almost half of the population in the United States of America. The purpose of this book is to identify the key ways in which African-American female voting trends are impacting the changing political landscape. The 2008 presidential election had the highest number of African-American female voters than any other presidential election in history. The targeted audience for this book is the millions of American voters and persons interested in this historic election, which includes African-Americans, women, key voting bloc members and members of the growing American electorate.

 

For the first time in our nation’s history, a White woman and an African-American man competed for the nomination of a major political party for the presidency of the United States.  Consequently, an African-American man and a White woman ran on the presidential ticket of two major political parties. This question has been asked time and again: Would African-American women support the African-American candidate or the female candidate in this critical 2008 presidential election? What would be the basis of their decision? Would it be party affiliation?  Would it be identity politics or a close examination of the candidates’ positions on issues of relevance? African-American women have struggled for decades to find their place in American politics. This book reviews the historical perspective of African-American women and their roles in both the Women’s Suffrage and Civil Rights Movements. The racial bias experienced within the Women’s Suffrage Movement and the gender bias experienced within the Civil Rights Movement kept African-American women on a continual quest to seek their own distinct place in American politics.

 

The reader of this book will learn which identity African-American women identify themselves with more, the challenge of selecting between these identities and how economic and social status impact their positions on the issues and the candidates that they vote into elective office.  The central argument of this book is that the reality may well be that this dual identity group will select candidates who they feel will represent their views and positions on contemporary issues that affect their overall quality of life.

 

Conflict: African-American Women and the New Dilemma of Race and Gender Politics offers a provocative examination of how this emerging dual identity group is having a substantial impact on the changing American electorate.  According to the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, African-American women make up 60 percent of the African-American electorate, making them the majority of that electorate. By providing data on voting trends from this presidential election season and others, this book delivers the undeniable proof that African-American women, for example, by supporting Senator Barack Obama in key states such as Virginia, North Carolina, Ohio, Colorado, and Indiana may have had a direct effect in electing him as the first African-American President of the United States. According to CNN exit polling, African-American women had a substantial impact on this election outcome. This book will undoubtedly be relevant for inclusion in a high school or college course due to its pertinence to current American Studies and Women’s History.