Leadership Concepts and the Duality of Black Women
Leadership Concepts and the duality of Black Women
Leadership has historically been a title and position held for the wealthy, the male sex, and the Anglo in America. Reasons for this range from self proclaimed God right and the enslavement of a large portion of America’s inhabitants. For the African-American male in America, the rise to leadership has been a tremendous struggle; though he has overcome may obstacles. College educations, determination, and martyrdom trail blazed the rise of African-American male leaders. The path to leadership for the African American women was fought on two different fronts. One front was the battle for racial equality, and the other was women’s rights and suffrage. Those issues were two of the largest civil right issues in American history. The mere fact that African-American women tore down each wall of intolerance and have taken many roles in leadership is a testament to the strength and character of the African American Woman. Without the power of language, emotional intelligence, relationship building, and systems thinking the African American women leaders would not have become a factor in the American leadership arena of the past and present.
A leader is a facilitator of relationships. He or she uses those relationships to bring people together for a common purpose. From the introduction of the African to America the women were taken and separated from family and sexually oppressed during slavery. Without being able to nurture and facilitate the relationships around her, they had no place in leadership. It wasn’t until centuries later did African-American women participate in something that took a group effort and leadership techniques. African American women played a key role in the Suffrage Movement. It was a social, economic and political reform movement aimed at extending the suffrage, which is the right to vote, to women, advocating equal suffrage rather than universal suffrage, which is the abolition
Leadership has historically been a title and position held for the wealthy, the male sex, and the Anglo in America. Reasons for this range from self proclaimed God right and the enslavement of a large portion of America’s inhabitants. For the African-American male in America, the rise to leadership has been a tremendous struggle; though he has overcome may obstacles. College educations, determination, and martyrdom trail blazed the rise of African-American male leaders. The path to leadership for the African American women was fought on two different fronts. One front was the battle for racial equality, and the other was women’s rights and suffrage. Those issues were two of the largest civil right issues in American history. The mere fact that African-American women tore down each wall of intolerance and have taken many roles in leadership is a testament to the strength and character of the African American Woman. Without the power of language, emotional intelligence, relationship building, and systems thinking the African American women leaders would not have become a factor in the American leadership arena of the past and present.
A leader is a facilitator of relationships. He or she uses those relationships to bring people together for a common purpose. From the introduction of the African to America the women were taken and separated from family and sexually oppressed during slavery. Without being able to nurture and facilitate the relationships around her, they had no place in leadership. It wasn’t until centuries later did African-American women participate in something that took a group effort and leadership techniques. African American women played a key role in the Suffrage Movement. It was a social, economic and political reform movement aimed at extending the suffrage, which is the right to vote, to women, advocating equal suffrage rather than universal suffrage, which is the abolition
Cited: 1.Selected Letters of Lucretia Coffin Mott, Lucretia Mott; University of Illinois Press, Dec 1, 2001 2.When and where I enter : the impact of Black women on race and sex in America ,Paula Giddings 3.1976,General System theory: Foundations, Development, Applications. (George Braziller) 4.African-American women in the Struggle for the right to vote, Rosalyn Terborg-Penn; 1998 5.”White and “Colored” Voces De America; Daniel Hernandez. Journal of History and Culture, Summer 2008. Prairie View A&M University 6. Davis, Angela Yvonne (March 1989). "Rocks". Angela Davis: An Autobiography. New York City: 7.Mary Parker Follett, The New State (1918). Part I, Ch. II 8.Margaret J. Wheatley, Finding Our Way, pg. 27