Radio-Blogger- Mz. Urban Unplugged
Successful Black Female: What is She?
In today’s society and the 21st century you have successful African-American females, that come from all walks of life. There may not be a clear or in-depth definition of a “successful” female in the Webster dictionary, a positive image in the media or in films. During a recent discussion with two of my black male friends, we were talking about what is a successful African-American female and what she looks like. I did not know that a successful woman had to look a specific way.
As a life long student and African-American female I had to ask myself, “what I think a successful black woman and female is.” I came up with a list but the discussion got a little deeper when my two friends start discussing “what a successful woman and female is at a certain age.”
A successful African-American woman and female who are between the ages of 20 to 30; are attending college or graduated from college, establishing their careers, working multiple jobs to pay for college and raising children. Women between the ages 30-40 already have their careers established, they are accomplishing and achieving their goals, and some are going back to school to obtain another degree.
This topic was coming up in many conversations I had with many black males recently, because of recent headlines regarding the black community and specifically black single women and how ‘hard’ it is for us to find a ‘good’ man. Some men say they want to have a relationship with a certain type of woman; but the main characteristic they are looking for is a “successful and goal oriented” woman.
I asked why this was top on their list for what males look for in a woman, the response I received is “I want a woman who can hold her own, has goals in life, supportive, loving and caring. But most of all she has to be successful at what she does.”
After listening to what they had to say I start asking some of my female friends “what is a successful woman and if you are one what is it like”? Even though some of them are married, single, in college, have children and started to establish some of their careers, they all had different responses.
“I’m a newlywed, and [we] understand the sacrifices each other must make in order to achieve individual success and reach a collective goal together,” said Deidre Gadsden, a senior at Cleveland State University, recently newlywed and graduating in December.
“We may have separate goals, but our collective goal is to be educated, productive American citizens and eventually start a family and raise them to be educated, successful, and productive American citizens. To do this, we have made an agreement to support each other in our individual endeavors. It’s a great feeling to come home to someone who has your back-I feel that is especially important as an African-American female, who, in a sense, is a double minority in today’s society,” said Gadsden, talking about being in a relationship and goals.
Being a successful, educated, and goal oriented African-American female in today’s society is something many feel they have to prove, to the media, family, friends and even to themselves. If you believe that you can be successful at what you do, but most of all being a “successful African-American female” keep striving. MORE POWER TO MY BLACK SISTAS and all women!!!
