Ain’t I A Woman?
Nobody ever helps me into carriages, or over mud-puddles, or gives me any best place! And ain’t I a woman? Look at me! Look at my arm! I have ploughed and planted, and gathered into barns, and no man could head me! And ain’t I a woman? I could work as much and eat as much as a man – when I could get it – and bear the lash as well! And ain’t I a woman? I have borne thirteen children, and seen most all sold off to slavery, and when I cried out with my mother’s grief, none but Jesus heard me! And ain’t I a woman?
-Sojourner Truth
Women’s Convention in Akron, Ohio 1851
The history of black motherhood in the United States has been marked by separation. From the time of slavery the American black woman has been viewed through the lens of the labor she can provide others. Her role as wife and mother minimalized by the expectations of her work outside the home. The legacy of these ideas formed during the infancy of this nation is still felt even today as black women experience motherhood differently than their white counterparts even in the first few hours after giving birth.
Subjected to tropes such as the “mammy”, who in almost comical irony is characterized as the ultimate caretaker for white children, while simultaneously being neglectful one to her own, black women have for centuries seen their mothering called into question. The modern incarnation of the “welfare queen” characterizes the black mother as a dishonest materialist who only has children in order to game the system for more money. The lasting impact of such inaccuracies has been devastating.
During slavery black women were called upon to be wet nurses to the children of their white owners. Often separated from their own children, sometimes permanently, just after giving birth. This practice continued even with emancipation as many families, especially in the South, continued to employ black women in domestic capacities. In the first decades of the 20th century as economic opportunity began to expand for black men, many black women were for the first time in a position to make the choice to stay home and care for their own children. The dwindling supply of domestic labor didn’t sit well with many employers and laws were passed in many places requiring black women to work even if they had other means of support. A 1918 article from Greensboro South Carolina is a prime example of one such ordinance. It read:
To make this abundantly clear. In the 20th century there were black women whose husbands were gainfully employed, some even by the US Military, who were told that by law they could not stay home with their families because someone needed a maid. The same 20th century in which most adults alive today were born.
This assault on black motherhood would continue. The 1940’s saw a rise in the more widespread use of baby formula and companies were quick to market their product to black families. The combination of negative historical associations with being wet nurses and the reality of many black women having to return to work very soon after giving birth made black women prime targets for these advertising campaigns.
By the 1950’s organizations such as La Leche League were formed. Their messages and campaigns were largely designed to encourage white women to breastfeed, while once again marginalizing black motherhood. Images of white women breastfeeding their children began to be normalized while one would only find an image of a woman of color doing so in the pages of National Geographic.
The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children, also known as (WIC) was launched in 1974. Women participating in these programs were more often than not encouraged to use formula and to this day black women remain over represented in its participants.
Historic wealth and wage gaps between races and genders leave black women on average in the lowest income brackets. They are employed at a higher rate than any other group in the service industry, working jobs that often offer no maternity leave and almost certainly no accommodations for nursing mothers.
A 2016 study found that black mothers were 9 times as likely to be given formula than white mothers during their postpartum hospital stays. Other studies highlighted implicit bias on the part of lactation consultants who reported spending less time with black mothers based on the false belief that they would not breastfeed anyways.
Centuries of structural racism, societal norms and implicit bias have led to the grim reality that as a group black babies have the highest infant mortality rate in the United States; with preterm birth also being a determining factor in the disparity of these rates. The survival of preterm infants is exponentially increased when they are given human milk and also time and contact with their parents. Yet even today, having the opportunity to offer this care to their own children is still not possible for many black mothers. It is high time we examine the root causes of such disparities and do the collective work of learning from the mistakes of the past in order to shape a better future for black mothers and their children.
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Related Resources and Sources
Article on the History of Black Women and Breastfeeding: httpBs://irthapp.com/the-history-of-black-women-breastfeeding/
Unmothering Black Women: Formula Feeding as an Incident of Slavery:https://hastingslawjournal.org/wp-content/uploads/Freeman-69.6.pdf
Hospitals More Likely to Formula Feed Children of Black Mothers:https://www.upi.com/Health_News/2016/07/19/Hospitals-more-likely-to-formula-feed-children-of-black-mothers-study-says/7221468947378/
How Black Women Were 'Skimmed' By Infant Formula Marketing:https://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2019/12/16/skimmed-black-women-formula-marketing
Labor Statistics:https://www.bls.gov/cps/cpsaat10.htm
Black Women’s Labor Market History:https://www.epi.org/blog/black-womens-labor-market-history-reveals-deep-seated-race-and-gender-discrimination/
Soujourner Truth’s Speech Full Text: https://thehermitage.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Sojourner-Truth_Aint-I-a-Woman_1851.pdf
*There are a number of versions of the speech in circulation. This is the most widely circulated version, but may in fact not be completely historically accurate.
History of Wet Nursing:https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2022/06/08/slavery-racism-drive-toxic-double-standard-about-breastfeeding/
Scholarly Journal Articles on Related Topics:
https://centaur.reading.ac.uk/66788/7/article%20(1)%20(1).pdf
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/647289
https://hastingslawjournal.org/wp-content/uploads/Freeman-69.6.pdf
Hospitals Push Formula on Black Women:
https://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2019/12/16/skimmed-black-women-formula-marketing
Study Regarding Bias in Lactation Consultants:https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29557297/