What the Village Gave Me

In What the Village Gave Me, the contributors-all women of color-present their varied experiences regarding the conceptualizations of womanhood, beauty, and gender roles. The goal of this book is to illuminate how these issues intersect with the transmission of cultural norms, marriage rates, and the development of professional self-efficacy. What the Village Gave Me illuminates topics relevant to women of color and touches upon careers, relationships, gender role understanding and subscription, ethnic identity, and cultural representation. This collection addresses how women who self-identify as "women of color" see themselves and manage their location in their work-life, families, and communities. By giving voice to the contributors, readers are afforded glimpses into the lives of these women and are provided with a valuable tool in the broader discourse on womanhood. This collection will help them see how race, class, and ethnicity work to divide or unite women.

PrefaceForewordAcknowledgmentsSection 1: Navigating Troubled Waters: Doing Womanhood in Work Life1. Learning to Swim with the Barracudas: Negotiating Differences in the WorkplaceNia I. Cantey2. Mammies, Maids &Mothers: Representations of African-American and Latina Women's Reproductive Labor in WeedsJohnanna Ganz3. Being Black Academic Mothers Angela K. Lewis, Sherri L. Wallace, and Clarissa L. PetersonSection 2: Too Grown for Your Own Good: Doing Girlhood4. Combing My Kinks: A Culturally Informed Program to Strengthen Mother-Daughter Relationships Marva L. Lewis and Allisyn L. Swift 5. The ABCs of Doing Gender: Culturally Situated Non-Cognitive Factors & African American GirlsLaShawnda Lindsay-Dennis and Lawanda Cummings6. Learning Black Womanhood: An Autoethnography Denise Davis-MayeSection 3: Turpentine, Sugar, and Pot Liquor: Black Women and Everyday Health7. Growing Up Black and Female: Life Course Transitions and Depressive SymptomsClaire Norris and Paige Miller8. Saving My Soul and Making Me Fat?: Black Mothers and the ChurchAnnice Dale YarberSection 4: Speaking Change and Writing Wrongs: Representations of Activism9. The Art of Activist Mothering: Black Feminist Leadership & Knowing What to DoDenise McLane-Davison10. What Mami Taught Me about EmpireElizabeth Huergo