THE BLACK WOMAN

THE BLACK WOMAN

Before the 1960s, families headed by black single mothers, particularly in the South, were underrepresented among beneficiaries of the program, and, if they received benefits, they received ones less than comparable to what white families received. As the program came under direct federal control in the 60s, the share of black families among welfare recipients grew, and the public image of the welfare recipient shifted from that of a southern white woman widowed and struggling with housework and child-rearing to that of an widowed or unmarried black woman who has children collecting welfare because she is deemed too lazy to work. That's a false narrative today, Black women are graduating from high school, attending college, well to do in the labor force, establishing businesses at an alarming rate, but still fighting for the rewards of their sand box. A recent report, stated that young Black women have increased their high school graduation rate by 63 percent over the past 50 years, more than tripling it and "virtually eliminating the gap with Asian women (down to 2 percent), and greatly narrowing the gap with white women (7 percent)," the report noted. Of the Black women who attendant college, earned a Bachelor's Degree around 2010, 68 percent were women, 73 percent with a Master's, and 65 percent with a Doctorate.. Make no mistake about it, Black women are no strangers to entrepreneurship. Black women has and is establishing businesses at seven times higher than the national average, making up the fastest growth of women-owned businesses in the country. Now today black women own over 1 million firms, employ as much as 300,000 people other than themselves, and generate an estimated $50 billion in revenue, This is what you call Progress.