The Decade is 1960. American Indian Women and Chicanas - Essay Example

The decade is 1960 1960 is a tremendous decade in the USA history since it is during this period that many things happened in America. For instance,during 1960s, human rights activist Martin Luther King was assassinated. In the same period, the then president of USA John F. Kennedy was also killed. Racism and discrimination was the order of the day in USA. Martin Luther King was killed because of struggle to end discrimination and injustice in the American society and ensure equal society to all Americans of different descent.

During this time of heightened tensions, women were not left behind in struggle for equal society and against oppression. In this case, Chicana and American Indian women formed distinct groups in their struggle in that they shed blood just like their male counterparts with similar reasons at geographical locations in the US territory. These women suffered in that they were subordinated and raped by those who colonized original habitats. As an aftermath of colonization by the Spaniards, many Chicana women were left on their own to raise families and take care of the households in absence of their men.

For instance, their work was twofold in that they were supposed to act as head of family or caregivers and look for food for the family. At work place, the American Indian and Chicana women earned less as compared to the Native Americans (Amott and Matthei 44). Statistics indicates that some American Indian and Chicana women soldiered on and secured professional jobs such as sales workers, secretaries and clerical. The following table shows statistics comparing these two groups of women and kind of jobs they held over the years.

jobs Chicana Women American Indian Women Agriculture 10% 4% Manufacturing 18% 29.1% Private Household service 16% 11% Non private 25% 16% Sales workers 3% 8% Clerical workers 14% 21% Technical and professional 9% 5% administrative 2% 2.6% From the statistics, it is rational to argue that most American Indian women worked as house helps while Chicanna women worked in manufacturing and production industry. Despite this difference, they share similar job category observing which work they held least.

On the managerial and administrative jobs, these women were not spotted within top ranks. By 1960, these women should have been sharing similar jobs in non-private services but it was the opposite since they differed. Thus, within the household services it was not shocking that their numbers was almost similar (Amott and Matthei 48). In the 1960s, the American Indian and Chicana women had no interest in Agriculture as seen in earlier decades especially 1930s. During the 1930s, women held 26% of the jobs but by the turn of 1960s they occupied only 10%.

During the 1930s, many men were not at home since majority of them went to battle fields but in 1960s, the war era was over and men had enough time to take over jobs previously held by women. During the 1930s, the Chicana women occupied 26% of the jobs but by 1960s, they dropped drastically to 21%. The American Indian women moved from rural to urban areas thus being influenced to join the Red power movement. Their migration to urban areas was precipitated by the fact that they were conflicting and fighting with the Indian Agriculturalists.

Since they lived with the Mexicans and blacks, they aimed to fight racism and police harassment. The red power movement was organized in 1960s and progressed quickly due to militant American Indian, Mexicans and Blacks Nationalism. During this time, the American Indians joined the Chicano Brown Berets and Black Panther with the aim of ending injustice in society. The American Indians on the other hand, were fighting against reservation life that made them not progress due to their status in society.

These alliances between these groups led to formation of unions that aimed to protect human rights of the endangered groups. Chicana women engaged in activism in 1960s with their movement known as Brown power. Majority of Chicana and Mexicans were found in the south west in the USA. Meanwhile, rural to urban migration continued as these groups were determined to acquire white collar jobs. In Los Angeles and Crystal City, many Chicano students organized strikes and walkouts which indicate how Chicano activism was rampant.

These students fought against their curriculum that encouraged racism, unequal representation in the government and unequal number of Chicano teachers in their schools, Amott and Matthei 82 . Summarily, it is logical to argue that these women though they came from different destinations in the US, they shared many things such as unequal treatment at work and many other social problem that they encountered. In addition, their duties evolved in that they rose from Agriculturalists to professional clerics and administrators in the 1960s.

Work Cited Amott, Teresa and Matthei, Julia. Race, Gender and Work: A Multi-Cultural Economic History of Women in the United States. Boston, MA: South End Press, 1996. Print.