Spivey: Interview Assignment

The idea of Feminism and its ideologies has changed throughout the course of its history, and the people who lived through each wave have a different story to tell depending on their race, class, and gender. The individual I interviewed for this assignment is an African American woman named Gloria Little. She was born June 5, 1932. She is the second oldest of 10 children, and has lived on the same street in Athens her entire life. The story Gloria tells is not just from a view point of a woman, but of a black woman living in a time when women weren't treated equal with men, and blacks were not equal to whites.
First, I started out the interview by asking what it was like for her, as a black woman, growing up in the south. She explained that there was always a female at home. Her mom or grandmother both did not work outside the home, and her father and grandfather were seen as the family “breadwinners”. Men were supposed to take care of the family financially, and the women were supposed to be at home and take care of the children and the domestic duties. She said that this was just the way things were for all families both black and white. She said that it was shunned upon for woman not to be in the home taking care of the children , and her family was in agreement that the father should be out in the workforce.
While growing up, Gloria never was a student in an integrated school system. She went to a black public high school in Athens, and then went to college at Savannah State where she got her degree. Her grandfather worked for The University of Georgia System where he earned 17 to 18 dollars per week to help support her dream to get a college education. One of the main reasons she feels that women, especially black women, had fewer opportunities for employment was because of lack of education. Many black women simply could not afford a college education which caused women to be held in minimal jobs. She recalled that most professional job for black woman at this time was a teacher, but to be a maid or cook was much more common. She explains that she as well as many of her friends wished women could break out of the traditional roles for women but financially it just wasn’t an option especially for black females.
Also, she explains that there were more jobs available for women at this time, but they were for “white” women only because of the fact that white woman usually had more education. Segregation also played a large role in the minimal job opportunities for black women. Employment, or lack thereof was just one of the ways in which African Americans were being segregated at this time. She also recalled going to movie theaters , and that black people could only sit in the balcony section and white people got to sit in the main theater. She also remembered restaurants being very racist, and still encounters some racism to this day. After reflecting upon some of her memories, she attributes ignorance as the reason fort the racist feelings because they are ingrained in people’s minds, and it is hard for people to change because change comes from the heart.
Next, I asked Gloria about the reaction of women when the Feminine Mystique was popular. She said that the main feelings she remembered women having in response to that was that men and woman weren’t getting the same pay for doing the same jobs. She said that at that time the feeling was that the Feminine Mystique was geared more toward white women which she thought was ironic because it was written for the feminist
movement, and black women were women too!
During the 1950’s is when Gloria entered the workforce as an elementary school teacher here in Clark County, and the school’s were not integrated yet. She taught for several years until the schools became integrated, and she was sent to teach at the “white” school. She described the experience of being in the integrated setting as hard. She remembered how the black teachers always felt as if they had to prove themselves as being just as good teachers as the whites. The black teachers weren’t expected to be able to do the same caliber work as whites, so this was a constant struggle. She did say that for the most part people were accepting of her, and that the transition went smoothly, but there were always the few people who were resistant to change just as there is today. Gloria taught for over 32 years.
She described the period in the 1960’s-1970’s, also known as the second wave of feminism, as a time that things started to get better for women in general. More women were getting out into the workforce at this time which was providing more money for families. She remembered women starting to be more independent during this time, and that some women were starting to make more money than men. Ladies were doing things on their own for once, and not bound and dependent upon the husband. She remembers this time as a great time in our history because or once women were free to be who they wanted, or so it seemed at the time.
Although Gloria doesn’t identify as a feminist, she does hold many ideals and values of a feminist. She strongly believes that women should have the right to be in the workforce if they want to work or stay at home if that is what they choose. She strongly believes that all people should be treated as equal because we are all equal and skin color shouldn’t change that although at time it does.
One of the main reasons that Gloria said she doesn’t identify as a feminist is because she believes that under no circumstance is abortion right. She talked about when she was younger and that abortion was shunned, very controversial and “hush-hush” as she put it. She said that back in the day when she was growing up everyone thought that abortion was wrong. Then she said as time went on more people were beginning to accept it, especially after Roe v. Wade, but that the older generation, which was her generation, still thought it to be morally and utterly wrong. This new generation that came along during the 1970’s felt that women should do what was right for themselves, and Gloria strongly disagreed with that. She said that now, people think they can do whatever they want, and that we live in a “me” centered generation as opposed to a “we” generation back when she was young. She tells of how family used to be at the number one of importance and now it’s self.
Women in history had a hard time in general and were treated unfairly simply because they were not men. Adding in other factors such as class, race and sexual identity only makes this bind of oppression even tighter for those which are affected by them. It is easy for me to sit and say that I believe everyone should have equal rights, but I am a white female with privilege at my fingertips. I enjoyed the opportunity I had to speak with Gloria because she gave me a picture of life that was previously unknown to me. It is hard to get a grip on reality just reading about stories in a book or in a magazine, but when you sit face to face and hear about the obstacles and awful things people went through, it makes you have a better perspective on life. It also makes you realize that our society needs to be open. Open to change, open to awareness, open to free choice, and open to accept people for who they are and not what color they are, how much money they have, or what sex organs they were born with.