How The Strong Black Woman

Schema Harms Disabled Black

Women
6 months ago

Throughout history, society has imposed

several controlling images onto Black women to
justify their oppression, including the Jezebel,
the matriarch, and the welfare queen. While many
of these controlling images clearly perpetuate
negative characterizations of Black womanhood,
others purport to depict Black women positively
despite their oppressive realities. The strong
Black woman is one such trope, as
sociologist Patricia Hill Collins describes in her
book Black Sexual Politics:

The depiction of Black women as tireless

workers, both in the paid labor market and
the unpaid reproductive labor of the family,
reinforces views of African American women
as the Strong Black Woman (SBW). As one of
the few positive images used to describe
Black femininity, the valorization of women’s
strength in African American communities
makes it difficult for Black women to reject
exploitative work and simply walk away from
responsibility, especially from their families.
– Collins (2004:205)

To date, several Black feminist scholars have

examined the ways the characterization of Black
women as strong “superwomen” has negatively
affected the mental and physical health of Black
women. Beyond that, the expectation that Black
women demonstrate strength and resilience
harms those who can’t conform to this
controlling image. In a 2018 study published
in Gender & Society, women’s studies
scholar Angel Love Miles asserts that the strong
Black woman schema affects the self-concept of
disabled Black women in complicated ways.

The Ableism of the Strong Black

Woman Controlling Image

According to Miles, the strong Black woman

controlling image assumes that Black women
possess endless amounts of selflessness,
nurturance, resilience, willpower, and
independence.

via GIPHY

Rooted in the exploitation of Black women as

unpaid slaves and underpaid service workers,
Black women’s characterization as strong also
reinforces the notion that white women,
particularly those who do not work outside the
home, embody the ideal wife and mother. Miles
argues that besides the racism of these
beliefs, ableism also shapes this controlling
image due to its emphasis on independence and
caregiving rather than values of self-care and
interdependence. Disabled Black women get
treated as incapable of taking on this gender role
due to the barriers they face as economic and
domestic providers.

The Feminist Intersectionality

Disability Framework

In the Gender & Society piece, Miles sets forth a

feminist intersectionality disability framework to
examine the relationship among the strong Black
woman schema, care work, and the self-concept
of disabled Black women.

Miles developed this framework due to the

limitations of disability studies as a lens for the
experiences of women of color and
intersectionality as a paradigm for adult women
with disabilities. This framework includes several
assumptions:

1. Disability is an unequal and inequitable

social construct.
2. Intersectionality differentiates the life
outcomes of disabled people.
3. The result of intersectionality for disabled
women of color leads to lived experiences
characterized by multiple jeopardy.
4. Our understanding of structural inequality
often ignores ableism.

How Disabled Black Women

Experience Care Work

Through interviews and survey responses, Miles

identified how the ableism of the strong Black
woman controlling image relates to how they
experience care work, which Miles defines as
the labor people do for their health care or the
health care of others.

The women Miles spoke to felt society forced

them to adopt the traits of the strong Black
women. Fearing that others would see them as a
burden, they sought to rely only on themselves
and provide for others. However, this strategy
came with costs associated with care work that
prevented them from purchasing their own
homes or experiencing economic advancement
in their careers.

This experience of economic disadvantage

meant that they had fewer resources to engage
in self-care. Besides the financial constraints,
these women felt service providers and other
community members questioned their
competency and ability to act independently.
These attitudes contributed to their fear of
discrimination in the home buying process, so
they developed advocacy strategies to facilitate
their needs.

How The Strong Black Woman

Schema Affects Disabled Black
Women

Miles argues that the internalization of the strong

Black woman schema has a detrimental effect on
the well-being of disabled Black women because
the controlling image emphasizes independence
and not seeking help. Beyond that, disability
policies and communities of support tend to have
white people, particularly men, in mind and
therefore fail to assist Black women seeking care
adequately.

To resolve these issues, Miles calls for

community building, empowerment, affirmation,
and social exchange geared specifically toward
Black women to provide the resources to resist
and cope with oppression.

Miles, Angel Love. 2018. ““Strong Black Women”:

African American Women with Disabilities,
Intersecting Identities, and Inequality.” Gender &
Society 33(1):41-63. doi:
10.1177/0891243218814820.
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