"A Woman's Place": The Attitudes of Middle-Class Black Men

Abstract

IN A RECENT DECADE REVIEW of family-related sex role research, Scanzoni and Fox caution that if this specialty is to avoid becoming a 1970s fad, or simply another chapter in family textbooks, it must be placed within the context of a theoretical model which explicates its sociological significance.1 If this is accomplished, they feel that sex role preferences may prove to be as significant a concept for family research as are class and race. It is not surprising that these authors, and others before them, have observed the parallels between these three key dimensions of social stratification. The theoretical linkages are obvious. Race, class, and gender are the principal variables affecting the structure and dynamics of American society. They determine (1) peoples' relative location within the social structure, (2) their social identity and what attitudes and behavior are deemed appropriate for them because of their relative position, and (3) ultimately, the nature and quality of their interactions and relationships with persons of various race, class and gender statuses.2 According to Franklin and Walum, an analysis of race and gender can facilitate the development of an effective paradigm of substructural relations in American society.3 Such a paradigm can help delineate the nature of relationships across race and/or gender categories. For example, this could involve: white males and white females, white males and black males, white males and black females; white females and black females, white females and black males; or as will be the focus of the present analysis, attitudes affecting the relationship between black males and black females.