Ain’t I A Woman? Part I

Gender is the most powerful determinant of how a person views the world and everything in it.  It’s more powerful than age, income, race or geography. – excerpt from Why She Buys: The New Strategy for Reaching the World’s Most Powerful Consumers by Bridget Brennan

When I was in college studying to be a secondary education teacher, I took a class called “Culture and Schooling.”  This was one of the most interesting courses I took in college.  It’s a class that I took over 9 years ago and I still remember it.   It’s my opinion it should have been required for every student at that University.

The purpose of the course was to teach us how culture affects every student in our classrooms.   One of the requirements of the class was to right an autobiography.  In the autobiography we were to explore how our race, our gender, our religious beliefs, our family environment, our neighborhoods, and anything else we could think of influenced our school experience.

I don’t remember what I wrote.  But what I do remember are the great discussions we had in class.  The teacher who made the assignment shared a great deal with us about how her culture and her schooling sometimes collided.  In that class I learned the real meaning of words like assimilation, conditioning and culture.   In that class I also learned we are assimilated into our group through the culture of that group.  The culture of a group teaches you what is acceptable and what is not.

Until about the age of 22, I would say the strongest determinant of how I viewed the world was race not gender.  Race was always on my mind.  In elementary, junior high and high school I attended schools where black kids were the minority.   As a result,  for college I decided to attend an HBCU (historically black college/university).    After 3 years at that school,  I got married and moved to Arizona.   (My husband and I had both done college internships together in Arizona.  When he was offered a position after graduation, it was natural for us to move there.)  Well,  I don’t know how much you know about Arizona, but there are no HBCUs here, which didn’t bother me, but it was a very different experience.

I went from a school where black culture was the norm, where I was apart of the majority, to a school where I was the only black student in ALL my classes.   Being a southern girl didn’t help either, because that’s a completely different culture (and a completely different post).  I spent a lot of time trying to compensate for my southern accent (which is not as distinct as it used to be).    I tried to look past the cultural differences, but it was a challenge, I must admit.  Over the years, I’ve grown to the point where I am not nearly as sensitive about this as I used to be.

Now back to Bridget’s statement.  I’ve come back to it over and over again.  Is it really true?  Is gender really the most powerful determinant of how people view the world?  I don’t know if I agree with it or not.   I feel my viewpoint now, as a Christian, has a greater impact on how I view the world than the fact that I’m a woman.   Maybe I’m wrong, I just know that  I’m not convinced, yet.    I’m interested to know what you think.  Has your gender influenced you more than your race, your income status, your religious beliefs, or your geography?  What examples do you have from your own life or someone else’s life to support your belief?

We will continue talking about this book  this week.  Please, check back tomorrow, as we discuss more points from the book and how it can be used to brainstorm business ideas or to help you grow your business.