ABSTRACT
The social construction of race is dependent on gender categorization and the social construction of gender is dependent on racial categorizations. The process of using race to defi ne gender and vice versa has a long-standing history. White (2001: 20) argues that “nineteenth-century scientists often used race to explain gender and gender to explain race.” The result is the segregation of groups of individuals based on their race and gender; where some groups are portrayed as dominant and “normal” and others as subordinate and “other.” Although the conceptualizations of dominant and subordinate are based on social constructions, the consequences are real and determine the power relations both between and within groups. In an effort to maintain these power relations and structures, cultural myths and symbols⎯which are often based on stereotypes⎯are employed. The objective of employing cultural symbols in policy discourse is “not to refl ect or represent a reality but to function as a disguise, or mystifi cation, of objective social relations” (Carby 1987: 22). As such, cultural symbols of black womanhood serve to mask and normalize the inequitable position of black women.
