A “Complex” Portrait?

According to The Washington Post, “a complex portrait” of Black women emerged from a recent nationwide survey the paper conducted with the Kaiser Family Foundation. Researchers polled 808 Black women on a range of issues by telephone between Oct. 6 and Nov. 2 last year. The findings “reflect the conversations Black women are having among themselves,” Post reporter Krissah Thompson wrote when the results were published on Jan. 23. The results have a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points. Error margins are five points for African-American women and 5.5 points for white women. The listing below shows only some of the responses from the survey.


ISSUE: BLACK WOMEN / WHITE WOMEN   
Very satisfied with your life as a whole these days: 51% / 50%   
Being successful in a career is very important?: 68% / 45%   
Having enough free time to do things you want to do is very important: 62% / 55%   
Being married is very important:
40% / 55%   
Living a religious life is very important: 74% / 57%   
Having children is very important:
62% / 75%   
Being wealthy is very important: 22% / 5%   
Being respected by others is very
important: 76% / 74%   
Being in a good romantic relationship is very important: 44% / 52%   
Being close with your family is very important: 92% / 93%   
Living a healthy lifestyle is very important: 90% / 78%   
Being physically attractive is very important: 28% / 11%   
Strongly agree that you see yourself as someone who has high self-esteem:
67% / 43%   
Frequently experience stress in your daily life: 40% / 51%   
Very worried about losing your job:
22% / 14%   
Very worried about not having enough money to pay your bills: 38% / 29%   
Very worried about not getting the health care you need: 37% / 31%   
Very worried about you or a family member getting HIV or AIDS: 19% / 2%   
Very worried about being a victim of a
violent crime: 21% / 9%   
Very worried about being a victim of discrimination of any kind: 22% / 5%   
Very worried about providing a good education for your children: 39% / 26%   
Very worried about having responsibility for an aging family member: 21% / 23%   
Getting a good education and working hard matters more than coming from money and knowing the right people:
78% / 81%
Very worried about you or a family member suffering from a chronic illness:
32% / 29%       
Having a child without being married is strongly acceptable: 23% / 26%   
White men in this country are doing very well: 55% / 35%   
Black men in this country are doing very well: 8% / 9%   
White women in this country are doing very well: 38% / 19%   
Black women in this country are doing very well: 15% / 10%   
Considering everything, it is a good
time to be a Black woman in America: 73% / 71%   
Identify more with being a woman than being Black/white: 60% / 90%   
Dated someone of a different race:
50% / 40%   
Willing to marry someone of another race: 67% / 62%   
Very often treated with less respect than other people: 7% / 3%   
Very often receive poorer service than other people at restaurants or stores: 4% / 2%   
People very often act as if they think you are not smart: 7% / 4%   
People very often ignore or overlook you: 6% / 3%   
The (above four) things happen mainly because of your race: 39% / 3%   
They happen mainly because of your
gender: 6% / 30%   
America’s economic system is stacked against Blacks: 46% / 27%   
Racism in our society today is a big problem: 50% / 20%   
Sexism in our society today is a big problem: 36%     / 18%