From the Editors

Black girls and young women in the United States face many challenges. Among other harsh realities, they experience disproportionate rates unemployment, poor academic performance, adolescent motherhood, violence, and incarceration. Their daily lives are complicated not only by race, gender, and class but also by the negative images of black women that have historically been pervasive in American popular culture. These trends are not expected to change in the near future. Nonetheless, these girls and youth—their grown, development, and life chances—have received relatively little attention from researchers, pundits, or policymakers.

Hence the publication of this issue of Black Women, Gender, and Families (BWGF). It is the first of two special issues emphasizing the challenges of black girlhood and young womanhood. BWGF and guest editors Denise Davis-Maye (Auburn University), Felicia Moore Mensah (Teachers College, Columbia University), and Dannielle Joy Davis (University of Texas at Arlington) sought to bring together emerging and established scholars writing on the subject of black girls and young women in the United States in order to draw attention to their experiences. The contributors to this series offer varied theoretical and empirical approaches to understanding the lives of this population. The editors hope that solutions to the challenges that confront this population will be uncovered through this research.

Overall, Part I of "The Challenges of Black Girlhood and Young Womanhood" explores relationships, violence, culture, and the meaning of these variables for black girls and young women in the United States. In "Romantic and Familial Relationships with Black Males: Implications of the Cinderella Complex and Prince Charming Ideal," author Sandra L. Barnes examines how race, class, and space impact romantic relationships with black males. Her work compares the experiences of black women with that of both Hispanic and white women and the meaning of their "ideals" about relationships. Overall, Barnes finds that the "Cinderella Complex" and "Prince Charming Ideal" are much more than mere fantasy to the women in her study. Black girls and young women are constantly moving through the life cycle. Intimate relationships sometimes lead to the birth of children and a new phase of womanhood. However, as author Mae C. Henderson finds in "Pathways to Fracture: African American Mothers and the Complexities of Maternal Absence," motherhood is not always easy or a welcome experience for women. In this study, Henderson focuses on the challenges young women and those of varied ages face as they transition to motherhood and make decisions to parent or not. Next, Catherine Packer-Williams discusses the messages that educated African American women receive from their mothers about being single and about attitudes toward men, women, and relationships, and how these dual messages are often conflicting regarding gender roles and marriage. Packer-Williams argues that much can be gained from using narrative approaches and listening to stories that reveal the psychology of African American women and their identity as women.

In this issue we are also challenged to think about domestic conceptions of how young girls and women deal with images and messages from the media. For instance, J. Celeste Walley-Jean challenges notions of the "angry black woman" from investigating interpersonal aggression among African American college-age (18 to 28–year-old) females. The study suggests that the negative images and stereotypes that African Americans are accused of reinforcing are indeed contrary to internally-held perceptions of self. Nonetheless, the stereotype of the angry black woman has strong implications for how young African American women are perceived and treated by society.

Having supportive communities for both young girls and women is critical to their ability to make sense of the world and of their experiences. Using a womanist perspective to explore the historical and cultural traditions of care-giving among African American women, Rhonda Wells-Wilbon and Gaynell Marie Simpson poignantly argue for a paradigm shift in the ways in which women empower themselves to seek, ask, and receive support in taking care of family, friends, others, and self. They also elicit ways to engage men, community resources, and other in care-giving such that care-givers, who are...