Courtesy of the African Immigrant Folklife Project, Smithsonian Institution

Harold Dorwin

The number of women among the immigrants is increasing. About 38 percent in 1990, they now represent 42 percent of the African community. More than 43 percent are between the ages of twenty-five and forty-four. Although most have migrated with their husbands, more and more are coming on their own. Whether single or married, women experience changes. They no longer have the support system of female relatives to facilitate their life, and some complain of feeling isolated. Many women assume roles they would not have had in Africa: they financially support their extended families, a responsibility that normally would fall to their brothers.