Dessa Rose: Females

Althouh the book heavily focuses on race, there are also issues on gender. The gender talked about in this novel does not discriminate based on race. Towards the end of the book, both Dessa and her Mistress start to realize they both have in common with each other because of their sex. There was the scene where the two women shared a room at Oscar's home while traveling. While there, Oscar tries to force himself upon the Mistress, showing Odessa that white women are subject to the same mistreat from men as she is and the rest of the female slaves (Williams).
I was glad to see that the novel touched on this issue on top of the obvious race issues that arose as well. It is true that through history women as a whole have been supressed due to the "power" of men. In this way both of the characters in the novel had something that they both could relate to without even realizing it. This could be saide even today. Now that slavery has been abolished, African American women and women of all other ethnicities in the United States, can say that they all have struggled for equal rights with men. Although this struggle was easier for white women, it was a struggle regardless, and a part of history that any woman can appreciate.