Black women have been told they are strong, and to be strong, for generations.

It can sound like praise: Strong to endure racism and misogynoir. Strong enough to hold families together. Strong enough to excel at work. Strong enough to care for others while managing their own struggles. Strong enough to keep going.

But what happens when “strong” stops being a label and becomes a behavioral expectation that can influence when a woman rests, asks for help, expresses pain, or seeks medical care?

According to Jade Singleton, cultural narratives can become something more consequential than the stories people tell about themselves. They can become scripts people repeatedly perform.

During the “Bad Nerves,” webinar hosted by Singleton, she described narratives as “expectations that can be absorbed, practiced, and reinforced until they shape behavior.”

Consider the familiar strong Black woman narrative. Research determined that the more depression or anxiety a Black woman experiences, the more strongly her adoption of the strong Black woman stereotype can be associated with changing how she presents herself to others or engages in identity shifting.

“Being perceived as strong may sound positive, but the behavior attached to that identity can look like delaying asking for help because needing assistance conflicts with what being “strong” is supposed to mean,” Singleton said.  

The same pattern can also appear in other, seemingly positive cultural messages: Be excellent. Be capable. Be the person everyone can depend on. Prove people wrong.

I’m not your superwoman

Singleton said that those narratives can translate into behaviors such as overworking, suppressing vulnerability, constantly explaining oneself, and sacrificing rest to care for others.

“When I left my last job, I was physically and emotionally exhausted. I endured so much stress that I did not recognize myself. After the shock of being downsized wore off, I actually found myself feeling relieved, and started my healing work from continuously overworking and over performing,” she said.

And research suggests those patterns can matter for health.

In 2010, University of North Carolina researcher and nursing scholar Cheryl Woods-Giscombé developed the “Superwoman Schema.” It’s a framework that identifies five characteristics: an obligation to present an image of strength; suppress emotions; resist vulnerability; help others; and succeed despite limited or absent resources. 

In Woods-Giscombe’s research, women described both benefits and costs of being “superwomen,” including adopting stress-related health behaviors and the embodiment of stress.

So-called “superwomen” also prioritize caregiving over their care needs, according to the framework.

That characteristic resonates with Jalissa Payne, a divorced mom of a teen daughter in Memphis, Tenn.

“My friends call me a ‘superwoman’ all the time. I am definitely juggling a lot, and I don’t have the option to stop because people depend on me. My dad is in his 80s, and since I’m an only child I have to make time to check on him. That’s a non-negotiable,” Payne said.

“And my daughter has autism, and that requires a lot of my attention. And I have to work and perform well on my job so that we have everything we need,” said Payne, who works a part-time job in addition to her full-time role.

Obliged to stand strong

More recent research has connected those cultural coping patterns to measurable health indicators.

A study of 208 Black women found that feeling obligated to present an image of strength and feeling obligated to help others were associated with higher odds of hypertension.

But the findings were not uniform. An intense motivation to succeed was associated with lower odds of hypertension, illustrating that culturally shaped coping strategies can be both protective and harmful depending on the person’s behavior and context.

Another study examined Superwoman Schema alongside racial discrimination and allostatic load, a measure of cumulative wear across the body’s biological systems. And researchers found that different dimensions of the schema altered the relationship between racial discrimination and biological stress in different ways, with some appearing protective, and others intensifying risk.

That nuance suggests that strength isn’t a disease and that health consequences may depend on the type of strength a Black woman is displaying and the type of stressor she is managing. However, being strong becomes problematic when doing so becomes the expectation rather than a choice.

Public health researcher Arline Geronimus’ “weathering” framework provides another piece of the puzzle.

Geronimus and her colleagues examined allostatic load and found that Black adults had higher levels than White adults across age groups. Poor Black women had the highest probability of elevated allostatic load, followed by nonpoor Black women, suggesting that income alone did not account for the disparity. They also found that repeated exposure to social and economic adversity and marginalization can contribute to earlier health deterioration.

Singleton said her grandmother used the phrase, “my nerves are bad,” and she now wonders whether earlier generations were describing, in their own cultural language, something medicine today might discuss through the vocabulary of stress and central nervous-system regulation.

Generations of Black women have demonstrated that they are strong. So, perhaps the question is what that strength has required of their bodies—and what might become possible if strength no longer meant enduring without relief, caring for everyone else first, or carrying what should never have been theirs to carry alone.

Resources for Black women seeking culturally responsive care

Therapy for Black Girls offers a directory of mental health professionals as well as information and resources focused on the mental wellness of Black women and girls.

Black Emotional and Mental Health Collective (BEAM) provides Black-centered wellness tools, peer-support resources and a virtual directory of wellness practitioners.

Black Mental Health Alliance provides culturally relevant mental health education, resources and referrals to licensed mental health professionals.

988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline: Anyone experiencing emotional distress or a mental health crisis can call or text 988 or use the 988 Lifeline’s online chat for free, confidential, 24-hour support.

IKONI Collective is a  nonprofit hub for Black women’s work and well-being, and offers shared resources, community events and a planned wellness cohort combining narrative strategy, somatic practice and naturopathic guidance.  

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