Abstract
The purpose of this research study was to describe the lived experiences of seven African American women professors as they navigated the path to leadership positions in higher education. In this chapter, the authors described the lived experiences of seven African American women professors in the academy. Specifically, the African American women professors described in their own words supports and barriers they faced as they navigated their paths toward tenure, promotion, and leadership positions in the academy. A phenomenological research design was employed to capture the essence of the participants' stories and to fully understand their common experiences. The findings indicate that African American women professors experience the same microaggressions that they experienced more than 50 years ago.
TopTheoretical Framework
This study used feminist and socio-cultural theories to contextualize the epistemic worldview of a group of persons who have experienced racism, discrimination, and marginalization (Bernal, 2002). These theories contest the prevailing discourses inside marginalizing and emancipating institutions and processes (Bernal, 2002; Hooks, 1984; Parker, 2005).
Key Terms in this Chapter
Stereotypes: A widely held but fixed and oversimplified image or idea of a particular type of person or thing.
Racism: A belief that race is a fundamental determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race.
Oppression: Any unjust occurrence in which one group denies another group access to resources or opportunities intentionally or through systems put in place. The members of the group denied access to opportunity are usually a part of the minority or considered to be a part of an inferior race, class, gender, sexuality, nation, age, or ethnicity.
Mid-Level Administrators: Those working at colleges or universities having the title Assistant Director, Associate Director, Director, Assistant Dean, Associate Dean, or Dean.
Organizational Structure: The organization's vertical and horizontal operations.
Socio-Cultural Theory: Refers to theoretical perspectives that consider race, gender, and social class in analyzing power dynamics within bureaucratic and other systems where power can be used to oppress.
Academia: The environment or community concerned with the pursuit of research, education, and scholarship.
Intersectionality: The oppression associated with overlapping of aspects of women’s social identities, including but not limited to class, gender, and race. The two forms of intersectionality most commonly referenced are political and structural. Political intersectionality refers to how an individual can belong to multiple social groups, each possessing its own political agenda; those at the intersection of the social groups can feel torn or as if they do not have a voice. Structural Intersectionality refers to the intersection of multiple social systems that inform the experiences and sometimes unintentionally oppresses certain groups of individuals.
Higher Education Institutions: Include not only universities and colleges but also various professional schools that provide preparation in such fields as law, theology, medicine, business, music, and art. Higher education also includes teacher-training schools, junior colleges, and institutes of technology.
Black Feminist Theory: Black feminist theory affords African American women the ability to share their experiences and viewpoints from a perspective unheard of among other women.
Inequalities: The quality of being unequal or uneven: such as a. social disparity, b. disparity of distribution or opportunity, c. lack of evenness, d. the condition of being variable, e. changeableness.
Women: Individuals identifying as female biologically, socially, or culturally, regardless of sex at birth.
Race: Physical attributes, including but not limited to skin color, eye color, facial features, hair texture, and bone structure.
Glass Ceiling: An unofficially acknowledged barrier to advancement in a profession, especially affecting women and members of minorities.
Gender: Category to which an individual self-identifies with regards to sex, that is, male or female.
Stand Point Theory: For African American women, standpoint theory places less emphasis on individual experiences within socially constructed groups and more emphasis on the social conditions that create such groups. Individually, standpoint theory denies the existence of sexism and racism, but collectively, it implies that these issues will be encountered by the group.
Women’s Leadership Behaviors: Specific behaviors given to female leaders are interdependence, cooperation, receptivity, merging, acceptance, and pattern recognition.
Professional Identities: Highest degree attained, job title, position, leadership roles and responsibilities, and research interests.
African American Women Professors: Women of color who identify as Black, African American, African, Caribbean, or mixed race identifying as Black. The term may be used interchangeably with Black female/woman/women.
Phenomenological Research Design: A qualitative research methodology that enables researchers to study participants' real experiences without making assumptions and depends, instead on the participants' responses.
Personal/Social Identities: These terms will be used interchangeably throughout the study and reference age, ethnicity, culture, race, gender, marital status, sexual identity, social status, and maternal status.
Synergistic Leadership Theory: A comprehensive examination of leadership from men’s and women’s lens but incorporates both as a generalization of how it affects equity of the leadership roles in females and males in the workforce and is gender specific.
Academy: In the United States often denotes pre-college education (High School) but not necessarily. More generic term for school or educational institution.
Microaggressions: Subtle verbal or non-verbal, direct, or indirect insults that usually target persons of a marginalized race, ethnicity, gender, age, sexual identity, or culture.
Feminist Theory: Feminist theories focus on the oppression of women and aim to understand the nature of gender inequality.
External Influences: External influences that can have an impact on educational institutions are numerous and can include: “(a) perceptions or expectations of supervisors or colleagues; (b) local, state, and national laws and regulations; (c) technological advances; (d) political climate; (e) economic situations; (f) resources, (g) special interest groups; (h) culture of the community, (i) taxpayers, and (j) location.
Class: A group of people within a society who possess the same socioeconomic status. Besides being important in social theory, the concept of class as a collection of individuals sharing similar economic circumstances has been widely used in censuses and in studies of social mobility.
Attitudes, Beliefs, and Values: An individual or group will either adhere to or disavow specific attitudes, beliefs, or values at any given point in time.