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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences
Black Women's Desire For Love And Connection: What Is Ref Debt?, Joyice Robinson Myers
Black Women's Desire For Love And Connection: What Is Ref Debt?, Joyice Robinson Myers
Education Graduate Presentations
This developing study explores the dating experiences of millennial Black women with Black men, aiming to understand their perspectives and the challenges they face in forming romantic relationships. Drawing on data from eight unstructured interviews with cisgender, heterosexual Black women, this research identifies key themes related to intimacy, emotional well-being, and financial contributions within relationships. The concept of Relational, Emotional, & Financial (REF) Debt is examined, highlighting how historical and systemic factors continue to impact dating and forming Black relationships. Initial findings reveal that Black women navigate dating with concerns about relationship quality and emotional depth, influenced by systemic racism …
The Experiences Of Black Women Senior Student Affairs Officers: A Multiple-Case Study, Tamekka L. Cornelius Ph.D, Donald Mitchell Jr., Ph.D.
The Experiences Of Black Women Senior Student Affairs Officers: A Multiple-Case Study, Tamekka L. Cornelius Ph.D, Donald Mitchell Jr., Ph.D.
Executives, Administrators, & Staff Publications
Within this multiple-case study, we explored the experiences of Black women in senior student affairs officer (SSAO) positions at four-year historically white institutions (HWIs) and Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) in the United States. We used Black feminist thought and representational bureaucracy to theoretically frame the study. Participants included SSAOs representing three HWIs and two HBCUs. Four central themes—often expressed within experiences of marginalization—emerged across the cases: 1) I Have a Right to Be Here; 2) Creating Networks; 3) No Straight Line to the Top; and 4) I’m Thinking about the Black Girls Coming Behind Me. We conclude the …
How Racial Trauma Manifests In Black Women From Direct And Indirect Encounters With Police Brutality, Ashley Turner
How Racial Trauma Manifests In Black Women From Direct And Indirect Encounters With Police Brutality, Ashley Turner
Antioch University Dissertations & Theses
This phenomenological study explored Black women’s lived experiences with racial trauma stemming from direct and indirect encounters with police brutality. A total of nine participants living in Washington state participated in this study. They identified as Black, ciswomen, fluent in English, and at least 21-years-old. In-depth, semi-structured, qualitative interviews were conducted to explore participants’ experiences with police. Transcripts were analyzed using interpretative phenomenological analysis. The results consisted of the following five themes: (a) forms of police encounters, (b) influence of identity, (c) perceived reason for police brutality, (d) emotions stemming from police brutality, and (e) tactics to survive police interactions. …
Black Women Students In The Ivory Tower: A Case Study Of The College Of The Holy Cross, Meah S. Austin
Black Women Students In The Ivory Tower: A Case Study Of The College Of The Holy Cross, Meah S. Austin
Psychology Department Student Scholarship
No abstract provided.
Exploring The Career Advancement Experience Of Black Women On Their Journey To Executive Levels In Large American Corporations, Pamela J. Viscione
Exploring The Career Advancement Experience Of Black Women On Their Journey To Executive Levels In Large American Corporations, Pamela J. Viscione
Antioch University Dissertations & Theses
Corporations began hiring Black people into management positions in the 1960s and 1970s following the passage of the Civil Rights Act (1964) which made it unlawful to discriminate in hiring based on race, gender, religion, or country of origin. Black men were the first to benefit from this change in the law and Black women began to appear in entry level management roles in the 1980s. Forty years later, there have only been four Black women CEOs in the history of the Fortune 1000, the largest American companies based on reported revenues. This level of representation is closer to zero …
Explaining Reproductive Health Disparities: Violence In The “Colorblind” Institution Of Medicine, Chineze Osakwe
Explaining Reproductive Health Disparities: Violence In The “Colorblind” Institution Of Medicine, Chineze Osakwe
Honors Scholar Theses
Medical policies have resulted in violence that has a formal role in regulating the reproductive rights of women of African descent in the United States from the Jim Crow era (circa 1965) to present day (2021), resulting in significantly racialized reproductive health disparities regardless of social or economic influences. This thesis explores why reproductive violence against African-American women persists, regardless of women’s own class and educational background. I have focused on the potential impact of two structural components that I hypothesized contributed to the perpetuation of reproductive violence against Black women and persistent health disparities. The two factors explored in …
Womanists Leading White People In Intergroup Dialogue To End Anti-Black Racism: An Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis, Tawana Angela Davis
Womanists Leading White People In Intergroup Dialogue To End Anti-Black Racism: An Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis, Tawana Angela Davis
Antioch University Dissertations & Theses
Womanism is a term curated by Alice Walker (2004) that centers Black women’s lived experiences, past and present, encouraging Black women to no longer look to others for their liberation (Floyd-Thomas, 2006). Soul 2 Soul Sister’s Facing Racism program is facilitated by Womanist instructors, who work with groups of mostly white people to address anti-Black racism. This qualitative study explored the experiences of white participants who took part in this program, Facing Racism, which holds Womanism as its central guiding principle. Although pre- and post-surveys were routinely conducted over the years about participants’ experiences with Facing Racism, this study sought …
Heavy Is The Head That Wears The Crown: Black Men’S Perspective On Harmful Effects Of Hair Product Use And Breast Cancer Risk, Dede K. Teteh, Marissa Chan, Bing Turner, Brian Hedgeman, Marissa Ericson, Phyllis Clark, Eudora Mitchell, Emily Barrett, Adana Llanos, Rick Kittles, Susanne Montgomery
Heavy Is The Head That Wears The Crown: Black Men’S Perspective On Harmful Effects Of Hair Product Use And Breast Cancer Risk, Dede K. Teteh, Marissa Chan, Bing Turner, Brian Hedgeman, Marissa Ericson, Phyllis Clark, Eudora Mitchell, Emily Barrett, Adana Llanos, Rick Kittles, Susanne Montgomery
Health Sciences and Kinesiology Faculty Articles
Racial disparities in breast cancer are well-documented, and Black women assume a disproportionate burden of breast cancer mortality. Black women also commonly use hair products containing endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) more often at an increased rate, as compared to other racial/ethnic groups. Emerging findings have reported the use of hair and other personal care products containing EDCs may contribute to breast cancer risk. While some sociocultural perspectives about hair and identity have been explored, the role of beauty expectations upheld by males has not been studied. Through a community-based participatory methodology, we explored perceptions and beliefs held by Black men …
The Imposition Of White Beauty Standards On Black Women, Sabrina E. Robinette
The Imposition Of White Beauty Standards On Black Women, Sabrina E. Robinette
Student Publications
This paper explores the impact of racist beauty ideals on black women through a survey of personal testimonies and an examination of media’s role in perpetrating white beauty. Without sufficient black representation in media, Western beauty standards have excluded black women from defining beauty, which inflicts psychological, physical, and even economic harm on women of color. Companies make profits off of black women’s insecurity from products such as skin lightening cream, chemical straighteners, and hair dye, all of which are an economic burden on black women at best and are life-threatening at worst. Often, black women are forced to turn …
Black Women’S Wellbeing: The Intersections Of Race, Immigrant Status, And Mental Health Among African Diasporan Women In Houston, Texas, Sianneh Vesslee
Black Women’S Wellbeing: The Intersections Of Race, Immigrant Status, And Mental Health Among African Diasporan Women In Houston, Texas, Sianneh Vesslee
African American and Africana Studies Summer Fellows
My central research question is: how has white supremacy impacted African Diaspora women’s mental health, access to mental healthcare, and identities as mental health patients in the United States as discernible in advertisements and state policies for psychological wellness? More specifically, I will investigate whether and/or how white supremacy shapes the ways in which advertising and state policies for mental healthcare address the particular needs of black women who immigrate to Houston, Texas from Lagos, Nigeria and Coahuila, Mexico. I choose those geographies because Houston is a U.S. city with one of the highest populations of black immigrants from Nigeria …
Material Girls: Consumption And The Making Of Middle Class Identity In The Experiences Of Black Single Mothers In The Washington, Dc Metropolitan Area, Aysha L. Preston Ph.D.
Material Girls: Consumption And The Making Of Middle Class Identity In The Experiences Of Black Single Mothers In The Washington, Dc Metropolitan Area, Aysha L. Preston Ph.D.
FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations
This dissertation explores the ways in which black single mothers in the Washington, DC metropolitan area use material goods and consumption practices to inform their identities as members of the middle class. Black middle class women are challenging stereotypes surrounding single mother households, the idea of family, and class status in the United States, as more women overall are having children while single, delaying or deciding against marriage, and are entering the middle and upper-middle classes as a result of advanced education and career opportunities. Because of these demographic and sociocultural shifts, the romanticized “nuclear family” which consists of a …
Jewish Women’S Transracial Epistemological Networks: Representations Of Black Women In The African Diaspora, 1930-1980, Abby S. Gondek
Jewish Women’S Transracial Epistemological Networks: Representations Of Black Women In The African Diaspora, 1930-1980, Abby S. Gondek
FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations
This dissertation investigates how Jewish women social scientists relationally established their gendered-racialized subjectivities and theories about race-gender-sexuality-class through their portrayals of black women’s sexuality and family structures in the African Diaspora: the U.S., Brazil, South Africa, Swaziland, and the U.K. The central women in this study: Ellen Hellmann, Ruth Landes, Hilda Kuper, and Ruth Glass, were part of the same “political generation,” born in 1908-1912, coming of age when Jews of European descent experienced an ambivalent and conditional assimilation into whiteness, a form of internal colonization. I demonstrate how each woman’s familial origin point in Europe, parental class and political …
My Crown And Glory: Community, Identity, Culture, And Black Women’S Concerns Of Hair Product-Related Breast Cancer Risk, Dede K. Teteh, Susanne B. Montgomery, Sabine Monice, Laura Stiel, Phyllis Y. Clark, Eudora Mitchell
My Crown And Glory: Community, Identity, Culture, And Black Women’S Concerns Of Hair Product-Related Breast Cancer Risk, Dede K. Teteh, Susanne B. Montgomery, Sabine Monice, Laura Stiel, Phyllis Y. Clark, Eudora Mitchell
Health Sciences and Kinesiology Faculty Articles
Breast cancer (BC) incidence rates for Black and non-Hispanic White women have recently converged; however, Black women continue to die at higher rates from the disease. Black women also use hair products containing hormonally active chemicals at higher rates than other races and ethnic groups. Studies now link chemical components in hair and personal care products to breast cancer risk. Using a community-based participatory research approach, this qualitative study explored community concerns about the role of hair products on breast cancer risk. Focus groups and key informant interviews using triangulation to assure relevant perspectives (women with and without breast cancer …
Back To Africa In The 21st Century: The Cultural Reconnection Experiences Of African American Women, Marcia Tate Arunga
Back To Africa In The 21st Century: The Cultural Reconnection Experiences Of African American Women, Marcia Tate Arunga
Antioch University Dissertations & Theses
The purpose of this study is to examine the lived experiences of 18 African American women who went to Kenya, East Africa as part of a Cultural Reconnection delegation. A qualitative narrative inquiry method was used for data collection. This was an optimal approach to honoring the authentic voices of African American women. Eighteen African American women shared their stories, revelations, feelings and thoughts on reconnecting in their ancestral homeland of Africa. The literature discussed includes diasporic returns as a subject of study, barriers to the return including the causes of historic trauma, and how Black women as culture bearers …
Statistical Plight Of Black Women, Kimberly-Joy M. Walters
Statistical Plight Of Black Women, Kimberly-Joy M. Walters
Sociology Summer Fellows
The purpose of this research is to examine how television shows and their portrayals of professional Black women impact the interpretation of marriage rates by race and perpetuate ideologies about the angry, unlovable Black woman. Using a content analysis of cable and network television shows with Black professional women as lead characters, this study connects an analysis of the characters’ lived experiences to normative expectations of Black women in relationships to call into question the prevailing narrative that Black women are in part personally responsible for their statistical plight. I will closely study how the two stereotypes, the Jezebel and …
African American Women Leaders In The Civil Rights Movement: A Narrative Inquiry, Janet Dewart Bell
African American Women Leaders In The Civil Rights Movement: A Narrative Inquiry, Janet Dewart Bell
Antioch University Dissertations & Theses
The purpose of this study is to give recognition to and lift up the voices of African American women leaders in the Civil Rights Movement. African American women were active leaders at all levels of the Civil Rights Movement, though the larger society, the civil rights establishment, and sometimes even the women themselves failed to acknowledge their significant leadership contributions. The recent and growing body of popular and nonacademic work on African American women leaders, which includes some leaders’ writings about their own experiences, often employs the terms “advocate” or “activist” rather than “leader.” In the academic literature, particularly on …
Women Of African Descent: Persistence In Completing A Doctorate, Vannetta L. Bailey-Iddrisu
Women Of African Descent: Persistence In Completing A Doctorate, Vannetta L. Bailey-Iddrisu
FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations
This study examines the educational persistence of women of African descent (WOAD) in pursuit of a doctorate degree at universities in the southeastern United States. WOAD are women of African ancestry born outside the African continent. These women are heirs to an inner dogged determination and spirit to survive despite all odds (Pulliam, 2003, p. 337).This study used Ellis’s (1997) Three Stages for Graduate Student Development as the conceptual framework to examine the persistent strategies used by these women to persist to the completion of their studies.
(Re)Constructing Multiracial Blackness: Women's Activism, Difference And Collective Identity In Britain, Julia Sudbury
(Re)Constructing Multiracial Blackness: Women's Activism, Difference And Collective Identity In Britain, Julia Sudbury
Sociology
This article analyses the (re)construction of black identity as a multiracial signifier shared by African, Asian and Caribbean women in Britain, from the framework of recent social movement theory. The collective identity approach calls attention to naming as a strategic element of collective action, but has overlooked the experiences of black women at the intersection of multiple systems of oppression. A focus on the process of constructing black womanhood allows us to move beyond static and unidimensional notions of identity to question how and why gendered racialized boundaries are created and maintained. I argue that multiracial blackness should be viewed …