Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Positive Effects Of The Multiple Negative: Explaining The Success Of Black Professional Women, Cynthia Fuchs Epstein

Publications and Research

To be both black and a woman in American society has most typically meant being cumulatively disadvantaged with regard to positions of power and prestige. Holding these multiple negatively evaluated statuses has meant that black women have clustered at the very bottom of most strata. This paper explores the patterns leading to success of a small minority of black women who have managed to work in occupations of high rank. It points to the special factors which have not only canceled the negative effect of holding statuses of low rank, but which have produced a positive and facilitating context for …