African American women leadership across contexts

Purpose This paper aims to examine women leaders from diverse career backgrounds and ethnicities to discover their perspectives of their leadership roles and empowerment to determine similarities and differences among them, focusing on the perspectives of African American women. Design/methodology/approach The review process began with a comprehensive review of African American women in history in the context of leadership and empowerment. Next, a Q-sort methodology was used as a semi-qualitative approach for women leaders to rank words of empowerment and facilitate discussions among these women. The Q methodology is known for exploring issues that are correlated with individuals who are influenced with personal feelings and opinions. Findings The paper concludes that perceptions of leadership roles differ among the African American women leaders when compared to other ethnicities. The results support the idea that women from diverse ethnic backgrounds have different experiences in the workplace, and these experiences influence how they identify factors they perceive as beneficial to them in terms of their perspectives on leadership and empowerment. Several themes emerged for African American women leaders including being overlooked, marginalized, undervalued and unappreciated in their professions as leaders due to their dual minority status. As it is now as it was in the past, such barriers can deter or stop progression for African American women leaders. Originality/value The history of African American women in leadership roles is scantily recognized or not recognized at all. This paper highlights leadership roles and barriers for African American women currently in leadership roles in contrast to other women. The issues they face are still similar to those faced by African American women in earlier decades in spite of increased career mobility. A relatively understudied topic in leadership and management history in general, this paper provides a unique lens from which to build awareness about the leadership roles and empowerment of African American women and to effect needed change.

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In the silence of her friends: a case study of the intersection of gender, race, age, and leadership in the dismissal of a public school superintendent

10.32469/10355/4108 ◽

2005 ◽

Author(s):

◽

Barbara Morrow Williams

Keyword(s):

African American ◽

African American Women ◽

Urban Communities ◽

Educational Leaders ◽

Women In Leadership ◽

Leadership Roles ◽

Urban District ◽

American Women ◽

School Superintendent

Research interests in social conditions of women in leadership roles underlie this case study which explores the scarcely published voices of African American women in the superintendency of public education. This case study of the career of Dr. Charlie Mae Knight and her experiences in an urban district in California may contribute to the knowledge and literature of the superintendent's social capital and her ability to exercise political power equally with primary stakeholders in her district and in her community. Interpreting Dr. Knight's experiences may increase knowledge about the challenges faced by African American women, and by women generally as they balance competing roles as educational leaders and as political leaders in urban communities undergoing ecological succession.

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Negotiating new meanings of ‘leader’ and envisioning culturally informed theories for developing African-American women in leadership roles: an interview with Patricia S. Parker

Human Resource Development International ◽

10.1080/13678860701782477 ◽

2008 ◽

Vol 11 (1) ◽

pp. 101-107 ◽

Cited By ~ 10

Author(s):

Marilyn Byrd

Keyword(s):

African American ◽

African American Women ◽

Women In Leadership ◽

Leadership Roles ◽

American Women ◽

Culturally Informed ◽

New Meanings

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Book Review: Creating Their Own Image: The History of African-American Women Artists by Lisa E. Farrington

NWSA Journal ◽

10.2979/nws.2007.19.1.211 ◽

2007 ◽

Vol 19 (1) ◽

pp. 211-217 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Renée Ater

Keyword(s):

African American ◽

African American Women ◽

Women Artists ◽

American Women ◽

History Of

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Power of African-American Women Voters in Lexington's School Suffrage, 1895-1902: Race and the History of the Kentucky Woman Suffrage Movement

SSRN Electronic Journal ◽

10.2139/ssrn.3326262 ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

Randolph Hollingsworth

Keyword(s):

African American ◽

African American Women ◽

Woman Suffrage ◽

American Women ◽

Suffrage Movement ◽

History Of ◽

Woman Suffrage Movement

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Race Women

Shelter in a Time of Storm ◽

10.5149/northcarolina/9781469648330.003.0004 ◽

2019 ◽

pp. 70-100

Author(s):

Jelani M. Favors

Keyword(s):

African American ◽

Civil Rights ◽

African American Women ◽

Civil Rights Movement ◽

Jim Crow ◽

Vital Role ◽

New Negro ◽

American Women ◽

Single Sex ◽

History Of

This chapter examines the fascinating history of Bennett College – one of only two single sex colleges dedicated to educating African American women. Although Bennett would not make that transition until 1926, the institution played a vital role in educating African American women in Greensboro, North Carolina from the betrayal of the Nadir to the promises of a New Negro Era. The latter period witnessed Bennett, under the leadership of David Dallas Jones, mold scores of young girls into politically conscious race women who were encouraged to resist Jim Crow policies and reject the false principals of white supremacy. Their politicization led to a massive boycott of a theatre in downtown Greensboro and helped to set the tone for Greensboro’s evolution into a critical launching point for the modern civil rights movement.

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Barriers Facing African American Women in Technology

Encyclopedia of Information Ethics and Security ◽

10.4018/978-1-59140-987-8.ch008 ◽

2011 ◽

pp. 49-54

Author(s):

Jianxia Du

Keyword(s):

African American ◽

African American Women ◽

Technology Education ◽

Self Perception ◽

Contributing Factors ◽

American Women ◽

Access To Technology ◽

Women In Technology ◽

History Of ◽

American Society

In technology education, African American women are normally in the minority. Contributing factors include the continuation of discrimination based on race and/or gender in American society, together with African American women’s own self-perception, which is itself influenced by their history of discrimination. These factors in turn affect their access to technology and technology education.

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Women leaders' views on demand-side strategies

Journal of Managerial Psychology ◽

10.1108/jmp-03-2019-0155 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽

Author(s):

Alyson Byrne ◽

Ingrid C. Chadwick ◽

Amanda J. Hancock

Keyword(s):

Women Leaders ◽

Past Research ◽

Women In Leadership ◽

Career Stage ◽

Leadership Roles ◽

Management Support ◽

Demand Side ◽

Engaged Scholarship ◽

Female Leaders ◽

Content Type

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine female leaders' attitudes toward demand-side strategies to close the gender-leadership gap and discuss implications for organizations.Design/methodology/approachThis article describes the process of knowledge co-creation that took place using an engaged scholarship epistemology over 23 interviews with North American women in senior leadership roles.FindingsFive key themes related to women leaders' attitudes toward demand-side strategies are discussed. Some felt uncertain or opposed toward these strategies, whereas others supported them. Support for these strategies was dependent on perceptions of backlash regarding the implementation of these strategies and the participants' career stage. Finally, participants acknowledged that demand-side strategies are insufficient in isolation and require additional organizational supports.Research limitations/implicationsThese findings enhance our understanding and provide theoretical refinement of the mechanisms that drive female leaders' reactions to demand-side strategies to close the gender-leadership gap.Practical implicationsParticipants advocated for certain practices to be considered when organizations contemplate the adoption of demand-side strategies. Importantly, participants advocated that the implementation of demand-side strategies would be insufficient unless organizations encourage greater dialogue regarding the gender-leadership gap, that top management support more gender inclusive leadership, and that male colleagues act as allies for women in leadership.Originality/valueThis article extends past research and theory by integrating the pragmatic perspectives of successful female leaders with previous empirical evidence to illustrate different reactions to demand-side strategies and ways for organizations to manage those in their efforts to close the gender-leadership gap.

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The Timothy 0. Webster Papers and the Pearce Civil War Collection: Using Civil War Military Collections for Women's History

Collections ◽

10.1177/155019061801400311 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 14 (3) ◽

pp. 365-381

Author(s):

Julie L. Holcomb

Keyword(s):

African American ◽

Civil War ◽

Working Class ◽

African American Women ◽

White Women ◽

Final Part ◽

American Women ◽

Women's Experience ◽

History Of ◽

Civil War Era

Working-class and rural white women and free and enslaved African American women left few material traces, making it difficult for scholars to document their experience of the Civil War. This three-part article uses the story of the Timothy O. Webster Papers, which is part of the Pearce Civil War Collection at Navarro College in Corsi-cana, Texas, to examine the possibilities and limitations of recovering women's experience of the war from military collections. The first part examines the practice of collecting Civil War documents, the history of the Pearce Civil War Collection, and the collection and preservation of the Webster letters. In the second part, I begin to reconstruct Harriet's story using letters from the Webster Papers. The final part returns to the archive to consider how archivists might aid scholars in recovering the story of Civil War-era women from military collections.

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