journal article
LitStream Collection
Home
doi: 10.1111/j.1540-4560.1983.tb00152.xpmid: N/A
This paper compares the primary purposes and functions of educating black and white women in the 19th century. For white women, education served as a vehicle for developing homemaker skills, for reinforcing the role of wife and mother, and a milieu for finding a potential husband. For black women education served as an avenue for the improvement of their race or “race uplift.” The economic, political and social conditions which contributed to these purposes are discussed within a historical context.
doi: 10.1111/j.1540-4560.1983.tb00153.xpmid: N/A
This study, based on a secondary analysis of data, involved the comparison of 127 black males and females on career‐related variables at two high schools, one a predominantly white liberal arts high school and the other a racially more integrated vocational high school. Based on a review of literature regarding institutional and racial differences in attitudes towards career development in women, it was hypothesized that more sex differences would exist among the black students at the liberal arts school than at the vocational school, and that these differences would favor the males. The hypotheses were confirmed. While females attending the liberal arts high school had lower aspirations, less vocationally relevant self‐concepts, and lower self esteem than their male counterparts, they were also less likely to perceive events as the result of either internal forces or of external forces. It was concluded that black females may experience environments differently than do black males, due to the combined and independent effects of racism and sexism. Clearly studies involving the effects of different settings on minority group behavior should examine relationships separately by gender.
doi: 10.1111/j.1540-4560.1983.tb00154.xpmid: N/A
The social science literature portrays conflicting images of black women: as dominant and assertive, and as the victims of the “double jeopardy” of being both black and female. This paper discusses how predominantly black or predominantly white college environments differentially encourage characteristics associated with each image. Samples of over 500 black females who were freshman or seniors, in one of two all black or four predominantly white colleges, were given a large battery of questionnaires to assess the impact of college. The results show that the adverse conditions of predominantly white colleges were more likely to encourage self reliance and assertiveness, characteristics reminiscent of the “matriarchal” image in social science literature. In contrast, the supportive conditions of predominantly black schools were more likely to encourage a social passivity that may undercut the simultaneous greater academic gains at black colleges. This suggests a dilemma that is characteristic for white women, and perhaps also suggests the image of black women as the victims of double discrimination.
doi: 10.1111/j.1540-4560.1983.tb00155.xpmid: N/A
Research in the area of the effects of gender and race on social and psychological behavior has been limited in its approach, only reporting differences between blacks and whites or males and females. This paper expands race and gender effects to include both within and between race comparisons as well as gender comparisons across race. Using the results of a naturalistic observation of nonverbal cues between same sex dyads, the behavior of black women is compared to white women and black men. Similarities and differences among the groups provide further evidence for previously reported race and gender effects. Other examples from the nonverbal literature are discussed using this “simple effects” comparative strategy.
doi: 10.1111/j.1540-4560.1983.tb00156.xpmid: N/A
In the past, social psychological researchers have generally treated sex and race as independent status characteristics. The utility of this unidimensional model is questioned. Literature examining sex and race differences in status which then predict behavior (specifically resistance to influence) is reviewed to demonstrate the inadequacy of separating the effects of these characteristics. The importance of sex and race as both personal and contextual characteristics is then discussed.
doi: 10.1111/j.1540-4560.1983.tb00157.xpmid: N/A
The present study was designed to explore the multiple effects of institutional discrimination on individuals by examining the distinctive and interactive effects of racial and sexual prejudice and/or institutional discrimination on the coping styles of a small sample of older black women. The existence of the Black Women Oral History Project provided a unique opportunity to examine the perceptions and experiences of discrimination among a set of American black women 70 years of age and older who have made a significant contribution to the improvement of the lives of black people, especially in the 1940s and the 1950s. Examples from these accounts are presented and analyses discussed which suggest that direct instrumental coping may not be the strategy of choice in coping with experiences of discrimination. Rather, selected situational variables (the racial composition of the workplace and the type of discrimination identified) and personal factors (perceptions of the control of the outcome and of the source of the problem) interact and differentially predict either direct instrumental coping or flexibility in coping styles. The findings suggest further that in some contexts a less direct coping strategy may be more effective than a direct instrumental strategy in creatively confronting discrimination.
doi: 10.1111/j.1540-4560.1983.tb00158.xpmid: N/A
This paper proposes a paradigm for understanding black women's sex role ideology. Using interview data the study explores the sex role integration and synthesis of 54 single and two parent families. Variables such as labor force participation patterns, early and present sex role attitudes, role models, and strategies for coordinating family work and paid employment were considered. Results show an integration of traditional and non‐traditional roles in the sex role ideology of black women. The findings are discussed in light of role theory and the concept of role strain.
doi: 10.1111/j.1540-4560.1983.tb00159.xpmid: N/A
This study explores the professional careers of 23 black women who had achieved public recognition and acclaim for their involvement in organizations and programs aimed at social change in an urban black community. The women's career orientations and patterns of occupational mobility were organized around the goals of community work—empowerment of the black community and change in the quality of individual and group life and in the larger social structure. “Going up for the oppressed” or occupational and professional mobility on behalf of the community comprised three activities: (1) focused education involving innovative use of dominant culture educational institutions for black community interests and aggressive self‐education in matters concerning the community and its problems; (2) a dialectical career involving increased levels of authority, prestige, and job opportunities along with increased levels of political consciousness, social criticism, and conflict with the dominant culture; and (3) strategies to maintain commitment and ties to the community, its people, and their interests. Such an unusual career orientation highlights the conflict between dominant culture professionalism and the goals of black communities for social change, and the need for individual professionals to reorganize their criteria for success if they are to remain committed to the goals of community work. The research highlights the difficulties in predicting the behavior of members of the black middle class with reference to the combined effects of race consciousness and class consciousness or “nation‐class” consciousness.
Showing 1 to 10 of 19 Articles