Research Interest--Gendered Racial Microaggressions

Is it Just Me or Am I Really Angry?  Perceptions of Gendered Racial Microaggressions among African American Female Leaders in Community Colleges

Concept Map

Women in administrative positions at community colleges have made steady gains since the late 20^th century but have plateaued since the early 21^st century.  In 2013, females outpaced males in management, business and financial operations, office and administrative support, student academic affairs and other education services, and instructional staff positions (American Association of Community Colleges [AACC], 2016).  However, men still outpace women in senior leadership or the level of president at community colleges.  In 2011, only 36% of college Chief Executive Officers (CEO) were female (AACC, 2014) even though there were higher percentages of women in the pipeline to senior leadership positions.  With over 75% of community college presidents planning to retire within the next 10 years, the field is widening for women to increase their presence in this leadership role.  Studies have been conducted to explore this parity, offering several causal effects as to disproportionate number of women in senior leadership positions.  Particularly, African American women, held 61% of administrative positions in community colleges and only 43% community college presidencies (AACC, 2014).  What is leading to this 18-percentage point difference? 

Some studies suggest that African American female leaders at community colleges are confronted with unique external and internal perceptions of their character that their counterparts at four-year colleges and universities do not face (Terry, 2013).  Often these perceptions are revealed through microaggressions which are intentional or unintentional, common, daily slights toward someone based on the person’s membership within an identity mark group, whether it is gender, race, sexual orientation, age, or any identity markers (Young, Anderson, & Stewart, 2015).    Daily maneuvering through the unconscious and conscious biases of those around them, forces African American women to evaluate their and other’s every action and every word; sometimes wondering if the slights are imagined and they are being hypersensitive about their race and gender.  At other times the microaggression is so blatant, she is left in a conundrum on how to react in order to avoid further negative attention.  With Black women having nothing in common with the traditionally dominate white, male culture, they are doubly marginalized and must find ways to “fit in”.  The Black woman has to defend two sets of microaggressions that relate directly to her race and to her gender, something neither African American men nor White women have to face.  The concept of microaggressions alone is too broad for African American women, making it necessary to look at their experience through the lens of gendered racism—the intersectionality of race and gender that highlights the problematic nature of oppression that Black woman face through negative perceptions (Essed, 1991).

Significance and Justification of the Topic

Gendered racial microaggressions affect not only African American women leaders but also the institution.  Employees at community colleges consciously support the idea of equality in the work place but their unconscious actions, microaggressions, say the opposite.  When workers are unaware of their unconscious negative beliefs, this leads to the rationalization or denial of microaggressions.  Understanding the barriers of minority women when it comes to promotion in community colleges can inform the hiring, mentoring, and training of minority women, allowing for a more diverse senior leadership team.  This in turn will contribute to the student experience because of the diversity in its administrative team.  Examining and transforming perceptions of African American female leaders can also educate both men and women on the systemic and structural barriers that prevent women, especially African American women, from thriving or climbing the higher education leadership ladder.  Addressing the barriers and stereotypes of African American women in community colleges can further the discussion on microaggressions in the workplace.  Existing research on microaggression has focused on racism or sexism but none have explored the intersection of both.  Past studies on microaggression have been one-dimensional, focusing on blacks—men and women—and have left a gap in empirical data on the gendered aspect in addition to the racial aspect of black women (Lewis et al., 2016).  Gendered racial biases and collective disadvantages perpetuated against women affects the outcome of all women (Derks et al., 2016). 

Problem Statement

African American female leaders in community colleges are confronted with barriers and stereotypes that affect their own perceptions and perceptions others have of their leadership style.  Chemers (2000) argues that though the actual leadership behavior of women is no different than men, women are still hindered by stereotypes of their leadership style.  Stereotypes objectify Black women through stereotypical social constructs that sexualize or eroticize them based on race and gender (Lewis et al., 2016).  The object of this study is to provide Black female leaders at community colleges with strategies to transform negative perceptions of their actions and on a larger scale, challenge non-black females to re-evaluate their participation in the promotion of negative perceptions of African American female leaders.

Purpose Statement

The purpose of my study is to examine, explore, and transform perceptions of gendered racial microaggressions of African American female leaders in community colleges.  Questions I expect to answer are: a) Of the commonly held stereotypes of Black women, which ones have Black female leaders in community colleges been accused of or have self-identified as exhibiting? b) How do female leaders perceive these stereotypes? c) How does the perception of stereotypes influence the female leader’s actions in the workplace? d) What actions need to take place to transform negative perceptions of Black female leaders in community colleges?

Identification and Justification of Methodology and Research Design

I plan on using the advanced mixed method of the social justice design within the explanatory sequential design.  The intent of my study is to “transform society and address the injustices that exist” (Creswell, 2015, p. 549) against African American female leaders in community colleges.  A social justice design lends itself to this endeavor because I want to bring about a change and offer a call to action.  Beginning with a quantitative tool to collect closed-ended data will provide general data about the large group.  Literature provides several examples of qualitative tools that can be used to further inform my research and take it a step further.  Following with a qualitative tool will refine the data from the quantitative phase and will allow for subjects to share their diverse experiences. Williams (2001) argues that women can validate their feelings by sharing their experiences to show that their anger is linked to systems and structures that seek to compress the voice of activists.  Without sharing their experiences, other women who are accused of being an ABW may “feel” they are marginalized and have self-doubts about their perceptions, when in actuality there is merit to this feeling (Williams, 2001).

From these two groups of data, I hope to produce findings that will lead to information that can benefit the marginalized group of African American female leaders in community colleges.  Using intersectionality theory to study the gendered racial microaggressions in small samplings of African American women can lead to larger implications and ways to combat the lack of Black female leaders in community colleges.  Framing the research through a social justice design, using Black feminist theory to explore the intersectionality of gendered racial microaggressions, will encourage and empower readers to make social changes.  Organizations like the American Council on Education (ACE) have been historically committed to an agenda of advancing the place of women (Gangone, 2016).   With programs such as Moving the Needle:  Advancing women in Higher Education Leadership, ACE recognizes that there is a gender gap between female senior leaders and male senior leaders.  Their call-to-action campaign has set a 2030 goal of college and university chief executive positions being filled by women.  It is my hope that my research will be able to enter this discussion to explore and examine ways to make this call to action a reality through the examination of gendered racial microaggressions.

References

American Association of Community Colleges.  (2014, November).  [Graphic illustration Data Points].  Bridging the leadership gap.  Retrieved from http://www.aacc.nche.edu/

Publications/datapoints/Documents/LeadershipGap_11%2012%2014.pdf.

American Association of Community Colleges.  (2016, March).  [Graphic illustration Data Points].  Female campus administrators.  Retrieved from http://www.aacc.nche.edu/

Publications/datapoints/Documents/DP_FemaleAdmin.pdf.

Chemers, M. M. (2000). Leadership research and theory: A functional integration. Group Dynamics: Theory, Research, and Practice, 4(1), 27-43. doi:10.1037/1089-2699.4.1.27.

Creswell, J. W. (2015). Planning, conduction, and evaluating quantitative and qualitative research (5th ed.). Boston: Pearson.

Derks, B., Van Laar, C., & Ellemers, N. (2016). The queen bee phenomenon: Why women leaders distance themselves from junior women. The Leadership Quarterly, 27(Special Issue: Gender and Leadership), 456-469. doi:10.1016/j.leaqua.2015.12.007.

Essed, P. (1991).  Understanding everyday racism:  An interdisciplinary theory.  Newbury Park, CA:  Sage.  http://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781483345239.

Gangone, L. M. (2016). Reflections on Advancing Women in Higher Education. Presidency, 19(1), 20-21.

Lewis, J. J., Mendenhall, R., Harwood, S. A., & Browne Huntt, M. (2016). Ain’t I a Woman? Counseling Psychologist, 44(5), 758-780. doi:10.1177/0011000016641193.

docview/219981632?accountid=12557.

Terry, D. (2013).  At the intersection of race and gender: A narrative analysis of the career experiences of Black women senior leaders in community and technical colleges (Doctoral dissertation).  Available from ProQuest Dissertations and Theses database.  (1459724975).  

Williams, C. C. (2001). The Angry Black Woman Scholar. NWSA Journal, 13(2), 87.

Young, K. K., Anderson, M., & Stewart, S. (2015). Hierarchical Microaggressions in Higher Education. Journal Of Diversity In Higher Education, 8(1), 61-71. doi:10.1037/a0038464.