African American Women Are Moving Ahead Rapidly : Center for Social Innovation (CSI)

In the United States today, two-thirds of African American college undergrads are women, and they are going on to excel in business, particularly in entrepreneurship, says visiting scholar Katherine Phillips.

Some people believe that African American women are doubly oppressed in the workplace, challenged by sexism because they’re female and by racism because they’re black.

However, that bleak assessment does not tell the complete story, says Katherine Phillips, PhD ’99, visiting scholar in organizational behavior at the Stanford Graduate School of Business and an expert in workplace diversity.

In fact, black women are excelling in education and entrepreneurship, she said. Two-thirds of African American college undergrads are female. And, between 2002 and 2008, the number of businesses owned by black women rose by 19% — twice as fast as all other firms and generating $29 billion in sales nationwide.

In reality, Phillips said, black women are viewed as independent, competent, and demanding of respect — all classic leadership traits. So, they may find their dual makeup actually boosts their achievement possibilities, she told a Stanford audience in June during a talk titled, “Black Women and the Backlash Effect — Understanding the Intersection of Race and Gender.”

“African American women may not be seen as prototypical blacks, and they may not be seen as prototypical women,” Phillips told the audience comprised of people of various genders, ages, and races. “That invisibility might end up being something that’s helpful in allowing [them] to take on behaviors that otherwise would not be allowed. Black women may be in a unique position to, in fact, step into leadership positions, to be embraced in leadership positions.”

Phillips presented a wide variety of academic research about how racial differences affect how individuals are perceived. Black mothers with outside jobs are viewed more positively than those who stay at home with their children, for example, while the opposite was true for white women. Another study, which appeared in 2009 in the journal Psychological Science found that participants assumed that male African American managers sporting “baby faces” earned higher salaries — an assumption that often was true and a pattern that did not extend to white male managers.

She said black women have more ability to be forceful in the workplace without appearing threatening, which is not the case for men of either race. In fact, one study showed that “Black women do seem to have more latitude to display that dominance,” Phillips said.

And, from heading households to holding down careers, black women can assume broader roles than white women without being criticized. “The evidence here suggests that white women are supposed to stay in this little narrow box more so than black women are,” said Phillips. “The expectations of what black women are supposed to do around these social roles is different than the expectations of what white women are supposed to do.”

Forty percent of African American women between the ages of 25 and 54 have never been married, a development Phillips said was examined in a 2010 Dateline ABC News special titled, “Why Can’t a Successful Black Women Find a Man?” Sometimes strong black women are even stereotyped as angry, she said, referring to a cover story that appeared in Radar Magazine during the 2008 presidential campaign headlined, “What’s So Scary About Michelle Obama? An Insider’s Guide to the Next First Lady.”

“I don’t think I would argue that I’m trying to say that this is two negatives coming together to make a positive,” said Phillips. “But I would say that the complexity of how race and gender interact is not as simple as we typically thought. There may be a malleability that comes with being an African American woman that allows you to identify both as black and as a woman that you might be able to use as a mechanism to make it through the world, to think about things.”

Phillips’ talk was sponsored by Stanford’s Center for Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity, along with Stanford’s Feminist Studies program and Department of Sociology.

A professor of organizational Behavior at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, Phillips codirects the Interdisciplinary Center on the Science of Diversity. She conceived the creation of the Kellogg School’s Office of Diversity and Inclusion and has led discussions about workplace diversity at organizations including Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, and the U.S. Office of Personnel Management.

In her research she collaborated with Margaret A. Neale, the John G. McCoy-Banc One Corporation Professor of Organizations and Dispute Resolution at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, on a 2009 study showing that newcomers who bring divergent points of view may significantly enhance group performance in the workplace. “Better decisions come from work teams that include a socially distinct newcomer,” she told MBA-focused website Poets & Quants, which included Phillips in their ranking of “The World’s 40 Best B-School Profs Under the Age of 40.”

She has been published in journals including Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, and Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes.
- Michele Chandler

I will say I dont believe every study, but it feels good to see a positive one geared towards black women for a change

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hell yea! i need to find me a sugar mama

well yea, there are no blk guys in any of my classes, my friends take nursing and biology and no blk guys in there either

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But she's a psychologist from a respected university and has been published in multiple psychology magazines as well. So do you believe there's truth to this study?

what is there not to believe? the study is pretty much just counting the number of black women and men in college and in business over the years.

anyone that has ever stepped foot on a college or university campus knows there are way more black women. of course these studies should also acknowledge the fact that men are more likely to go into fields that do not require a college education. too many people interpret these studies to mean black men arent doing shit with their lives while women are going on to become CEOs which is FALSE.

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Would I be wrong if I said this made me chuckle...for obvious reasons!!!!

Anyway, big-up to the sistas making shit happen.

Now, can a brother get a dinner...shit I'll take Applebees

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Two thumbs up!!!

Well Ill rephrase it and say I dont believe every study word for word, especially when the negative racially motivated ones come out

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Nah...you know dinner ain't happening. You better "be a man" and pay up. LOL.

So as long as it's a positive study, then it's the truth?

Damn, not even a 2 for 20 hookup...good thing i know how to cook!!!!

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I just have to say I live a predominately hispanic community so thats all I see, but alot of the blacks girls in my high school were two steps ahead earning college credits when they were juniors and seniors

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Waiting for this to be reported all over the web, internet, and magazines..

Finally some good news...

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