AFRICAN AMERICAN WOMEN LEADERSHIP

African American Women Leadership Position



Abstract

This concept paper explores how the interaction of race and gender influences African-American female conceptions of leadership. Traditional leadership literature focuses on males as the informants about leadership. In recent years, more research has been conducted about how gender might influence leadership. However, rarely is race considered and even less frequently is there a discussion of how one's race and gender might influence one's conception of leadership. Interviews with twelve African-American female college presidents (about a quarter of all African-American female college presidents) discussed the role that social class, educational background, and the process for emerging as leaders, has had on their views of themselves as leaders. In addition, this research confirms the importance of race to these women's identities and as a motivator for assuming leadership positions.

Table of Content

Introduction4

Purpose of the Study4

The College Presidency in the United States5

Literature Review6

Emergence as Leaders6

Normative Views of Leadership for Women7

Methodology7

Findings8

Social Class8

Reluctant Leaders8

Identified by Others9

Conceptions of Leadership9

Summary10

References11

African American Women Leadership Position

Introduction

In recent years, there have been increasing calls to understand the experiences of African-American females from their own perspectives (Hill-Collins 2000 and Giddings 1984). These authors argue that to understand fully African-American female experiences in the history of the United States, we must understand the multiple forms of oppression they encounter. As African Americans, they are subject to the racism that has been part of the American experience. As women, they are subjected to the sexism that women face in the larger population. However, much of the work that takes place on race in the United States ignores the role of gender, and much of the feminist critique of society ignores race. In their edited collection entitled, All the Women are White, All the Blacks are Men, But Some of Us are Brave, Hill, Scott and Smith (1982) address this tendency to ignore the interaction of race and gender on the lives of African-American women.

Purpose of the Study

The purpose of this paper was to understand the origins and conceptions of leadership among African-American female college presidents. Wolf-Wendel's findings and other research (Bell, Denton and Nkomo, 1993) suggest that it is important to understand the role race plays when looking at differences among females. In light of this absence in the literature about possible differences among women of different races with respect to leadership style, this study can shed important information on whether African-American female college presidents' self-reports are consistent with or differ from majority male and females self-conceptions of their leadership styles.

The College Presidency in the United States

A study of the American college president for the American Council on Education found that the typical college president was a married, Caucasian male in his early fifties (Green 1997). This profile is not substantially different from the findings from a study of the college presidency in the 1970s. In their study of four-year College and university presidents Wessel and Kiem (1994) documented the career patterns of 270 college presidents. The majority of college presidents (61%) at private ...