Gender, Generation, and Multiracial Identification in the United States

Abstract

Multiracial self-identification is frequently portrayed as a disproportionately female tendency, but previous research has not probed the conditions under which this relationship might occur. Using the 2015 Pew Survey of Multiracial Adults, we offer a more comprehensive analysis that considers gender differences at two distinct stages: reporting multiple races in one's ancestry and selecting multiple races to describe oneself. We also examine self-identification patterns by the generational locus of multiracial ancestry. We find that females are more likely to be aware of multiracial ancestry overall, but only first-generation females are more likely than their male counterparts to self-identify as multiracial. Finally, we explore the role of racial ancestry combination, finding that multiracial awareness and self-identification are likely gendered differently for different segments of the mixed-race population. This offers a more nuanced picture of how gender interacts with other social processes to shape racial identification in the United States.

Family Racial/Ethnic Socialization Through the Lens of Multiracial Black Identity: A M(ai)cro Analysis of Meaning-Making

“…Third, because gender did not play a role during our recruitment and eligibility processes, our sample overwhelmingly consisted of female-identifying individuals; we had one male-identifying participant and one participant who identified as gender-queer/non-binary. While previous research has implied gendered patterns in multiracial identification, this may not hold true in all cases (Xu et al, 2021 ), and our non-gender-diverse sample hampers our ability to understand the intersectional implications of gender for multiracial experience. Our sample also consists mostly of “first-generation” multiracial folks, who have monoracial parents from two different racial groups.…”

“As Diverse as Possible”: How Universities Compromise Multiracial Identities

“…Similarly, I did not use language like “biracial” to include students who may identify with more than two racial categories, although several respondents identified personally as biracial. Given that most Americans perceive “Hispanic or Latinx” as a category akin to Black and White (Xu et al 2021), and following the example of Morning and Saperstein (2018), I included students who identified as multiracial by virtue of identifying as Hispanic or Latinx and another race (e.g., Hispanic or Latinx and Black).…”

“…Today, over 10 percent of babies born in the United States have parents who identify with different races (Alba 2020). By 2050, individuals who identify with multiple race categories will be 20 percent of the U.S. populace (Davenport 2018), and if one considers “Hispanic” a racial category, as many Americans do (Xu et al 2021), the West Coast and the Southwest have already reached that threshold (Lopez 2003).…”

Ethnoracial Diversity Across Nonmetropolitan and Metropolitan America: Urbanization, Multiracial Growth, and Uneven Exposure to Diversity

“…Multiracial identity is complex. Decisions regarding selfidentification vary from person to person (Bratter 2018;Davenport 2016;Xu et al 2021), and multiracial individuals face unique forms of social and economic marginalization (Bratter and Damaske 2013;Bratter and O'Connell 2017). While there is evidence of considerable state-to-state variation in the multiracial population (U.S. Census Bureau 2022), our understanding of the spatial distribution of multiracial populations at smaller spatial scales is limited.…”

“…Significantly, U.S. population growth over the past decade has been driven entirely by increases among ethnoracial minority groups: Black, Hispanic, Asian, American Indian, and Pacific Islander. 1 Moreover, the rise of America's multiracial population has blurred racial boundaries and complicated conventional measures of race and ethnicity (Bratter 2018;Xu et al 2021).…”