Pursuing Upward Mobility

Abstract

A study was conducted to investigate how the interaction of race, gender, and class impacted lives of African American women and strategies they used to overcome these three barriers. Six African American women from various socioeconomic, educational, and professional backgrounds holding supervisory positions were interviewed. The findings did not support the expected interactive effects of race, gender, and class as an impediment to upward mobility. All six participants cited gender as the major obstacle to their progress.

Correlation of the Number of African American Congresswomen and Their Higher Educational Attainment

“…Sexism has a far more destructive effect on African-American women who strive for socio-economic upward mobility than any other discriminative factor in the 21 st Century. It restrains black women from achieving their dreams and fulfilling their identity as African-American women are forced in a molded female role that they have to follow (Robinson, 2010).…”