The Afro-American Woman's Emerging Selves

Abstract

This article goes beyond the question of the positive-negative valence of the Afro-American female self-concept. It proposes a model of self-concept formation for Afro-American women that explains the complexity involved in the synthesis of gender and race self-referents. Three self-referents. psychophysiological referent, African-American referent, and myself referent, are proposed to provide an understanding of the Black female self.The quest for knowledge concerning the experiences and contributions of Afro-American women has been characterized by a long and difficult struggle to capture the essence of what it means to be Afro-American and female. The complexity of such a search lies in understanding the historical past of Afro-American women,

Prototypes of race and gender: The invisibility of Black women

“…Feminist scholars have long argued that Black women have been left out (e.g., of the civil rights and feminist movements, research on gender and race) and gone unnoticed (Bell, 1992;Brown-Collins & Sussewell, 1986;Davis, 1981;Jones & ShorterGooden, 2003;King, 1988). As bell hooks (1981) eloquently stated:…”

The talented ten: Supporting African American male college students

“…The stressors associated with multiple roles, and multiple achievements (Brown-Collins & Sussewell, 1992) became most obvious during these discussions. Rather than basing career choice on personal interest, family history or environmental fit, as suggested by career theorists (Holland, 1980(Holland, , 1985Savickas & Walsh, 1991), these students tended to take an opportunistic view of career.…”

African American Women's Self‐Concept: Implications for Career Decisions and Career Counseling

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The multiple self-referent model (Brown-Collins & Sussewell, 1986) provides a comprehensive framework for understanding the personal, social, and historical aspects of self-concept formation in African American women and has important implications for understanding the complexity of career development issues for Black women. Excerpts from recorded interviews and autobiographical writings of four well-known African American women provide examples of the basic components of this model.

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“…The importance of self-concept in understanding career choice and development has been explored by many authors in the last four decades (Gottfredson, 1985;Super, 1957Super, ,1969Super, ,1984. Others (Lykes, 1983;Rothenberg, 1988;Smith & Stewart, 1983;Trotman, 1984) have written about the effects of racism and sexism on the development of African American women, yet no one, until Brown-Collins & Sussewell (1986) had proposed a model that incorporated the interactive effects of racism, sexism, and individual differences on the development of self in African American women. In this article, we will ( a ) describe the components ofthe Brown-Collins & Sussewell model, (b) use quotes from famous African American women to il-lustrate the components, (c) provide two examples of career decisions, and (d) suggest interventions for career counselors.…”

“…In this article, we will ( a ) describe the components ofthe Brown-Collins & Sussewell model, (b) use quotes from famous African American women to il-lustrate the components, (c) provide two examples of career decisions, and (d) suggest interventions for career counselors. Brown-Collins and Sussewell (1986) developed a model that addresses many aspects of African American women's self-concept, including the interactive effects of racism and sexism. These authors provided a comprehensive view of self-concept formation in African American women by incorporating the personal, social, historical, and political aspects of these women's lives.…”