TheBlack Women’s Gathering Place: reconceptualising a curriculum of place/space

Identity politics: Why African American women are missing in administrative leadership in public higher education

“…African Americans’ participation in organizations and committees or interactions with cultural offices or departments creates an avenue to formulate subgroups or cultural enclaves. Similarly, Black women often engage in their own personalized spaces, which are both real and imagined as coping mechanisms (Howard et al, 2016). These enclaves are used to create cultural spaces for the African American population on campus, while immersed in a predominantly White campus community at PWIs (Brooker, 2016; Solorzano et al, 2000).…”

“…These enclaves are used to create cultural spaces for the African American population on campus, while immersed in a predominantly White campus community at PWIs (Brooker, 2016; Solorzano et al, 2000). These spaces serve as a coping mechanism and support base, where Black women join others in a place of shared experiences and support, storytelling, and reimagining their future through a cultural lens (Howard et al, 2016).…”

“…Marginalization, social isolation, limited mentoring opportunities, and unwelcoming campus communities are all environmental factors that have affected the leadership experiences and potential for African American women to be retained and ascend in their careers (Jones, 2013; Wallace et al, 2014). Women of color are often faced with misconceptions by their colleagues of who they actually are, which are informed by stereotypes that depict Black women in particular as loud, unapproachable, bossy, and threatening in their approach to leadership and authority (Howard et al, 2016; Marbley et al, 2011).…”

“…( Wing Sue et al, 2007: 271)Stereotypes that depict Black women, in particular, are controlling narratives where they are positioned as being difficult to work with, which is threatening to potential future supervisors. This can serve as a psychosocial underpinning to validate marginalization and manipulation and usually goes unchallenged (Howard et al, 2016). The standard American prototype in which all things leadership are compared to is White, heterosexual, middle-class males – and anything that deviates from that norm is considered an outsider or other (Coleman, 2012; Howard et al, 2016).…”

“…This can serve as a psychosocial underpinning to validate marginalization and manipulation and usually goes unchallenged (Howard et al, 2016). The standard American prototype in which all things leadership are compared to is White, heterosexual, middle-class males – and anything that deviates from that norm is considered an outsider or other (Coleman, 2012; Howard et al, 2016). The literature supports that women may be at a disadvantage to receive a promotion in comparison to their male counterparts.…”