Date of Graduation

7-2021

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts in Political Science (MA)

Degree Level

Graduate

Department

Political Science

Advisor/Mentor

Baptist, Najja K.

Committee Member

Maxwell, Angie

Second Committee Member

Saeidi, Shirin

Keywords

Black Feminism; Black Women; Discrimination crossroads; Gender discrimination; Intersectionality; New Racism; Overlap; Public Institutions; Race discrimination

Abstract

The numbers of black women who hold leadership positions within public institutions are not correspondingly reflective of their overall numbers within public institutions. The focus of this study is to examine how race and gender discrimination prohibits black women from obtaining leadership positions in public institutions.. I propose a new theory Workplace Intersectional Infringement Theory (WIIT) to increase the efficacy of the study on black women in Public Institutions. Using snowball sampling, I conduct interviews with 11 black women who hold leadership positions across a variety of public institutions within the United States. I found a majority of the participants lacked interest in the higher-up positions within their companies. The conclusion is that race and gender discrimination along with newer subtle aggressions are still a factor in Black women’s experience in the workplace, but there’s no indication that it is the cause of the limited numbers that we see today.

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