Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-vdxz6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-30T15:13:56.027Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Contributions of Black Women in Political Science to a More Just World

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 December 2005

Melissa Harris-Lacewell
Affiliation:
University of Chicago

Extract

African-American women represent fewer than 5% of the doctoral degrees awarded in political science. There are only a handful of tenured black women in the nation's top-rated political science departments (Sarkees and McGlen 1999). There is no major text in the field that deals exclusively with the public opinion, political behavior, or institutional contributions of African-American women. Despite some recent notable exceptions, black women as authors of and subjects of research inquiry are still largely absent from the pages of periodicals that define the field. Many black women in political science are laboring in obscurity relative to the profession. “African American women faculty continue to be concentrated among the lower ranks, primarily in non-tenured positions, promoted at a slower rate, paid less than their male and white female counterparts, located in traditional disciplines, and primarily employed by two year colleges,” according to Sheila Gregory (1999, 11). Even from this position on the margin, black women political scientists have contested the field, challenged the academy, and contributed to the development of more just communities.

Type
Critical Perspectives on Gender and Politics
Copyright
© 2005 The Women and Politics Research Section of the American Political Science Association

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Allen, Anita. 1996. “On Being a Role Model.” In Critical Race Feminism: A Reader, ed. Adrien Katherine Wing. New York: New York University Press, 8187.
American Political Science Association (APSA). 1998. Frank Goodnow Award. Awardee: Jewel Prestage. http:///www.apsanet.org/about/awards/goodnow/prestage.cfm.
Cohen, Cathy. 1999. Boundaries of Blackness: AIDS and the Breakdown of Black Politics. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Collins, Patricia Hill. 1990. Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of Empowerment. Boston: Unwin Hyman.
Combahee River Collective. 1995. “A Black Feminist Statement.” In Words of Fire: An Anthology of African-American Feminist Thought, ed. Beverly Guy-Sheftall. New York: Free Press, 23240.
Felix, Antonia. 2002. Condi: The Condoleezza Rice Story. New York: Newmarket Press.
Githens, Marianne, and Jewel L. Prestage. 1977. A Portrait of Marginality: The Political Behavior of the American Woman. New York: D. McKay.
Gregory, Sheila. 1999. Black Women in the Academy: The Secrets to Success and Achievement. Lanham, MD: University Press of America.
Hancock, Ange-Marie. 2004 The Politics of Disgust: The Public Identity of the “Welfare Queen.” New York: New York University Press.
McClain, Paula, and Joseph Stewart. 1999. “ Can We All Get Along?”: Racial and Ethnic Minorities in American Politics. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
Pinderhughes, Dianne. 1987. Race and Ethnicity in Chicago Politics: A Reexamination of Pluralist Theory. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.
Prestage, Jewel. 1975. “Black Women Office Holders: The Case of State Legislators.” In Women in the Professions, ed. Laurily Keir Epstein. Lexington, MA: Lexington Books, 8196.
Prestage, Jewel. 1987. “Black Women Judges: An Examination of Their Socioeconomic Backgrounds and Judicial Placement.” In Readings on American Political Issues, ed. Franklin D. Jones and Michael O. Adams. Dubuque, IA: Kendall-Hunt, 32444.
Prestage, Jewel. 1991. “In Quest of African American Political Women.” American Feminism: New Issues for a Mature Movement, Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 515 (May): 88103.Google Scholar
Prestage, Jewel. 1994. “The Case of African American Women and Politics.” PS: Political Science and Politics 27 (4): 72021.Google Scholar
Sarkees, Meredith Reid, and Nancy McGlen. 1999. “Misdirected Backlash: The Evolving Nature of Academic and the Status of Women in Political Science.” PS: Political Science and Politics, 32 (1): 100108.
Tate, Katherine, and Claudine Gay. 1998. “Doubly Bound: The Impact of Gender and Race on the Politics of Black Women.” Political Psychology 19 (1): 16984.Google Scholar
West, Cornel. 1994. “The Dilemma of the Black Intellectual.” Journal of Blacks in Higher Education 2 (Winter): 5967.Google Scholar