Let's See: Why Black Women Must Be Visible Beyond Black History Month
It is a noteworthy addition that historic Black leaders including Ida B. Wells are now in the Barbie signature collection, but all Black women leaders need to be celebrated and acknowledged.
Yes, there is a Rosa Parks signature series Barbie doll, Ella Fitzgerald Barbie (who comes with a standing microphone), Ida B. Wells Barbie with a newspaper in her hand, as well as Katherine Johnson (with an ID badge around her neck) and Maya Angelou Barbies, each in the collector series costing about $30.
“It is a noteworthy addition that historic #Blackleaders including #IdaBWells are now in the @Barbie signature collection, but all Black women leaders need to be celebrated and acknowledged. ”
Certainly this is progress in terms of recognition of history and reality, but even then some infrequent steps are not enough. The recent addition of a Maya Angelou quarter from the Treasury Department caused Whoopi Goldberg and other observers to ask, why just a coin and not paper dollars?
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“And having Maya anywhere is a magnificent thing,” Goldberg noted. “But come on, America! You don’t think this is gonna make folks feel a little bit uncomfortable? We were on a $20 bill and now you have all of these powerful women, and you put them all on quarters? Come on!”
The nods to the achievements of extraordinary Black women are a much belated start, including the ABC series, “Women of The Movement,” re-enacting the lives of leaders including Mamie Till-Mobley, the mother of murdered Emmett Till. But the legacy of invisibility of Black women in business, politics, media and popular culture needs a sharp shift, but it is one that is met with resistance and conflict.
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Across all fields from academia to STEM, politics and all entrepreneurial niches in between, Black women often do not see equity in pay, titles or recognition. They are often ridiculed, belittled or silenced.
“Across all fields from academia to STEM, politics and all entrepreneurial niches in between, #Blackwomen often do not see #equity in pay, titles or recognition. They are often ridiculed, belittled or silenced. #womeninleadership”
In Chicago, that boasts of a first-ever Black female-identifying queer mayor, pushback and crass criticism of Mayor Lori Lightfoot is rampant, as are attacks on other local Black women leaders on up to the vice presidential spot.
“No vice president in American history has endured more ferocious criticism than Vice President Kamala Harris. President Biden has said Harris has his full confidence, and he has given her high-profile assignments. Yet she has faced constant behind-the-scenes gossip, including stories about staff members resigning, and negative anecdotes from sources who won’t speak on the record,” the Chicago Sun-Times reports.
Still, more Black women are running for office and the midterm elections may be primed for their success.
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According to NBC, “Black women’s representation has steadily increased in Congress and state legislatures, but they have still struggled to win statewide races. No Black woman has ever been elected governor, and there are no Black women serving in the U.S. Senate after Kamala Harris vacated her seat to become vice president.”
But this year, there are “three Black women — all Democrats — who have established themselves as early front-runners in statewide primaries, including Stacey Abrams, who is making another bid for Georgia governor, and U.S. Rep. Val Demings, who is challenging Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla.”
In their recent updated and reissued book, Our Separate Ways: Black and White Women and the Struggle for Professional Identity, authors and professors Ella Bell Smith and Stella Nkomo write of the different treatments women of color receive, compared to white women.
“In their recent updated and reissued book, “Our Separate Ways: Black and White Women and the Struggle for Professional Identity,” authors and professors Ella Bell Smith and Stella Nkomo (@OurSeparateWay) write of the different treatments #woc receive, compared to white women.”
The book chronicles the experiences of 120 Black and white female managers to show that gender isn’t the only factor that defines a woman’s career. Race, gender, and class weigh heavily on the outcomes.
Read more from Gloria Feldt on Black Women’s History Month
In an article for Knowledge @Wharton, author Stephanie Creary writes, “Smith, a professor of business administration at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth, and Nkomo, a professor of human resources management at the University of Pretoria, said the differences were something that nobody in academia or industry wanted to recognize or talk about when they started their research decades ago. There was an assumption that the struggle for all women was universal, and that women supported each other in some mythical sisterhood.”
That is not the case historically or currently.
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“When the book was first released, the participation of Black women in the C-suite was around 1%. Twenty years later, that number hovers around 1.4%,” Creary writes.
“It kind of says we haven’t gone very far,” Nkomo says. “This moment is a chance for companies. If they’re serious about understanding systemic racism, we like to remind them, make sure you look at race and gender. Because you’ll never end racism unless you look at how Black women or women of color are left behind.”
“@OurSeparateWay chronicles the experiences of 120 Black and white female managers to show that gender isn’t the only factor that defines a woman’s career. Race, gender, and class weigh heavily on the outcomes. #intersectionality ”
Women are left behind in academia, and particularly women of color, according to new research.
University Business reports, “Just 22% of Research I institutions have women leading as presidents, and only 26% of their boards have women in chair positions. The division among academic deans and provosts is an alarming 20% or more. Those data come from a national report from the Women’s Power Gap Initiative at the Eos Foundation and the American Association of University Women (AAUW) that highlighted the pervasive differences at 131 of the top universities.”
Gloria Blackwell, AAUW CEO, tells University Business, “It’s extremely disappointing that most institutions are still failing to give women—especially women of color—equal opportunities to rise in their careers. We need immediate action to eliminate the barriers against women and people of color whose perspectives, brilliance, and leadership we need to move us all forward.”
The future of Black women in entrepreneurship roles is increasing, but funding still lags.
Forbes reports, “According to the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor in the United States, 17% of Black women are in the process of starting or running new businesses. That's compared to just 10% of white women and 15% of white men. In the last 20 years, while women-owned businesses have increased by 114%, women of color owned companies increased by 467%. Yet, despite this early lead, only 3% of Black women are running mature businesses.”
Marty McDonald, founder of Boss Women Media tells Forbes, "Out of the 1800 Black-owned businesses that are created every day, only 20% make it above the poverty line. Why? Because of lack of equal access to capital.”
Forbes reports, “Goldman Sachs research found that only about 40 Black women in the U.S. have raised more than $1 million for their ventures.”
Lack of equity and opportunity for funding, as well as representation in leadership for Black women is also mimicked in advertising representation. According to the Geena Davis Institute for Gender in Media, a new CreativeX analysis of 3,500 ads containing images or video (from 2021 and U.S. only), “55% of ads featured women, but men were 1.5X more likely to be shown in professional environments. Individuals with light to medium skin tones featured twice as often in professional environments.”
“The future of #Blackwomen in #entrepreneurship roles is increasing, but funding still lags. Lack of equity and opportunity for funding, as well as representation in leadership for Black women is also mimicked in advertising representation. #blackbusiness”
Efforts to fuel funding for representation in STEM are in process, Black Enterprise reports, because it is crucial and urgent. “Goldman Sachs research found that only about 40 Black women in the U.S. have raised more than $1 million for their ventures.”
Diana Wilson, founder of Yielding Accomplished African Women (Yaa W), “is now raising $1 million to supply those women with the needed tools to help them reach career goals in the STEM arena, including engineering, space exploration, food science, and mathematics,” Black Enterprise reports.
Increasing the pipeline is one solution, but so is increasing solid diversity, equity and inclusion efforts that are more than lip service and posturing.
“Increasing the pipeline for #Blackwomen in #STEM is one solution, but so is increasing solid diversity, equity and inclusion efforts that are more than lip service and posturing. #DEI”
“Much of the DEI and anti-racism efforts are white-centric and focus on educating white employees about racism with little focus on how to actually support the most marginalized employees. There has to be a shift in focus away from this to imagining how to create safer spaces for Black women,” Forbes reports.
Meaningful representation across fields and disciplines is urgent for Black women to not only be visible in workplaces, but to be viable leaders. Otherwise, they are figures in signature collections—nice to have, but not allowed to accomplish all they imagine.
“Meaningful #representation across fields and disciplines is urgent for #Blackwomen to not only be visible in workplaces, but to be viable #leaders. Otherwise, they are figures in signature collections—nice to have, but not allowed to accomplish all they imagine. ”
