African American Women’s Experiences in the Workforce: Occupational Choice
People spend up to a third of their lives working. Thus, the consideration of working experiences, and among historically marginalized groups in particular, is justified. This holds true because work takes up such a majority of our time. Also, the development of better working experiences could help people enjoy work and their lives outside of it.
This article commences a two-part series on the experience of African-American women in the workforce. Prior research has asserted that race (and thus the term “Black”) is a social construct that is rooted in history and not biology. Thus, I use the term African American to better reflect scientific fact. This article will explore African American women’s occupational choices, using Holland’s theory of interests as an introduction to occupational choice more broadly.
Holland’s theory of interest is one of the most popular theories concerning occupational choice. John Holland, a psychologist, and professor at Johns Hopkins University, proposed that there were six different career typologies: Realistic, Investigative, Artistic, Social, Enterprising, and Conventional. Realistic personalities are active and enjoy hands-on or manual activities; they like working outdoors and prefer to work with things rather than people or ideas (Johns Hopkins, n.d.). Investigative personalities enjoy research and other intellectual activities, like science. Artistic personalities value self-expression; social personalities like teaching, counseling, and helping others. Finally, enterprising personalities appreciate the art of persuasion, and they make good leaders and conventional personalities value highly structured activities. These career typologies can be found in Holland’s Self-Directed Search (SDS) career assessment tool.
These typologies are important to note here because, in a 1978 study, Bingham and Walsh found that the SDS scale effectively discriminated among the above occupational groups consistent with Holland’s theoretical framework. That is, the SDS scale identified the differences between occupational groups. Moreover, another scale that measures vocational preference, the Vocational Preference Inventory (VPI) was also found to be somewhat effective. In Bingham and Walsh’s study, five out of six scales of the SDS identified occupational groups in line with Holland’s theory. These scales included Realistic – engineers; Investigative – physicians; Social – social workers; Enterprising – lawyers, and Conventional – business teachers. Additionally, research showed that “the SDS scales more frequently identified specific occupational differences” (1978, p. 248). For example, college-educated Black women who scored highest on the investigative scale were more likely to be physicians. However, the authors also found that an occupational environment may be inconsistent with the occupational group’s highest mean score on the SDS or VPI. For example, a lawyer group in the study reported a mean score on the Social scale that was higher than the Enterprising scale of the SDS (Bingham et al, 1978). In practice, this means that Holland’s framework has good empirical support behind it and could be used in understanding African American women’s occupational choices. This could lead to studies investigating African American women’s actual working experiences and their motivations for pursuing a line of work. When it comes specifically to this study, it may be those secondary and tertiary career motivations may play an important role in vocational selection. For example, while a lawyer has a primarily Enterprising typology, Social careers do involve advising people, which lawyers do as their jobs. Furthermore, both men and women may express different motivations for pursuing the same career; one who pursues a career in law may not like persuading or arguing with people, but they may want to help people achieve access to justice, which would fit in neatly with the Social career typology. Finally, it must be noted that replication seems necessary as the study is around 45 years old.
Burlew (1977) discussed the attitudinal and motivational factors that were likely to impact Black women’s career choices and educational aspirations. She used a literature review and sought to organize the existing ‘sparse’ (p. 88) literature into a theoretical framework. Proximal psychological factors included aspirations and expectancies and attitudes about social consequences, and more distal factors included mothers’ work histories, knowledge, and exposure to employment, attitudes about the role of women, and others. For the purposes of space, I will discuss only the proximal factors as they seem more psychologically relevant.
Concerning proximal factors, Burlew found in an earlier study she conducted that both aspirations and expectancies impacted Black youth’s decision to attend college immediately after high school. In other words, both having a dream about the future and believing that one could attend college, impacted this decision that is inextricably tied to career outcomes later. In a study for her doctoral dissertation, Hanley (2021) found that one of the motivations that inspired African American women to pursue a Ph.D. in Counselor Education and Supervision (after years of school, starting in kindergarten) was “proving people wrong.” In other words, overcoming stereotypes about Black women’s intelligence and femininity served as a motivator to engage in doctoral studies. This is an application of Burlew’s earlier research.
Furthermore, Burlew cites other research finding that Black and White females had lower educational aspirations than males and aspired to roles typically associated with femininity (Burlew, 1975). This may very well have been a function of social expectations and historical context; after the Civil War, African American women tended to work in wage occupations like domestic servanthood or laundering clothes (Jackson, 2018). However, another study cited in the review indicated that Black women were more likely to aspire to professional careers than white women.
Moreover, concerning attitudes about the social consequences of holding a career, Burlew cited a study that found that fear of success (the negative consequences associated with occupational success) may not be evident among Black females compared to White females. These and other studies cited in the review provide applications that Burlew discusses. They are listed here as exposing Black females to information about available career and educational opportunities; encouraging young Black women to reexamine traditional ideas about women’s roles and perception of social consequences, and others (Burlew, 1977).
Fortunately, more recent studies exist on Black women’s occupational choices. In a 2017 study concerning Black, Asian, Minority Ethnic (BAME), and white female pharmacists in the United Kingdom (UK), it was found that all the BAME women did locums tenens work where they worked in place of a regular pharmacist, and that motivations for pursuing this type of work included flexibility and high salary (Howells et. al, 2017). Moreover, both BAME and White women found that pharmacy was a good career for them because of this flexibility. While the study does subsume Black British women into the BAME demographic, this study does raise up questions that could be asked of Black British pharmacists more specifically, thus potentially instigating further research. Finally, according to a 1984 study by Reid and Robinson, family members were the most responsible for the career decisions of Black professionals with doctorates. Specifically for African American women, the researchers found that both mothers and fathers played a large influence on their career choice, although spouses and other relatives also were identified as influencing career decisions.
What can one learn from this research? First, it is clear that more recent research is required to come to an understanding of how African-American women make occupational choices across different industries. While it seems difficult to make generalizable conclusions on the basis of these studies alone, one can turn to history to see trends in the career choices African American women make. While post-emancipation African American women tended to occupy subservient work as described above, historical movements - like the second wave of the feminist movement - may have inspired African American women to pursue careers traditionally perceived as masculine, including medicine, business, and law. This brings to mind to the importance of social and historical context within human development, of which occupational choice plays a part.
Furthermore, the studies also concerned different occupations. In addition, the sparsity of research raises the question of who, and what topics, are considered worthy of study in the social sciences, including psychology. Nevertheless, the call remains the same: to perform more research into the ordinary lives of Black women, including that of their working lives.
Works Cited
Bingham, R.P., Walsh, W.B. (1978). Concurrent validity of Holland’s theory for college-degreed black women. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 13(2), 242-250.
Burlew, A.K. (1977). Career educational choices among black females. The Journal of Black Psychology, 3(2), 88-106.
Hanley, E. (2021). From kindergarten classrooms to PhD pursuits: Academic narratives that influence career decisions in Black women counselor education and supervision doctoral students. Retrieved from From Kindergarten Classrooms to PhD Pursuits: Academic Narratives that Influence Career Decisions in Black Women Counselor Education and Supervision Doctoral Students (vcu.edu)
Howells, K., Bower, P., Hassell, K. (2017). Exploring the career choices of White and Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic women pharmacists: a qualitative study. International Journal of Pharmacy Practice, 26, 507-514.
Jackson, J.M. (2018, August 7). Black women’s labor in America has always been exploited. Retrieved from Black Women's Labor in America Has Always Been Exploited | Teen Vogue
Johns Hopkins Medicine. (n.d.). Holland’s occupational career personality types. Retrieved from HOLLAND=S OCCUPATIONAL PERSONALITY TYPES (hopkinsmedicine.org)
Reid, P.T., Robinson, W.L. (1984). Professional black women and men: An exploratory study of their personal and career development.
