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  • Triple Whammy: Academic Moms of Color

    By Susan O'Doherty September 20, 2009 6:48 pm

     

    A recent study of women with postgraduate degrees suggests that black women born after 1950 are increasingly likely — and twice as likely as their white peers — to be unmarried at age 45. The study also found that 45 percent of black academic women born between 1955 and 1960 were childless at age 45, compared with 35 percent of white women born in the same time period.

     

    The authors discuss these findings in terms of diminishing marital options for women of color, who, they say, are less likely than white women to marry outside their race and who are less likely than whites or black men to marry a college-educated spouse.

     

    This explanation seems plausible. I wonder, though, whether there are other contributing factors to this phenomenon. For example, as women of any race become more educated and independent, the pull to marry for any reason besides having found the perfect mate lessens. Some of these women may be lesbians who might have remained closeted in earlier times, marrying and raising families. And not having children is an increasingly acceptable option.

    How any of these explanations (if they are valid) might intersect with race, I don’t know. Thoughts?

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Comments on Triple Whammy: Academic Moms of Color

  • Educated and whole
  • Posted by P. Assessment Coordinator , Outcomes Assessment Coordinator at Atlantic Cape Community College on September 23, 2009 at 12:30pm EDT

  • I am an African American woman anticipating completing a doctoral degree in December. Born in 1959, I have two BAs, and a MA. Married for 22 years with three children born in wedlock by one great African American man it has been a normal path for me.
    All of the African American women in my cohort have been married to their husbands for over twenty years and they are my age or older. It is sheer conjecture to perpetuate that because some of us are not married and childless that we are lesbians.
    African American women have always exercised the choice to be married or not. We have always been liberated to make independent decisions because so many African American males are incarcerated, in some form in the legal system, denied career building moves, (as we are too, educated or not)or absent.
    I don't know where the author lives but possibly it appears that exposure to educated African American women or any woman of color is limited. Where I reside on the east coast on the Jersey shore, highly educated African American women are few and far in between but are not rare or unlikely. And in this age group, I have not run across one lesbian, educated or not.
    Historically, we tend to adopt family members with children in some shape form or fashion and coparent or mentor children and teens. This is our history in the United States.
    Moreover, educated African American woman are percieved as threatening because they are so educated and emotionally strong. I wonder if the researchers in this study engaged in meaningful dialogue with their subjects. In academia, I found this area lacking.

  • Triple Whammy: Academic Moms of Color
  • Posted by Dianne , Academic Affairs at Jackson State University on September 23, 2009 at 6:45pm EDT

  • I agree. Many times assumptions are made about African American women without valid data, whether a PhD or a GED.

  • Yikes!
  • Posted by Susan O'Doherty on September 24, 2009 at 5:15pm EDT

  • Thanks for both of your comments. I wasn't trying to imply that unmarried women of any race are necessarily lesbians--just that a drop in the marriage rate of academic women might indicate a number of other factors besides inability to find a mate, including the increasing acceptability of both heterosexual singleness and lesbianism. I'm not sure I understand what the problem would be if a percentage of women who might have married before because of felt pressure to conform now feel freer to live openly.

    PAC, it's great that you and your cohort are in happy, long-term marriages. This study seems to indicate, though, that the number of married academic women of color, and of women with children, is dropping. The authors (who may be African American themselves; I don't know; do you?) offer a few hypotheses (not assumptions); I suggested a few more. If you have other ideas, about why this phenomenon is occurring, please communicate them. I would really like to understand what this is about.

  • Triple Whammy: Academic Moms of Color
  • Posted by KPB , Counselng at SFASU on September 24, 2009 at 9:45pm EDT

  • Like P. Assessment, I am an African American mother of two children, married to the same African American man for 25 years. We met after we had earned masters degrees when we worked for the same university but at different campuses. He was instrumental in me continuing to earn my Ph.D. Since my research has been on dual-career couples in higher education, I realize that the education preference is real. While the availability of eligible African American men with similar educational attainment is a challenge it is not an absolute deal-breaker for many. I believe P. Assessment is correct that the US Census data used in the study does not tell the whole story (see study's Executive Summary at: http://www.yale.edu/sociology/faculty/pages/brueckner/Nitsche_brueckner_Executive%20summary.pdf ) and that additional research is warranted.

  • Thanks
  • Posted by Susan O'Doherty on September 25, 2009 at 7:00am EDT

  • This is helpful, KPB; thanks!

  • Interesting
  • Posted by Steel Magnolia on October 5, 2009 at 12:15pm EDT

  • This is a thoughtful observation. I recently switched institutions and paid close attention to how many weddings rings I saw on the African American women here (there are many). I am happy to note that the commenters and my collegues demonstrate that my marriage and family can survive what seems to be a sometimes brutal, family-unfriendly field.

    I'll only add that the rate of married people in academics in general seems low to me, so I would buy the idea that black women in academics, given all of the other things going against their being married, would have a decreased statistical chance for marriage. And having children sometimes seems to suggest an un-seriousness about intellectual life to certain people.

  • Colourful Discussions!
  • Posted by Iris Devadason , Director,CEFL at Dayananda Sagar Institutions, Bangalore, India on January 6, 2010 at 2:00pm EST

  • Wow! So many aspects to this topic and so much to say! Some of you might recall that about 4 years ago I wrote here encouraging younger women regarding doing their Ph.D despite families, kids' home work etc etc as I was 64 and doing my Ph.D.Well ladies, I have finished now at 69!
    Yes, we hear a lot about being "unintellectual" if one opts to have babies, if one opts to be out, if one follows a husband in his career and sacrifices one's own.. etc
    Well, being Indian, I belong here too..a coloured woman..(does anyone lack colour by the way?)..and being Indian have had to settle for an "arranged marriage" and obey patriarchal cu..Praise stoms etc (is that unintellectual too?)...but I have managed to do what I always wanted to do and have just completed the Ph.D.
    More than this, however, is the fact that I am holding an important position now, after retirement at 65, and whereas some men admire my persistence and capacity to keep going some men feel threatened too!
    I too give thanks for my good health despite the pace-maker I wear, but I am not one to 'give up' or 'give in' at all.
    Keep on keeping on girls. There are more supportive men around than we think.
    Iris Devadason

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