The Mammyfication of Black Femme Faculty at Predominately White Institutions: Professional Socialization, Promotion, and Tenure

• In Event: 28.045 - Black Women Faculty Perspectives

Abstract

This paper presents a theoretical analysis of literature with regards to the socialization, and promotion and tenure (P&T) for Black femme faculty at predominately-White institutions (PWIs). The paper also explores ways in which institutional cultures create barriers for both Black womxn’s socialization into PWIs, and their self-efficacy in attaining P&T. I use frameworks of American antebellum interpersonal dynamics that characterize Black womxn as mammy, to explore their experiences within PWIs. Through this framework, I argue that institutions render Black womxn unintelligent, invisible, and self-sacrificing. I then explore institutional factors that disempower them within PWIs: organizational cultures, entrapment, and collegial exclusion. I conclude that P&T processes systemically create disparities in faculty rankings that disadvantage Black womxn, based on race and gender.

Author

• e alexander, The Ohio State University