Counting the Costs: Relationship Formation Among Black and White College-educated Women

• In Event: 1169 - Sexual Racism

Abstract

Despite a decline in the proportion of people ever married and an increase in the postponement of nuptials, marriage remains a central part of American life. Marriage also remains a significant symbol of accomplishment and prestige. Marriage rates continue to differ sharply between those who have attended college and everyone else; however, researchers have paid remarkably little attention to the diversity of experiences among college-educated women. In fact, marital rates diverge significantly between college-educated black and white women. In this study, I argue that the racial differences in costs that black and white women incur while searching for a romantic partner may contribute to divergent marital rates between college-educated black and white women. Using semi-structured interviews with 30 never-married, heterosexual college-educated women, I found that a cost of engaging in a romantic partner search for both black and white women was emotional labor. However, black women did more emotional labor in their pursuit of relationship formation than white women. While both black and white women dealt with men’s intimidation of their educational attainment and men’s cyber aggression, black women additionally contended with being excluded as romantic partners by both non-black and black men and encountered gendered racial stereotypes in their on- and offline interactions with men. These findings demonstrate that race-based disadvantages impact college-educated black people despite their class status and reveal the continuing importance of race for life outcomes in the United States, despite upward class mobility.

Author

• Sarah Adeyinka-Skold, University of Pennsylvania