Black Women’s Career Success: Integrating Intersectionality and Career Success Research

Abstract

Previous research has extensively studied career success, focusing primarily on objective and subjective career success. However, less attention has been given to the career success perceptions of members of marginalized and stigmatized groups whose unique experiences and cultural perspectives may provide new insights into career studies. This paper addresses these gaps by examining the unique experiences and histories of Black women. Drawing on intersectionality and Black feminist epistemology, we develop a conceptual model to understand how Black women perceive career success. Our analysis reveals that Black women navigate gendered racialized career scripts that not only reinforce stereotypes, such as the “angry black woman,” but also present multiple paradoxes, including invisibility and hypervisibility. Black women must also contend with career shocks, including mega-threats such as police violence directed toward Black citizens. We propose that Black women adopt repertoires of identity-aligned behaviors as strategic responses to these challenges, which significantly shape their perceptions of career success. Additionally, we introduce the concept of collective career success defined as self-evaluations by Black women that assess whether their career actions and achievements contribute to the advancement of their group’s interests. Our study contributes to the career success literature by detailing the intersectional challenges, adaptive strategies, and collective career success perceptions of Black women concluding with recommendations for future research and practical implications of our framework.