African-American Women Book Review

Bright, D. A. (2010). Pioneering Women: Black Women as Senior Leaders in Traditionally White Community Colleges. George Washington University
In this study, Debra Bright shared her work on the urgency of capturing the unique experiences, challenges, strategies, and triumphs of Black Women (African-American) who held senior level administrative positions (.i.e. dean, vice president, provost, or special assistant to the president) in five predominately White male community colleges. Prior to the author’s research, the history records reflected information on the experiences of faculty members was the only. Therefore, the lack of documented information laid the ground work for researching, compiling, analyzing and bring forth a conclusion of …show more content…
Based on these results, the author listed seven themes which were common factors for all fourteen participants. They were the following: (1) pioneer women, the first, the only and lonely; (2) presidential aspirations; (3) deal with the “isms”; (4) struggles with legitimacy; (5) detractors; (6) sustainers; and (7) negotiating biculturality. The significance of this study was broken down into four categories, and they are: (1) this level of administrative position did not have documentation in literature reviews, therefore, it was extremely important to capture for future purposes, (2) strategies which helped the administrators sustain themselves in their leading roles, (3) this would be documented proof that may be used by all community colleges and help their white male and other cultures in understand and working closer with Black Women, and (4) this tool would be a great institutional awareness in assisting community colleges in seeking and retaining women of color. In conclusion, the results of the findings will be documented to alert aspiring Black Women of the various challenges to expect coupled with the many barrier to