Our Separate Ways, With a New Preface and Epilogue

 

7

BARRIERS TO ADVANCEMENT

MUCH HAS BEEN WRITTEN both in the popular press and in academic circles about the glass ceiling blocking women’s advancement to top-level positions in corporate America.¹ The metaphor aptly captures the dilemma of women managers trying to rise to the top.² However, when the effects of race and gender are taken into account, the metaphor is insufficient.

The obstacles to advancement perceived by the black women managers were different both in degree and kind from the obstacles perceived by white women managers. As black women, they were subjected to a particular form of sexism shaped by racism and racial stereotyping.³ The theoretical concept of racialized sexism also captures the idea that the experience of gender ...