The Influence of Black Women's Identities on Personal and Professional Well-being

The perspectives of Black and ethnic minority women are often missing in literature examining race and employment as well as gender and employment (Bhavnani & Coyle, 2000). With African American women entering the workforce in increasing numbers, and moving into higher status positions like never before, there is interest in what happens to their presence at home since women are seen as the "backbone" of their families and communities (Black, 2009). Research on the relationship between Black women's identity and their personal and professional experiences is necessary in order to gain a better understanding of the influence these factors may have on African American women's success and well-being.;The purpose of this study was two-fold. First, this study addressed how professional African American women's race, gender, and class identities impact their personal well-being, work stress, and career commitment. Second, I examined work stress in greater depth in terms of its impact on Black women's career commitment, and their psychological involvement in their families. Gaining a better understanding of these variables, their relationship to one another, and their impact could potentially enable African American women to "have it all," satisfying their personal and professional lives.;A quantitative, non-experimental research design was used to explore the relationships among the variables for this study with 108 Black professional women. As hypothesized, a negative relationship was discovered between work stress and career commitment. While none of the hypotheses related to identity salience were supported, interesting relationships were discovered. Results showed that women who have high involvement in their family of origin also had high involvement in their family of creation. The finding that high career commitment was associated with low personal well-being but low work stress was counter-intuitive, and may imply that women may be forced to focus more in one area (work versus home) rather than to find work-life balance. Furthermore, psychological involvement in their families of creation was associated with low personal well-being. These findings indicate a need for further research on the Superwoman phenomenon among black women (Reynolds-Dobbs, Thomas, & Harrison, 2008; Woods-Giscombe, 2010) and perhaps other work-life dynamics. Participants might make significant personal sacrifices and work harder in order to simultaneously reach career goals and provide for their families. Finally, personal well-being also had a significant positive relationship with work stress so it is also possible that some women thrive under the pressure.