African American women's career advancement: A study of opportunity recognition in career advancement to executive level positions

African American women rarely achieve promotion to executive level positions in the American workforce. This phenomenon is well-documented in empirical and peer-reviewed literature. Evidence suggests that the combination of race and gender creates barriers that negatively impact the African American woman's career advancement. A gap in existing literature pertains to the examination of strategies used by the few women who achieve advancement to executive level positions. Understanding how some women have overcome barriers relating to ethnicity and gender would shed invaluable light on the ways people and organizations may begin to break down these obstacles and therefore rebuild the organizational environment in a way that is conducive to promoting diversity. The focus point of this qualitative phenomenological study was an examination of how African American female executives recognized opportunities to obtain upper-management level positions and how these women seized those opportunities.