Black Women in the Academy The Secrets to Success and Achievement

This revised and updated edition of Black Women in the Academy adds updated data on the status of Black faculty women, a forty-four-page bibliography, and a new chapter on the status of international faculty women from twenty different countries, to the only study of the decisions of African-American women to remain in, return to, or voluntarily leave the academy. Sheila Gregory creates a conceptual framework from economic, psychosocial, and job satisfaction theories to construct a model to explain the factors that affect the decision patterns influencing career mobility. She uses a survey of the members of the Association of Black Women in Higher Education to illustrate to what degree the designated variables predict decision patterns. Gregory's analysis focuses on the women who remained in the academy, noting that those who did remain were usually successful high-achievers who managed to overcome numerous obstacles involving career and family. The author also provides an outline detailing how to attract and retain talented Black women scholars, along with possible interventions that might help interinstitutional mobility.