This dissertation begins with the finding that in the United States Black women are four times as likely to die due to pregnancy related complications than their white counterparts as well as the finding that Black children are 2 to 2.5 times as likely to die before their first birthday. Given this, the project examines the intersections between Black women’s reproductive experiences and the condition of reproductive health and access in the state of Texas. In order to accomplish this, the research situates the grassroots organizing work of a collective of mothers of color alongside national and state level legislation and data about maternal and infant health disparities. The work not only situates ethnographic experiences within the larger repertoire of quantitative health literature on disparities but it also historicizes the work alongside Black Feminist theories of the body, history, and Black women’s reproduction. Drawing from extended participant observations, interviews, focus groups, policy research, statistics, and archival work, this project unpacks the large disparity that exists in maternal and infant health outcomes for African-American women and the ways in which policy, community organizing, and other geo-political factors contribute to, mediate, or remedy this phenomenon. Given the data presented, this projects suggests that (re)creating supportive communities and support networks may be an effective way of mediating stress caused by long-term exposures to racism and ultimately healing the negative maternal health outcomes for black women. / text

The black-white suicide paradox explored in the current study explores black women's notions of suicide. In its most basic form, a fundamental question of this project is why have black women's suicide rates remained consistently low? This project seeks to explore specific internal and external adaptations that black women have come to rely on for long term survival. A great deal of attention will be given to black women's perspectives of suicide inside and outside of the black community. This qualitative study by way of narratives provides insight into the entities that black women perceive to contribute to their virtually non-existent suicide rates. This approach is particularly appropriate for this study because black women's accounts on suicide will provide rich detailed data typically unseen in current suicide literature. In my work, I assume that black women's multifaceted oppressive conditions have compelled them to use subtle forms of resistance, i.e. coping mechanisms that act as protective barriers against suicide. This study also re-examines notions of social integration and religious beliefs in lessening chances of suicide among black women. Research findings were presented by way of four themes that emerged from the dominant narratives of twenty-two in-depth interviews. Respondents perceived family and communal obligations, faith based beliefs, a sense of long suffering, and declaration of strength to be the primary grounds for black women's low rates of suicide. Recurring themes were consistent despite the women's income or education levels. The study concludes that black women employ and perceive these strategies to be significant in coping or resisting trivial and significant stressors of life. Additionally, black women's perception of suicide as a weakness played a significant role in the way they defined themselves as well as the act. For literature on suicide, I engaged the works of Durkheim, Prudomme, Hendin, and Lester among others as a theoretical framework for this study.

This narrative inquiry explores how Black tradeswomen negotiate the intersections of race and gender in their long-term careers in the U.S. building trades. Much of the literature on women and minority groups in the trades has focused on the success, or lack of success, of these groups in apprenticeship programs. To my knowledge, none has collected rich data focused on the long-term retention of Black women in the trades, nor has any discussed the personal, interpersonal, and institutional strategies this non-traditional group uses to continue working in the construction industry. This study draws on theory and empirical studies from the fields of Peace and Conflict Studies, Black Studies, Gender Studies, Labor Studies, and Psychology to provide a nuanced analysis of the systemic nature of Black tradeswomen’s struggles for gender and racial equity within the workforce, and elucidates the personal, interpersonal, and institutional strategies these women have developed to continue in this field. In-depth interviews conducted with fifteen tradeswomen revealed how they described and made sense of (1) their experiences of entering the trades and how their experiences in the trades changed over time; (2) barriers to their continued success as tradespeople; and (3) the skills and knowledge they developed to sustain themselves professionally. Findings include recommendations for interventions at the levels of pre-apprenticeships, apprenticeships, foremen, and higher to support the retention and promotion of Black tradeswomen in the industry. Tradeswomen highlight the necessity of combining anti-racist and anti-sexist struggles to promote greater inclusion of non-traditional workers. Black tradeswomen illuminate the importance of the cultivation of self-esteem and personal networks on and off the job as mitigating factors in a microaggressive work environment.

This narrative inquiry explores how Black tradeswomen negotiate the intersections of race and gender in their long-term careers in the U.S. building trades. Much of the literature on women and minority groups in the trades has focused on the success, or lack of success, of these groups in apprenticeship programs. To my knowledge, none has collected rich data focused on the long-term retention of Black women in the trades, nor has any discussed the personal, interpersonal, and institutional strategies this non-traditional group uses to continue working in the construction industry. This study draws on theory and empirical studies from the fields of Peace and Conflict Studies, Black Studies, Gender Studies, Labor Studies, and Psychology to provide a nuanced analysis of the systemic nature of Black tradeswomen’s struggles for gender and racial equity within the workforce, and elucidates the personal, interpersonal, and institutional strategies these women have developed to continue in this field. In-depth interviews conducted with fifteen tradeswomen revealed how they described and made sense of (1) their experiences of entering the trades and how their experiences in the trades changed over time; (2) barriers to their continued success as tradespeople; and (3) the skills and knowledge they developed to sustain themselves professionally. Findings include recommendations for interventions at the levels of pre-apprenticeships, apprenticeships, foremen, and higher to support the retention and promotion of Black tradeswomen in the industry. Tradeswomen highlight the necessity of combining anti-racist and anti-sexist struggles to promote greater inclusion of non-traditional workers. Black tradeswomen illuminate the importance of the cultivation of self-esteem and personal networks on and off the job as mitigating factors in a microaggressive work environment.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Toronto, 2005. / Source: Masters Abstracts International, Volume: 44-02, page: 0711. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 115-122).

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Delaware, 2009. / Principal faculty advisor: Elizabeth Higginbotham, Sociology. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Toronto, 2009. / Source: Masters Abstracts International, Volume: 48-02, page: .

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio University, June, 2005. / Title from PDF t.p. Includes bibliographical references (p. 311-342).

This qualitative study explores microaggressions in the online natural hair community. Using a thematic analysis, it specifically analyzes conversations about natural hair texture discrimination and /or biases, also known as curlism, in natural hair online spaces such as blogs and YouTube videos. This study concludes that hair texture biases and the ways in which Black women with natural hair experience difference in hair texture is multifaceted; therefore, natural hair companies, women in the natural hair community, and the natural hair community are not individually responsible. Each plays a different role in the perpetuation of hierarchy and difference within this community. The themes developed in this research are as follows: The Kink Vs. The Curl, Curlism as Colorism, Insurgence of Hair Texture Biases, and Empowerment of the Natural Hair Community.

Queen Afua created the Sacred Woman as a text and program that seeks to heal women of common disorders that particularly affect the African American community. This thesis project is a conversation about the self-care methods embedded within the text that moves away from the ideology of the strongblackwoman. I position both theories and methods of self-care by using a womanist theoretical framework, as well as textual analysis and interviews as methods that examine the womanist concept of spiritual activism, which expands what is thought of as radical and liberatory activist actions.