Framed as an instrumental case study, the purpose of this investigation was to
understand how a select group of women, Black female athletic directors, define and
negotiate their race, gender, and class identities. Data was collected via a qualitative indepth
semi-structured interview methodology. The women who were chosen for this
research are Black female athletic directors of NCAA Division I, II, and III
intercollegiate athletic departments. The data analysis consisted of coding the data at two
levels: first-level coding and pattern coding, and following the coding process, the
emergent findings were compared with the identity negotiation theory (i.e. selfverification
and behavioral confirmation processes) in order to understand how the Black
female athletic directors negotiated their race, gender, and class identities.
This investigation found that Black women athletic directors used two different
denotations (i.e. African American and Black) to reference their racial identity, and race
was the most salient identity because of their upbringings, childhood experiences, and
dealings with racism. All of the women are heterosexual, but insufficient data did not allow a full understanding how they define their gender identity. In describing their class
status, the majority of the women came from a traditionally defined lower
socioeconomic class background, but as a result of their athletic director appointment
they now reside in the middle or upper middle economic class status. In understanding
how Black female athletic directors negotiate their identities within and outside the
athletic department, and what factors are associated with the negotiation of their
identities, this investigation found that the Black women athletic directors had to
establish, maintain, and change their race, gender, and class identities with the utilization
of various self-verification and behavioral confirmation strategies. These negotiations
were conducted in response to the expectations that ensued as a result of their role in a
leadership position, lesbian, intra- and inter-racial interactions, and exposure to lesbian,
Mammy, and Sapphire stereotypes.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:tamu.edu/oai:repository.tamu.edu:1969.1/ETD-TAMU-2762 |
| Date | 15 May 2009 |
| Creators | McDowell, Jacqueline |
| Contributors | Cunningham, George B |
| Source Sets | Texas A and M University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Book, Thesis, Electronic Dissertation, text |
| Format | electronic, application/pdf, born digital |
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