By Laurel White
Black women in academia are often encouraged to prioritize professional success over personal romantic relationships, according to a new study from UW–Madison researchers.
The study, published in The Journal of Higher Education, found that while Black women faculty report their romantic relationships are crucial to their personal well-being, they are often discouraged or disincentivized from pursuing or maintaining those relationships by the academy and colleagues.
Brittney Pemberton, a doctoral student in the School of Education’s Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis, was the lead author of the collaborative article. Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis professor Rachelle Winkle-Wagner and doctoral student Dani Magasano were co-authors of the study, along with Bridget Goosby, a professor of sociology at the University of Texas at Austin. Winkle-Wagner and Goosby are co-leading a larger Spencer Foundation funded project about Black women faculty and health outcomes.
The new analysis gathered and assessed qualitative data from more than 100 interviews with Black women faculty across the country. Pemberton says the study’s findings call attention to harmful institutional norms that must be addressed in order for Black women to succeed in tenure-track roles.
“Considering Black women faculty as whole people with lives outside of the academy is vital to their personal well-being and professional success,” Pemberton says.
Pemberton says she hopes the analysis will encourage higher education leaders to better recognize the value of romantic relationships for Black women, and to adopt a more holistic approach to supporting Black women faculty through family-inclusive policies, financial support, and peer networks.
In 2023, Pemberton was selected to participate in the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Health Policy Research Scholars (HPRS) program, which supported the conceptualization of this work.
Broadly, Winkle-Wagner’s research focuses on how underrepresented students survive and thrive in their pathways to and through college. Her latest book, “The Chosen We: Black Women’s Empowerment in Higher Education,” is built upon oral histories from 105 college-educated Black women who graduated from college in the United States between 1954 and 2014.
The research behind the most recent publication led by Pemberton was supported by the Spencer Foundation, National Institute on Aging, the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, and the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation.
Read the full article, “‘Don’t Let it Get in the Way of Work’: Black Women Academics’ Navigation of Romantic Relationships,” here.