Black Women in the U.S. Economy by Banks, Nina; Sharpe, Rhonda Vonshay;

Short description:

This important and illuminating study explores the impact of economic, structural, and policy changes since the 1970s on the status and well-being of Black women in the U.S. It challenges the popular rhetoric about Black women’s work experiences, economic status, and role in providing for and sustaining their families and communities. 

Long description:

Black Women in the U.S. Economy: The Hardest Working Woman explores the impacts of economic, structural, and policy changes since the 1970s on the status and well-being of Black women in the U.S. It examines the rise in income and wealth inequality and subsequent economic downturns for Black women and their families, given the changing relationship between the state, markets, and families over this period of time.

The book assembles an interdisciplinary group of scholars who use Black feminist frameworks along with applied microeconomics and econometrics to understand the multiple identities, roles, and experiences of Black women in the U.S. economy. The text is divided into three sections: (1) Black women in the market economy, (2) family and community, and (3) politics, public policy, and its effects. The chapters are designed to stand alone or complement each other, offering a broad overview of Black women’s work. The book aims to challenge the popular rhetoric about Black women’s work experiences, economic statuses, and roles in providing for and sustaining their families and communities. 

This important and illuminating study will be essential reading for anyone seeking a deeper understanding of Black women’s experiences within the political economy, as well as all those with an interest in economics, women’s studies, Africana studies, sociology, political science, and public policy.

“This book, edited by Nina Banks and Rhonda V. Sharpe, offers work that both scholars have long presented. They have refused to accept aggregate data that obscure what disaggregation makes plain, and a commitment to putting Black women at the center of the analysis rather than in a footnote. The result is a volume that addresses the question I raised fifty years ago and carries it forward with new data and new frameworks.” — Barbara A. P. Jones, Atlanta, Georgia

“The analyses provide important insights into the hard work put in by Black women to support their families and their communities. This work is particularly important at a time when the role of government in support of families and communities is being debated and revised. […] This volume and its attention to both the needs and the contributions of Black women to their families and communities is essential to our understanding of the types of policies needed to advance Black women and the communities in which they live.” — Margaret C. Simms, co-editor of Slipping Through the Cracks: The Status of Black Women

“Forty years ago, Margaret Simms and I edited Slipping Through the Cracks: The Status of Black Women, documenting how Black women’s contributions were discounted, their needs overlooked, and their status rendered invisible by categories— “women” and “Blacks”—that obscured more than they revealed. The question then is the question now: What do we see when Black women are examined directly, disaggregated, in full? The answer is not simple progress. It is structural persistence across shifting domains. The chapters examine that persistence across immigration, entrepreneurship, incarceration, and electoral politics. In each arena, race and gender do not operate additively. They configure—what Kimberlé Crenshaw theorized as intersectionality.” — Julianne Malveaux, co-editor of Slipping Through the Cracks: The Status of Black Women

Table of Contents:

Introduction to Section 1: Black Women in the Market Economy Cecilia A. Conrad 1. Navigating Intersectional Barriers: Black Women’s Educational Investments and Economic Outcomes Susan Williams McElroy and Rhonda Vonshay Sharpe 2. The Hardest Working Woman Revealed: A Descriptive Analysis of Black Women in the Labor Force from 1979 to 2019   Valerie Rawlston Wilson 3. Education, Earnings, Wealth, and Mobility LaToya Council and Kris Marsh Introduction to Section 2: Family and Community Margaret Simms 4. Social Reproduction: Black Women on the Verge - Missing Black Men and its Impact on Black Women Nina Banks 5. Black Women in the Social Economy Nina Banks 6. Community Mothering: Black Family Childcare Providers’ Essential Work During the Pandemic Crystasany Renée Turner Introduction to Section 3: Politics, Public Policy and Their Effects Julianne Malveaux 7. These Women of Many Nations: Black Women’s Immigration to the United States, 1960-2024 Lily S.  Johnson and Rhonda V. Sharpe  8. Women’s Entrepreneurship: Structural Positioning, Capital Exclusion, and the Limits of Mainstream Theory Princess Dandoo, Daniya Edmond, and Rhonda V. Sharpe 9. Criminalizing Survival: Black Women's Federal Incarceration Jerry Pender and Rhonda V. Sharpe 10. Black Women's Political Organizing Atiya Kai Stokes-Brown 11. Concluding Note