A Qualitative Look at Black Female Social Work Educators

Authors

Larry Davis, George Warren Brown School of Social Work
Ramon Cartwright, George Warren Brown School of Social Work
Phyllis Freeman, Columbia University
Louis Carter, University of Pennsylvania

Abstract

This article reports the finding of a research effort which attempted to assess the qualitative experience of black female faculty in schools of social work. The data reported is part of a larger data set collected on social work faculty as a whole. The authors report some basic demographics on black females, but focus mainly on the roles that these women perform in schools of social work and how satisfied they are in these positions. It appears that significant numbers of black female faculty members are on "soft money" with fewer teaching Social Policy and Administration courses than might be expected. As a group these females are less satisfied with their academic positions than are their black male counterparts. However, when "degree held" is controlled for, it is black females without the doctorate who are significantly less satisfied than men. No such relationship was found to exist for males. Finally, the authors attempted, via a regression model, to assess which group of relevant others, faculty, administrators or students, as a function of their interactions, contributed most significantly to the satisfaction levels of black female faculty. Results from these analyses suggest that with respect to interpersonal interactions, white faculty have the greatest affect on the reported job satisfaction levels of black females.

Recommended Citation

Davis, Larry; Cartwright, Ramon; Freeman, Phyllis; and Carter, Louis (1982) "A Qualitative Look at Black Female Social Work Educators," The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare: Vol. 9: Iss. 1, Article 12.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.15453/0191-5096.1517
Available at: https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/jssw/vol9/iss1/12