Dr. Lawanda S. Rutledge

Motivation and the Professional African American Woman Dr. Lawanda S. Rutledge

Statement of Problem The research addressed the gap in lack of understanding regarding what motivates African American women to become corporate leaders. Catalyst, a nonprofit organization that provides research pertaining to women in corporations, published a 2003 report that suggested African American women are under represented in leadership positions within American corporations. There is a lack of understanding about why some African American women are able to obtain leadership positions and others are not. According to that report, African American women make up 13.4 percent of the United States workforce and 5.1 percent of management, professional, and related occupations. In 2001, African American women held 1.6 percent of corporate officer positions within 429 organizations (Catalyst Report). An assumption is made within motivation theories that motivation is standardized behavior without racial or gender barriers. Initiatives to promote minorities, which include every race and gender, with the exception of the Caucasian male, tend to silence the barriers, trials, and discrimination that affect African American women. Despite the increased number of educated African American women in the workplace, the number of African American women in leadership roles continues to remain between 1 percent and 2 percent. In 2001, (National Center for Education Statistics, 2002) African American women earned 73,204 or 5.9 percent of the total bachelors' degrees in the United States.