Black + Woman = Work: Gender Dimensions of the African American Economic Experience

Abstract

The economic progress of black Americans has captured the attention of economists and sociologists since Gunnar Myrdal’s An American Dilemma appeared in the early 1940s. More than half a century later, social scientists are still intrigued with the determinants of black economic status and how that status has changed over time. In 1989, the National Research Council published a major study entitled A Common Destiny: The Status of Black Americans, which served as a clear signal that interest in the economic progress of blacks was deeply entrenched in economic and sociological research. Even though there is considerable research on the economic progress of African Americans, there is no consensus regarding what factors best explain changes over time in the economic conditions of African Americans.1