ABSTRACT Investigations on occupational imbalance and on hurriedness have shown that working mothers experience diminished well-being in response to time pressures and efforts to balance work and family. Few studies have focused on African American mothers, though they are employed at higher rates than all other American mothers. This study sought to identify patterns of occupational imbalance among a group of self-identified hurried African American women. Participants were married, working, mothers, aged 20 to 55 (n=91), and recruited using convenience and snowball sampling. Participants completed one audio-recorded semi-structured interview. Questions focused on the management of their multiple roles and their satisfaction with their current lifestyle. Conventional content analysis was used to analyze the narratives. Four conceptions of occupational imbalance were identified: Imbalance in energy expenditure and restoration time, Imbalance in deliberation versus diversion, Imbalance in role engagement, and Imbalance in actual versus desired occupations. Results suggest some hurried African American women experience several forms of occupational imbalance, findings that contribute to the on-going efforts to delimit this essential construct in occupational science. Outcomes specific to minority women, a social group broadly underrepresented in research, add to the breadth and depth of the discourse, a necessary step in validating its definition. Occupational scientists can further utilize this evidence to inform investigations of occupational imbalance for working mothers in minority groups across the world.