When we read or hear about young African American women in our society, we usually find that the emphasis is on problems\u2014from welfare and teenage pregnancy to violence and drugs. Rarely do the media focus on the success of young Black girls in school or of African American women in professional careers. For example, despite the fact that the nation\u2019s teenage pregnancy rates have steadily declined since 1991, and that the majority of the nation\u2019s pregnant teenagers are not Black, it is common nevertheless for the American public immediately to associate the expression, \"babies having babies,\" with young Black girls. This association is largely created and reinforced by images presented in the media of young African American women in trouble, either as unwed mothers or, in more recent years, as gang members. Less well known are the significant accomplishments and value of African American women and the enormous role they can, and do, play in our nation. Consider the prose of Nobel Prize-winning writer Toni Morrison, and the courageous voice of one of America\u2019s most eloquent child-advocates, Marian Wright Edelman. African American women are achieving at the highest of professional levels, from college presidencies to cabinet posts. Consider, for example, the appointments of Dr. Shirley Jackson, a physicist and the first African American female to earn a Ph.D. in any field at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, as president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, one of America\u2019s major technological universities, or of Dr. Condoleezza Rice as the President\u2019s National Security Advisor. Notwithstanding these positive accomplishments, most Americans\u2014 Black and White\u2014still know very little about these high achievers. Increasingly, entertainers\u2014both women and men\u2014send mixed signals to young Black girls about who they should aspire to become as they move toward womanhood. Often, these images, which tend to be unflattering and even at times degrading, focus on a culture that is excessively influenced by glamour, sex, and violence. In Reviving Ophelia, Mary Pipher discusses the powerful influence of the media in shaping girls\u2019 definitions of themselves through teen magazines, advertisements, music, television, and movies.<\/p>","DOI":"10.1093\/oso\/9780195126426.003.0004","type":"book-chapter","created":{"date-parts":[[2020,11,11]],"date-time":"2020-11-11T01:11:51Z","timestamp":1605057111000},"source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Successful African American Young Women and Their Families"],"prefix":"10.1093","author":[{"given":"Freeman A.","family":"Hrabowski","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Kenneth I.","family":"Maton","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Monica","family":"Greene","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Geoffrey L.","family":"Greif","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"286","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2020,11,12]]},"container-title":["Overcoming the Odds"],"original-title":["Successful African American Young Women and Their Families"],"language":"en","deposited":{"date-parts":[[2022,8,2]],"date-time":"2022-08-02T21:09:41Z","timestamp":1659474581000},"score":27.440357,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/academic.oup.com\/book\/40925\/chapter\/349105503"}},"issued":{"date-parts":[[2001,12,20]]},"ISBN":["9780195126426","9780197561362"],"references-count":0,"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1093\/oso\/9780195126426.003.0004","published":{"date-parts":[[2001,12,20]]}},{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2024,5,12]],"date-time":"2024-05-12T06:02:13Z","timestamp":1715493733129},"reference-count":0,"publisher":"Oxford University Press","isbn-type":[{"value":"9780195126426","type":"print"},{"value":"9780197561362","type":"electronic"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2001,12,20]]},"abstract":"
It is important to remember that the young women in our study are successful not simply in general, but they have excelled in high school and college math and science courses and performed well on standardized tests. Their success is especially significant in the light of recent legal decisions regarding affirmative action. These decisions make it more difficult for minority children to gain admission to some of the nation\u2019s colleges and universities. The critical challenge minority children face is that if their grades and test scores\u2014the traditional measures of success\u2014are not as competitive as those of their White or Asian counterparts, these underrepresented minority groups may not be able to take advantage of all the educational and career opportunities available in our society. Therefore, we must do all we can to strengthen and elevate the academic performance of these students well before they enter college. We know that schools and teachers are critical in the educational process, and understandably they receive a great deal of attention when we look at student-achievement levels. However, we need to focus much more attention on the role of families in this process, particularly in preparing daughters for success in school. Both parents and daughters agreed that parental or family support, in addition to natural ability, was a major reason for the daughters\u2019 success. We have learned that raising African American girls to become high-achieving women in science is a complex and exciting challenge. The past six chapters have focused on what we have learned from slightly more than one hundred families of successful African American college women in science. The book uses and analyzes the voices of the parents and daughters to illuminate the journeys of these families over three generations. What emerges from their diverse perspectives and backgrounds is a rich and colorful tapestry that helps us understand the values, practices, and strategies that have led to the daughters\u2019 success. The daughters in our study come from a variety of familial, geographic, educational, and economic backgrounds.<\/p>","DOI":"10.1093\/oso\/9780195126426.003.0010","type":"book-chapter","created":{"date-parts":[[2020,11,11]],"date-time":"2020-11-11T01:31:07Z","timestamp":1605058267000},"source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Raising Successful African American Young Women What We Have Learned"],"prefix":"10.1093","author":[{"given":"Freeman A.","family":"Hrabowski","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Kenneth I.","family":"Maton","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Monica","family":"Greene","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Geoffrey L.","family":"Greif","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"286","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2020,11,12]]},"container-title":["Overcoming the Odds"],"original-title":["Raising Successful African American Young Women What We Have Learned"],"language":"en","deposited":{"date-parts":[[2022,8,2]],"date-time":"2022-08-02T21:09:42Z","timestamp":1659474582000},"score":26.965534,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/academic.oup.com\/book\/40925\/chapter\/349107174"}},"issued":{"date-parts":[[2001,12,20]]},"ISBN":["9780195126426","9780197561362"],"references-count":0,"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1093\/oso\/9780195126426.003.0010","published":{"date-parts":[[2001,12,20]]}},{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2025,7,2]],"date-time":"2025-07-02T20:15:33Z","timestamp":1751487333151},"reference-count":0,"publisher":"Oxford University Press","isbn-type":[{"value":"9780195126426","type":"print"},{"value":"9780197561362","type":"electronic"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2001,12,20]]},"abstract":"
When Beating the Odds: Raising Academically Successful African American Males appeared in 1998, it was hailed as \"a crucial book\" (Baltimore Sun) and \"undoubtedly one of the most important tools the African American parent can possess\" (Kweisi Mfume, President NAACP). Now, in response to enormous demand, the authors turn their attention to African American young women. Statistics indicate that African American females, as a group, fare poorly in the United States. Many live in single-parent households-either as the single-parent mother or as the daughter. Many face severe economic hurdles. Yet despite these obstacles, some are performing at exceptional levels academically. Based on interviews with many of these successful young women and their families, Overcoming the Odds provides a wealth of information about how and why they have succeeded--what motivates them, how their backgrounds and family relationships have shaped them, even how it feels to be a high academic achiever. They also discuss the challenges of moving into African American womanhood, from maintaining self-esteem to making the right choices about their professional and personal lives. Most important, the book offers specific and inspiring examples of the practices, attitudes, and parenting strategies that have enabled these women to persevere and triumph. For parents, educators, policy makers, and indeed all those concerned about the education of young African American women, Overcoming the Odds is an invaluable guidebook on creating the conditions that lead to academic-and lifelong-success.<\/p>","DOI":"10.1093\/oso\/9780195126426.001.0001","type":"edited-book","created":{"date-parts":[[2020,11,11]],"date-time":"2020-11-11T01:41:13Z","timestamp":1605058873000},"source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":2,"title":["Overcoming the Odds"],"prefix":"10.1093","author":[{"given":"Freeman A.","family":"Hrabowski","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Kenneth I.","family":"Maton","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Monica","family":"Greene","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Geoffrey L.","family":"Greif","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"286","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2020,11,12]]},"original-title":["Overcoming the Odds"],"language":"en","deposited":{"date-parts":[[2022,8,2]],"date-time":"2022-08-02T21:09:41Z","timestamp":1659474581000},"score":23.930992,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/academic.oup.com\/book\/40925"}},"subtitle":["Raising Academically Successful African American Young Women"],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2001,12,20]]},"ISBN":["9780195126426","9780197561362"],"references-count":0,"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1093\/oso\/9780195126426.001.0001","published":{"date-parts":[[2001,12,20]]}}],"items-per-page":3,"query":{"start-index":0,"search-terms":null}}}