"I Don't Want to Die for This": Exploring Black Women Administrators' Workplace Wellbeing

Abstract:Nearly 75% of higher education/student affairs (HESA) practitioners depart the fields within their first decade, partly due to health and wellness. Drawing from a larger study of eight Black women HESA administrators' experiences, we asked, "How do Black women HESA professionals negotiate health and wellness in or after transitioning from the profession?" using Black feminist epistemology. With intersectionality as a conceptual framework, our data culminated in three qualitative counter-narratives. First, structural intersectionality uncovered how Black women face extensive pressures to conform to ideal worker norms rather than prioritizing their well-being in "prioritizing work over wellness." Next, we use political intersectionality to elucidate how supervisors are critical in promoting or undermining wellness in and relating to HESA workplaces in "(in)sufficient support for self-care." Lastly, we use representational intersectionality to underscore how participants endure and manage workplace stress(ors) while being constrained to personal rather than systemic solutions in "the true costs of Black women's health."