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The major aim of this research is to reopen the study of the subjective experience of upward mobility and to incorporate race and gender into our vision of the process. It examines evidence from a social science study of upward mobility among 200 Black and white professional-managerial women in the Memphis, Tennessee metropolitan area. The experiences of the women paint a different picture from the image of the mobility process that remains from scholarship conducted 20 to 30 years ago on white males. Relationships with family of origin, partners, children, friends, and the wider community shaped the way these women envision and accomplish mobility and the way they sustain themselves as professionals and managers.

Exploratory studies employing volunteer subjects are especially vulnerable to race and class bias. This article illustrates how inattention to race and class as critical dimensions in women's lives can produce biased research samples and lead to false conclusions. It analyzes the race and class background of 200 women who volunteered to participate in an in-depth study of Black and White professional, managerial, and administrative women. Despite a multiplicity of methods used to solicit subjects, White women raised in middle-class families who worked in male-dominated occupations were the most likely to volunteer, and White women were more than twice as likely to respond to media solicitations or letters. To recruit most Black subjects and address their concerns about participation required more labor-intensive strategies involving personal contact. The article discusses reasons for differential volunteering and ways to integrate race and class into qualitative research on women.

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Foreword: Emerging Intersections-Building Knowledge and Transforming Institutions / Hill Collins, Patricia -- Acknowledgments / Thornton Dill, Bonnie / Enid Zambrana, Ruth -- 1. Critical Thinking about Inequality: An Emerging Lens / Thornton Dill, Bonnie / Enid Zambrana, Ruth -- 2. Entering a Profession: Race, Gender, and Class in the Lives of Black Women Attorneys / Higginbotham, Elizabeth -- 3. The Intersection of Poverty Discourses: Race, Class, Culture, and Gender / Henderson, Debra / Tickamyer, Ann -- 4. Staggered Inequalities in Access to Higher Education by Gender, Race, and Ethnicity / Enid Zambrana, Ruth / MacDonald, Victoria-María -- 5. Developing Policy to Address the Lived Experiences of Working Mothers / Gatta, Mary -- 6. Exploring the Intersections of Race, Ethnicity, and Class on Maternity Leave Decisions: Implications for Public Policy / Manuel, Tiffany / Enid Zambrana, Ruth -- 7. Racial, Ethnic, and Gender Disparities in the Workforce, Education, and Training under Welfare Reform / Jones-Deweever, Avis / Thornton Dill, Bonnie / Schram, Sanford -- 8. Racial, Ethnic, and Gender Disparities in Early School Leaving (Dropping Out) / Dance, L. Janelle -- 9. Racial, Ethnic, and Gender Disparities in Political Participation and Civic Engagement / Frasure, Lorrie Ann / Williams, Linda Faye -- 10. Intersections, Identities, and Inequalities in Higher Education / Thornton Dill, Bonnie -- 11. Transforming the Campus Climate through Institutions, Collaboration, and Mentoring / Thornton Dill, Bonnie / Enid Zambrana, Ruth / McLaughlin, Amy -- 12. Conclusion: Future Directions in Knowledge Building and Sustaining Institutional Change / Enid Zambrana, Ruth / Thornton Dill, Bonnie -- Contributors -- Index