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.

No abstract

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.

No abstract

The new scholarship on race, class, and gender is exciting, but teaching this to students can be a complex process. Faculty can prepare for various reactions from students by thinking about issues of power and privilege as they relate to the selection of course materials that address inequality, the various interactions within the classroom between faculty and students and among students, and establishing a classroom atmosphere that is safe for exploring issues of inequality. Yet there are still students who may initially resist learning new material; these students can be vocal, silent, or absent in their resistance. Various teaching strategies are suggested for responding to resistance in ways that are respectful of students and also promote positive classroom interactions.