Nadia E. Brown, PhD
Political Science and African American Studies
Susan Bulkeley Butler Center for Leadership Excellence
Faculty Scholar, Spring 2014
The Politics of Appearance for Black Women Lawmakers
This book length research project examines how body politics impacts the legislative
process and Black Congresswomen’s experiences in American politics. Scholarship on body
politics— that is, work that challenges the hegemonic forces that map, order and silence real
bodies – investigates the ways which power relations “regulate, denigrate, define or produce”
how particular bodies are constructed and located (Coole, 2010, 165). Bodies are sites in which
social constructions of differences are mapped onto human beings. The research proposed here
will investigate how body politics contributes to legislative success for Black women. As such, I
will assess the role of hair style/texture in Black women elected official’s presentation of self and
its impact on the legislative process. The findings of this study will illustrate the importance of
an intersectional approach to Black feminist research on politics by paying special attention to the
racialized and gendered interventions within body politics, American political culture, gender and
racialized performance, and stereotypes about Black women. I was awarded a 2014 Butler Center
Faculty Scholar award to begin my preliminary research.
During the spring of 2014, I conducted six interviews with Black women elected officials
or candidates for political office: Delegate Aisha Braveboy (D-MD); Representative Charniele
Herring (D-VA); School board member CJ Brown (Lafayette, IN); Candidate Diane Harris (RIL); City Councilmember Muriel Bowser (D-DC); and Candidate Reta Jo Lewis (D-DC). During
the early summer of 2015, I collected interviews with Black women elected officials and
candidates in the Saint Louis, MO and Kansas City, MO metro region: Representative Bonnaye
Mims (D-MO); Alderwoman Dionne Flowers (D-STL); Representative Jamilah Nasheed (DSTL); Candidate Leslie Broadnax (D-MO); and State Treasurer Tishaura Jones (D-MO). I also
conducted three rounds of focus groups with Purdue University students to measure voters’
preferences, opinion, and attitudes toward Black women politicians. Lastly, I collected images of
Black Congresswomen from their official biography page on their congressional webpages. To
examine the extent to which Black Congresswomen employ selective-self representation I will
use image content analysis, which involves the thematic coding of each image to measure into
these women’s image construction.
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I used the funds and course reduction afforded to me through the Faculty Scholar grant to
hire two undergraduate research assistants and to partially fund my travel to Chicago, Illinois and
Washington, DC to conduct interviews. The research funds were also used to purchase food and
drinks for participants who attended the focus groups (extra credit for political science students
was offered as compensation for participating in my research). I used the additional time from the
course release to conduct secondary research on body politics, Black women’s aesthetics, and
voter bias.
Unfortunately, I was involved in a motor vehicle accident on August 14, 2014. The
accident was very severe and I was unable to collect and analyze additional data. I was on
medical leave during the fall semester of 2014. Regrettably, the slow process of recovery has
impacted my research productivity this semester. I have been unable to make significant progress
on the data analysis for this project. Thankfully, I am now strong enough to resume my research
agenda. I plan to analyze my existing data and collect additional data this summer.
Because the accident interrupted my research schedule, I have decided to focus my
attention on Black women lawmakers – namely, Congresswomen – as I do not want to wait for
the next national election to conduct research. My overarching research theme of body politics
has led me to assess the self-presentations of Black Congresswomen rather than focus on
candidates or elected officials at lower levels of government. The self-presentations of Members
of Congress (MoC) are carefully constructed identities that reflect social and cultural norms that
either directly or indirectly provide viewers with a glimpse of their personalities, political
ideologies, and sense of self. These images, in sum, communicate more than personal style but
rather can be used as a political heuristic. For women, gender stereotyping creates a unique
tension for this population. Congresswomen can be charged with selective self-presentation if
they enhance or alter their appearance. Self-enhancement, accomplished through make-up,
hairstyling practices, shapewear, heels, etc., is often juxtaposed with the desire to present an
accurate or unadulterated view of the self. Women’s beauty regimes that alter a
Congresswoman’s outward appearance can create an inaccurate physical representation of the
woman (Hancock and Toma 2009).
Social science research consistently indicates that women and minorities face a
disadvantage in attempting to craft a professional image due to negative stereotypes, lower
expectations, and workplace norms that advantage White male standards of behavior and
appearance (Shelby Rosette and Dumas, 2007; Alversson and Due Billing, 1997). As such,
White women and minority men and women face obstacles in presenting their desired
professional image. Gender is a double-bind for women who want to display professional
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characteristics, which are defined as typically male characteristics such as ambition,
competitiveness, and competence. Similar to women of other races and ethnicities, Black women
must negotiate femininity and attractiveness in the work environment, yet Black women navigate
both their race and gender to find a suitable way to present themselves to their colleagues. In the
workplace, African American women’s hair choices and skin tones are often read as either
unintended or intended personal and political statements. Given that within the workplace, as
well as other social and institutional environments Black women have found that all too often
choice of hairstyle has a tremendous impact on how corporate culture expectations often clash
with their individual sense of style and hair textures.
Congress, the workplace of Black women lawmakers, is a similar yet unique institution
that must be carefully navigated for this population. According to Hawkesworth (2003)
institutions are both raced and gendered which produces different effects for legislators at the
intersection of these identities. The practice of racing-gendering – the political process in which
minority congresswomen are stereotyped, excluded, and made to be invisible - generates and
maintains systems of power and disadvantage that can hinder the legislative achievements of a
Black congresswoman (Hawkesworth 2003; Kathlene 1989, 1994; Thomas 1994). Hawkesworth
contends that “political institutions may play a critical role in producing, maintaining, and
reproducing raced and gendered experiences within and through their organizational routines and
practices” (2003, 530). The somatic norms in Congress have led to the advanced marginalization
of non-White male bodies. Furthermore, masculinity and femininity are raced and race is
intimately connected to constructions of gender. Racialization and gendering can play a distinct
role in organizational practice by recreating and reproducing symbols as well as identities.
Since a raced-gendered identity has tangible effects in the larger discourse outside of
Congress, these identities are constantly renegotiated within the institution. Because of their race
and gender, Black congresswomen have to learn how to best operate in a White male dominated
institution to best accomplish their legislative goals. Women of color legislators are often
silenced or made to be invisible in key legislative functions such as committee negotiations or
floor discussions (Brown 2013). Furthermore, experiences of marginalization are not necessarily
mitigated by seniority, leadership position, or policy success (Smooth 2001). This marginalization
affects the tactics that African American women lawmakers employ to achieve their legislative
priorities and how they advance their political agenda. Black congresswomen may seek to present
themselves in familiar ways (i.e., straightening their hair, accentuating certain physical features,
or altering bodies to seem more attractive according to European-American standards) in order to
mediate the negative effects of racing-gendering.
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The dual processes of racing-gendering and women’s beauty norms may lead Black
congresswomen to alter their self-presentations in order to appear more feminine and with softer
racially-distinct features. Because hair, both texture and style, is a political heuristic, Black women
lawmakers may forgo Afro-centric styles in order to achieve their legislative goals in a White male
dominated institution. In sum, I expect that Black Congresswomen with Euro-centric
hairstyle/textures will have greater legislative success than those with Afro-centric styled hair.
My goal is to complete the preliminary image content analysis of the C-SPAN Archives data by
September 2015. This data contains still and video images of all racial/ethnic minority and women
Members of Congress (MoC) from 1968 to the present. These images were drawn from C-SPAN video
of MoC on the Senate or House floor either through hearings, committee meetings, and roll call votes.
I will use this data to examine how MoC construct their image or signal their identity to their peers,
constituents, and general public. To examine the extent to which Black Congresswomen employ
selective-self representation I will use image content analysis, which involves the thematic coding of
each image to measure these women’s image construction.
The objective is to determine the characteristics of Black congresswomen’s self-presentations in
comparison to those of minority congressmen and White congresswomen’s in terms of gendered and
racialized personal styling. If Black congresswomen employ certain raced-gendered self-presentations
strategies (Afro-centric or Euro-centric, feminine or masculine) it is likely that such strategies will be
evident in the C-SPAN images of their hairstyle. The first part of this study will be based on purposive
sampling aimed at further theory construction rather than population representation. As such, the first
step of the sampling process is to examine all the images of Black women between 1990-2000 to limit
the potential intervening effects of time period and style, which will isolate differences in hair trends
among the decades. I will then sample their male counterparts and White congresswomen in office
during this same time period. This initial sampling method will be used to explore hairstyles as a
political heuristic. Specifically, a mixture of operational construct sampling (when sampling non-Black
congresswomen) and theory-based sampling (when sampling Black congresswomen) will be employed
in this study. The next phase of this research project is to map these self-presentations onto the
legislative successes of these Black women lawmakers. I am currently working with a team of graduate
students to code the number of bill introductions, co-sponsorships, and laws enacted by Black
congresswomen.
I will be on parental leave in the fall of 2015 but have a research leave scheduled for the spring of
2016. During the spring of 2016, I will conduct interviews with Black Congresswomen in Washington,
DC. I have been awarded the Marguerite Ross Barnett Research Grant from the American Political
Science Association that provides limited financial support and office space in the Centennial Center.
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During the spring of 2016, I also plan to conduct focus groups with a non-student population. The
conversation from the focus groups will be recorded and transcribed by my undergraduate research
assistants. To interpret the data gathered from the focus groups, I will use the frames of abstract
liberalism, cultural racism/sexism, minimization of racism/sexism, and naturalization to explore how
potential voters view Black women’s bodies as well as understand the implication of body politics for
this group of lawmakers.
While I am deeply disappointed that I was not able to make further progress on this research agenda,
I remain hopeful that I will be able to complete this research by the spring of 2017. This study is the
first to examine the politics of appearance for Black congresswomen.
The Butler Faculty Scholar
program has allowed me the opportunity to conduct research during the spring of 2014. The preliminary
data conducted in 2014 allowed me to apply for and receive other grant opportunities (such as the
Marguerite Ross Barnett and the Newcomb Center Postdoctoral Fellowship at Tulane University). The
generosity of the Butler Center allowed me to maximize productivity over the spring and summer and
make significant progress on my initial ideas about body politics.
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